Farmers drive agricultural machines and manipulate drones for spring plowing and prevention of wheat pests and diseases in a field in Rongcheng, East China's Shandong Province on February 23, 2023. China will strive to keep annual grain production over 650 billion kilograms this year, and develop modern agriculture infrastructure. Photo: cnsphoto

China's financial authority recently granted a new round of 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) worth of subsidies to supporting purchase of agricultural material, move to secure the ongoing 2023 spring ploughing and boost farmers' initiatives, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) said on Monday.

The latest issuance of subsidies will be directly granted to actual grain growers, including individual farmers, contracted farmers, household farmland, agricultural corporations and enterprises, as well as individuals and institutions in whole industrial chain connected to agricultural business, the MOA said.

Jiao Shanwei, editor-in-chief of industry news website cngrain.com, told the Global Times on Monday that the subsidy will enhance the security of fund supply during agricultural production at the beginning of the year.

"China's financial authorities issue multiple rounds of agricultural subsidies to secure the normal operation of nation's agricultural production, especially amid specific point of times such as spring ploughing and harvest period in autumn, or any extreme weather disasters," Jiao said.

The official website of China's Ministry of Finance showed the last subsidy was granted in August 31 2022 with 10 billion yuan, in a bid to arrange harvest and ploughing in autumn, and ease influence caused by agricultural material price surge.

A total of 40 billion yuan worth of financial subsidies targeting agriculture was granted in three batches in 2022, the ministry said.

According to the MOA's latest agricultural statue monitoring, area of grain planted during 2023 spring ploughing has crossed 93,333 square kilometers as of Monday, accounted for 15.1 percent of scheduled overall planting area, 0.6 percentage points faster year-on-year.

Global Times