Shanxi implements 10 policies benefiting farmers

North China's Shanxi province has come up with 10 new policies in 2016 to bring bigger benefits for local farmers, Taiyuan Evening News has reported.

The new policies, along with other pre-existing ones, are meant to promote supply-side structural reform and increase farmers' income.

The policies are as follows:

1. Shanxi will relocate 100,000 impoverished people living in areas with poor living conditions to help them escape poverty by adjusting their economic structures and channels.

2. Shanxi will invest 819 million yuan ($125.8 million) in irrigation and water conservancy projects and in promoting water conservancy and plastic film mulching technologies.

3. Shanxi will reduce poverty by building 100 photovoltaic power stations with an investment of 150 million yuan in 300 impoverished villages and help develop rural tourism.

4. The province will work on improving the socialized service systems and financial comprehensive service stations in agriculture sectors with a fund of 145 million yuan.

5. Shanxi will speed up establishment of a provincial credit guarantee institution for the agricultural sector. It will solve the problem of difficulties and high costs in financing by attracting more financial funds.

6. Shanxi will come up with award and subsidy policies for a traditional Chinese medicinal materials production base and a woody oil plant sprouts base, planting Chinese herb medicine, including fructus forsythia, codonopsis pilosula, and scutellaria baicalensis.

7. Shanxi will provide awards and subsidies for farmers and organizations that purchase power-driven agricultural machinery produced by Shanxi manufacturers.

8. Shanxi will offer subsidies for potato insurance and reward cities and counties that implement insurance for agricultural production.

9. Shanxi supports agriculture integration with the Internet. It will establish an agricultural computing service platform, an Internet of Things monitoring and control system, and a service system based on the Internet.

10. Shanxi will provide subsidies to renovate public toilets and bathrooms in rural areas to improve local living conditions.