August 27, 2008

China's north-eastern Liaoning Province has granted a total of RMB 3.4 billion (US$496.4 million) subsidies for grains in 2008, 96.5 percent over the previous year, according to a report on August 25.

In addition, the province granted subsidies three month earlier than the previous year and finished the move at the end of July, which has benefited 21 million farmers.

Liu Changjiang, director of the provincial rural economy committee, said that the subsidies had relaxed pressure on the agricultural production, due to rising prices of agricultural means of production.

Despite the subsidies, sown area in the agricultural province barely budged this year, although the fact that it did not slip into negative territory was an achievement itself. Sown area reached 46.31 million mu this year, 36,000 mu more than the figure in the previous year.