Shandong plans US$2.47b in rural areas
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-05-26 16:01

Shandong Province in East China plans to spend 20.47 billion yuan (US$2.47 billion) this year on grain production, rural infrastructure construction and ecological conservation.

Yin Huimin, head of the provincial Finance Department, said at a meeting on the issue Tuesday that the investment will be 5.47 billion yuan (US$659.03 million), or about 33 percent, more than the year-earlier level.

Most of the money will be used in grain production, infrastructure construction and ecological conservation in rural areas, and in agricultural industrialization and popularization of farming-related scientific and technological research results.

Meanwhile, the provincial government will spend 320 million yuan (US$38.55 million) annually in the 2004-08 period on the improvement of five million mu (about 333,500 hectares) of lower-yield farmland.

For this year, the government has earmarked 736 million yuan (US$88.67 million) to directly subsidize farmers to grow wheat, Yin said.

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