Income earned by Chinese farmers will grow by just 6 percent this year, following a drop in agricultural prices and rising unemployment.

Farmers earned an average of 4,761 yuan ($680) last year, which represented an 8 percent increase on the year before.

But a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) report said income growth would slow down this year because of a drop in product prices and an increase in the number of jobless migrant workers caused by the financial crisis.