China's subsidies help dairy farmers; increase grain outputs
China will provide subsidies to dairy farmers in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region therefore contributing to the increase of grain output.
The subsidy is an attempt to help farmers who were badly affected by the tainted milk scandal and had to dispose of raw milk, said Guo Qijun, vice chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional People's Government.
Inner Mongolia is China's largest dairy base with 2.5 million dairy cattle with about 800,000 families in the region raising the animals. The subsidy constitutes of RMB 100 million (US$14.6 million) that came from the central government and the rest from the regional government.
The central government set aside RMB 300 million (US$43.9 million) last week to help dairy farmers nationwide.
China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on Saturday, 11 October 2008 said it expects an increase in grain output for the fifth consecutive year.
The country has harvested nearly 80 percent of its autumn crops and expects 2008 to be year of abundance, stated the ministry.
The State Grain Information Centre earlier estimated that this year's grain output would reach 511.5 million tonnes, up 10 million tonnes from 2007. Higher grain production happened in spite of natural disasters, troubled domestic and international economic environments, noted the MOA.
The output increase was attributed to government subsidies, pest control and the use of advanced agricultural techniques, said the ministry. The central government allocated RMB 102.86 billion (US$15.1 billion) in agricultural subsidies this year, doubling the figure from 2007.
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