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Record funding to ensure grain safety
(Xinhua) Updated: 2008-03-08 00:01 BEIJING -- China's record amount of agricultural funding this year will help ensure grain safety and increase farmers' income, but challenges to redress the rural-urban income gap remain, researchers say. Premier Wen Jiabao said in his government work report to the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) that the central government will spend 562. 5 billion yuan (about 79.2 billion US dollars) on agriculture sector this year, nearly doubling the 2004 figure. "The number is a rather big increment in recent years, demonstrating the strong commitment of the government to fortifying the foundation of agriculture," said Bing Zhigang, finance director of northeastern Liaoning Province and a delegate to the NPC. The promised investment, which was 130.7 billion yuan more than last year, was aimed to ensure grain safety and at the same time, boost farmers' income, according the report. Ke Bingsheng, a China Agriculture University professor, said the pledge to boost production of grain, edible oil and meat and grain export control would help stabilize domestic prices and prevent fluctuations of global market prices. Meanwhile, it aimed to correct the big gap between cities and the countryside, he said. China's No. 1 document, promulgated on January 30 by the central committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council, the country's Cabinet, was centered on combating rural problems that affected a population of 900 million. This was the fifth consecutive year in which the No. 1 central document focused on agriculture. |
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