China built 352,000 kilometers of rural roads in the past two years in an effort to bring more benefit to farmers.

However, the Minister of Communications, Zhang Chunxian, says there are still 145 towns and more than 50,000 villages in China without paved roads.

Zhang saying that his ministry plans to invest 100 billion yuan, or 12 billion US dollars, to build rural roads from 2006 to 2010.

According to research by the International Rural Roads Focus Organization, better roads can mean a 12 percent rise in the incomes of farmers and a 32 percent increase in agricultural production.