Vice Finance Minister Zhu Zhigang said on Tuesday that China has
offered a total of 51.5 billion yuan (US$6.43 billion) 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.
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2006)