The Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC) had offered loans totaling 44.3 billion yuan (US$5.92 billion) to six provinces by the end of September to ensure the minimum purchasing price for wheat, according to the bank sources.

These loans used to purchace 29.2 million tons of wheat at the minimum price are expected to provide local farmers with an additional 2.3 billion yuan profit, said the bank.

The minimum purchasing price for main crops that began in 2006 aims to protect farmers' interest by upholding the price at a reasonable level.

The bank has planned to loan 53 billion yuan this year to six provinces of China's major wheat-producing regions, including Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Henan and Hubei. When the market price is lower than the minimum price, entrusted enterprises will purchase wheat at the minimum price, ADBC said.

The lowest price for white wheat is fixed at 72 yuan per 50 kilograms, and 69 yuan for red wheat, the country's top economic planner National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said earlier.

The prices will safeguard 25-30 percent profit margins for farmers, according to NDRC.

Summer crops, which make up 20 percent of China's annual grain output, nudged up 1.3 percent to 115 million tons in the first half of 2007, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

China has also planted 1.09 billion mu (72.7 million hectares) of autumn crops.

China's annual grain output had grown for three straight years since 2003 to 497.46 million tons last year, up 2.8 percent or 13.44 million tons from 2005.