China adjusts subsidy policy to help farmers

BEIJING - China will improve agricultural subsidy policies in an effort to deepen rural reform, promote agricultural modernization and increase peasants' income, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announced Thursday.

A total of 14 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) will be given directly to grain farmers. Another 20.4 billion yuan will go to farmers to promote good crop varieties. A total of 23.4 billion yuan will be used to support the appropriate management scale of grain, with a focus on big professional bodies such as family farms and farmer cooperatives.

The ongoing trial program on land use reform announced by the MOA in March, will be adjusted. The number of pilot regions, including the three experimental regions in Jiangsu, Sichuan and Guizhou and 27 counties, will be increased by 9 in Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces.

There are two kinds of land ownership in China - urban land is owned by the state and rural land is normally under collective ownership. Farmers are part of the collective community and enjoy land use rights, but with restrictions.

Under the pilot scheme, farmers will be allowed to turn their land-use rights into shares in farming enterprises or cooperative societies.