China's plan to subsidize diesel oil used in fisheries benefited more than 20 million fishermen over the past five years, a Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) official said Monday.

The subsidy plan has greatly eased financial pressures felt by fishermen after a surge in oil prices, said the MOA's Bureau of Fisheries official, whose name was not indicated.

The ministry launched the plan in 2006 after diesel oil prices rose more than 50 percent within two years to 6,000 yuan (914 U.S. dollars) per ton, adding costs of 5.68 billion yuan to the country's fishery production, the official said.

The subsidy plan covers fishermen and fishery enterprises that use motorized fishing vessels for near-shore and inland fishing and aquatic production.

In 2006 alone, the central budget allocated two batches of subsidies at 3.18 billion yuan, the official added. The official did not specify the total figure for the past five years.

The MOA official said the ministry will strengthen the implementation of the policy in the country's 12th Five-Year Program period (2011-2015).

The ministry recently issued a notice to check fund usages during the 2006 to 2010 period and asked local governments to further improve the mechanism and promote supervision over fund management, he noted.