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The three northeastern provinces, China's major grain production
base, vowed Friday to make bigger contribution to the country's
grain security by yielding more grain while invigorating the "rust
belt" industrial base.
Governors of the three provinces, Heilongjiang, Jilin and
Liaoning, promised at a press conference held on the sidelines of
the national legislature's annual session that they will not reduce
their grain production capacity as they are making intensified
efforts to regain the past glory of the heavy industrial base.
The provinces provide one third of China's total commodity grain
a year.
Zhang Zuoji, governor of Heilongjiang, said the province will
expand grain output by 3-4 billion kg this year for a total of
28-29 billion kg.
The central and provincial governments will allocate over 6
billion yuan (US$725 million) in transfer of payments to encourage
farmers to grow grain, which means over 100 yuan (US$12) for each
grain farmer in the province, Zhang said.
Hong Hu, governor of Jilin, said grain growers in the province
are expected to earn 1.7 billion yuan (US$205 million) more than
last year from government subsidies, tax reduction and other
policies.
Jilin produces one seventh of the country's corn, and corn kept
in warehouses of the province accounts for half of the national
total. Its corn exports make up three quarters of the country's
total.
"The province will never relax in grain production," Hong
said.
China's grain output decreased to a record low of 430 million
tons last year in the fifth consecutive year, from a record of some
520 million tons in 1998, due to shrinking farmland sown to grain
crops and natural disasters.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2004)
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