Some estimates say the farmers earn around $1.2 billion a year from the leaf.

Besides agriculture, small farmers could now earn their livelihoods as miners.

Small farmers as a whole earned about $223 million from agriculture in 1986, the latest available data.

The 223,000 farmers with sales of $20,000 to $40,000 earn profits on average of $4,900 a year.

Kunming's average farmer outside of the city earned 5,080 yuan.

But in the last two years, farmers have earned record incomes.

A great deal of the forest was sold to large corporations since for the first time in history the farmers could earn money from their forests.

Some farmers earn enough to support their operations year-round.

There is no doubt that farmers are earning less, except in the case of industrialised agriculture.

The official statistics prove that farmers now earn just over half of what they earned three years ago.