China offers grain growers US$6.43b
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-07 10:18
Vice Finance Minister Zhu Zhigang said on Tuesday that China has offered a
total of 51.5 billion yuan (6.43 billion U.S. dollars) in direct grain subsidies
to the country's farmers in the past three years.
The vice-minister said
China has allocated 39 billion yuan from its grain risk fund for direct
subsidies to grain farmers during 2004, and it also earmarked 12.5 billion yuan
in direct subsidies in 2006 to alleviate the pressure of price hikes of
agricultural production material.
China's budgetary funding for direct
grain subsides totaled 14.2 billion yuan in 2006.
Addressing a national
meeting for officials from central and provincial finance departments, the
vice-minister urged local departments to deliver this year's direct grain
subsidies and other subsidies to farmers as soon as possible.
China
began to offer grain farmers direct grain subsidies in 2004 to encourage grain
production and improve farmers' income following consecutive falls in grain
outputs leading up to 2004.
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