Abstract: Minle county in Gansu province was taken as the sample， the farmers income difference degree was analyzed by using the Gini coefficient measure index. Gini coefficient decomposition results showed that operational income would lead to further income difference， the increase in the proportion of salary income would further reduce income difference. Based on the survey data in 2007 and 2009， and using the panel data for regression analysis， the results showed that the labor， the number of cultivated land， planting structure， potato agreements， regional characteristics and other factors had significant impacts on the farmers income. Thus it is necessary and important to substantially improve the opportunity of getting salary income in order to reduce and eliminate the family income inequality in rural areas on the basis of the guaranteed operational income.

Key words: northwest arid land, farmers income, empirical analysis