The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture on Monday announced the country will subsidize grain farmers who plant high-quality soybeans, wheat, corn and rice.

According to the ministry, farmers growing high-quality soybeans, wheat and corn will get 150 yuan of subsidy per hectare, and those planting rice will be subsidized 150 to 225 yuan per hectare.

The subsidy program this year covers a total of 13 provinces and autonomous regions including Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuan provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the ministry noted.

The subsidy program covers 670,000 hectares of high-quality wheat farmland, 670,000 million hectares of high-quality soybean land and 670,000 million hectares of special-use corn fields.

China's weakening grain production capability in recent years prompted the government to kick off in 2004 a seven-year project to promote high-quality grain output nationwide.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2004)