based on the population sampling survey the average monthly earnings for people working in agriculture in rural areas are only cny and the local offfarm workers can make cny monthly the medians being cny and cny respectively hence the income difference between farm work and offfarm work accounted for most of the inequality within rural areas table also presents the inequality indices in rural areas based on various definitions of the rural population columns and in fact the earnings difference among rural residents is quite substantial and is mostly contributed by the difference between farm work and offfarm work