Following the central government's call last year to develop a new countryside, there has been no shortage of data and debate from scholars and officials. But strangely, farmers, the intended beneficiaries of the program, seemed unable to emit an opinion.

"I searched the Internet and databases for days and found tens of thousands of essays in the field, but none was devoted to farmers' opinions on the massive campaign," said Ye Jingzhong, professor at China Agricultural University's Humanities and Development School.

Ye added he was not surprised by the absence of the farmers' voices, as he had seen China's farmers taken for granted for decades.

He and his team conducted surveys in eight villages across four provinces in February and July, with their findings recently published by the Social Sciences Academy Press in a book entitled Construction of the New Countryside: Farmers' Perspective.

This has led to a strong media response with major news portals and newspapers reporting it.

"Ye's book is of great importance as it addresses the farmers' perspectives on countryside development for the first time. If government bureaus, especially the local leadership, can draw lessons from the book, progress will be greatly facilitated," Wen Tiejun, an expert in agriculture and rural study with Renmin University of China, told China Daily.

China began the campaign to build a harmonious socialist countryside in 2006, calling for increased productivity, relative affluence, a pleasant social environment and democratic administration.

However, in their research, Ye and his team found an astounding range of viewpoints as what constitutes a 'harmonious countryside' varies from province to province.

For example, in east China's Jiangsu Province, the cradle of the country's township enterprises, farmers said they consider local factories with all having stable jobs and comfortable two-storey homes as the symbol of a new, harmonious countryside.

But in Hunan, an agriculture-based province, the view differed greatly. "Advanced agricultural production and better irrigation systems are vital for building a new countryside," a farmer said.

Ye commented: "Opinions on the new socialist countryside are so diverse among people of different genders, ages, regions and levels of education. Therefore, authorities should avoid applying stereotypes to all villages and use the limited amount of money for the most urgent projects peculiar to each village."

To his dismay, Ye found some local officials had already made the mistake of blindly copying others' models.

For instance, a village in Fujian Province in east China borrowed about 1.6 million yuan (US$204,400) to construct 50 villas for its villagers as local officials saw this as the basic symbol for the new countryside.

Had they consulted the farmers, the money might have been used to purchase equipment and fertilizer, rather than beautiful houses. Furthermore, the farmers are now unable to afford the loan repayments for the villas.

According to Ye, the reason many village officials made beautiful houses their symbol for the new countryside was misinterpreting TV programs.

"TV is the only information carrier for most villagers," Ye said. "What they saw as model villages on TV were exceptionally lined-up houses, broad roads and green forestry. This misled them."

Problems discovered

Besides building new houses, some villages have invested heavily to beautify their forests. But the survey found that the most urgent need was to build waste management facilities.