CHINA: UNEMPLOYED RURAL FARM WORKER'S MIGRATION

Mandarin/Nat Tens of millions of unemployed farm workers in China are deserting their rural homes to find jobs in the cities. 35 million (m) are expected to abandon their rural homes this year alone making it China's largest peacetime migration. Now Beijing is trying to halt the exodus by creating jobs in the countryside - but its proving hard to make remote areas seem as attractive as the cities. China has a crisis in the countryside. 160 million (m) people are unemployed because there's too little farmland and too many people. Now a generation of rural Chinese are turning their backs on the fields and pouring into the cities where employment chances are better. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) The Young people can get jobs in the city but nobody wants old people like me. SUPERCAPTION CHINESE FARMER In the county of Mi Yun, 100 miles north of the capital Beijing, tending livestock and crops is considered the work of old men and women. This is thought to be no place for the young who - better educated than their parents - are leaving rural areas like this to find better paid jobs in the city. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) "The young people are too educated, they don't know about farm work. They look for work in the cities." SUPERCAPTION CHINESE FARMER China has 22 per cent of the world's population but only 7 percent of its arable land. Farmers struggle to grow enough to feed the country's 1.2 billion (bn) people. Describing last year's harvest as 'disappointing' the government has decided to increase investment in agriculture. Like the young of this isolated fishing community, the carp caught here are city bound. Part of this catch will be eaten locally, the remainder served up in Beijing's markets and restaurants. Every day tens of thousands of people desert rural areas arriving at bus and railway stations across China - their destination is new lives in the cities. The Government is trying to stem the flood; SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) " We need to develop enterprise, build factories and create jobs in the countryside to provide work nearer peoples' homes." SUPERCAPTION: LI BOYONG, MINISTER OF LABOUR ON REFORM OF STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES In the new era of economic prosperity Beijing's building projects are a magnet to many migrant workers. Though living conditions are cramped, there is work here and the construction industry pays up to five times more than farm labour. These labourers are proud of their new found jobs 'we are helping to make Beijing more beautiful', they say. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) "I came to Beijing because China was becoming more open and this was an opportunity to earn more money and achieve a better standard of living." SUPERCAPTION LABOURER The government acknowledges it must find new jobs for tens of millions of surplus farm labourers to stem the flow of people into the cities, but it stopped short of saying exactly how it would do so. Meanwhile China's largest peacetime migration continues as in this time of rapid economic reform and boom, rural people are determined not to be left behind. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/4d3a0ed6ba17f050bd1b6ee2077c85e5 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork