In 2014, the MoA and the Ministry of Finance arranged 117 billion yuan special transfer funding, with a year-on-year increase of 6.5 billion yuan, mainly for projects in four areas, such as promoting production and securing provision.
1. Production subsidy policy In 2014, the production subsidy policy project received 74.6 billion yuan, including 23.755 billion yuan on agriculture machinery, which subsidized 4.48 million machines (or sets of machines) that benefited 3.786 million households, promoted the crop farming mechanization level to 61 percent, with a 1.5 percent year-on-year increase.
The ministry comprehensively promoted payment methods of full-price purchasing, set-quota subsidy, county-level settlement and direct subsidy to card, 55 enhanced the creation of subsidy information disclosure columns, and combated illegal products and companies, so as to ensure the subsidy policy to be implemented in a scientific, efficient, standardized, and honest manner. The quality crop seed subsidy was 21.5 billion yuan, covering 10 major crops such as rice, wheat and corn. The subsidies covered all the major crops, the regional operation procedure was standardized, and reinforcement measures were conducted, which promoted new breeds and high-productivity- cultivation technologies, and greatly contributed to the steady increase in crop production and increase in farmers' income. The subsidy for fishery-related diesel use was 25.3 billion yuan, covering offshore and inland fishing boats, distant water fishing boats, flowing fishing boats in Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions, so as to cut fishery cost, increase fishermen's income, sustain the stability in fishing areas, achieve the goal of "double-control" fishing boats, and develop distant water fishing industry. The subsidy for animal husbandry and aquaculture was 4.03 billion yuan, including conducting projects on livestock breeding, which covered pigs, diary cattle, meat cattle and sheep; conducting projects on supporting standard and large-scale production of livestock and aquaculture; conducting projects on increasing the number of cows in 15 major beef production provinces such as Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shandong; creating pilot pasturelands on grass-covered hills and slopes in the south regions, including 10 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) such as Jiangxi and Anhui, to support the development of natural grasslands, the steady production of quality fodder, the construction of standard and intensive breeding infrastructure, and the construction of livestock product manufacturing facilities; building 33,300 hectares of quality alfalfa growing base in major diary cow breeding provinces and alfalfa growing areas.
2. Science and technology service support policy In 2014 the fund for technology service support policy was 13.1 billion yuan, among which 2 billion yuan was for the high-production of grain, cotton, oil and sugar.
Some 11,876 high-production demonstration areas were established nationwide, each with over 10 000 mu (666.67 hectares), and pilot programs on increasing production was promoted in 60 counties. The amount for horticulture standardization was 600 million yuan, which was spent on building 929 horticulture standard farms, building 650.67 hectares of sunlight greenhouses, and reconstructing 178.33 hectares of sunlight greenhouses.
The amount for reforming agricultural technology promotion systems at the grassroots level was 2.6 billion yuan, basically covering every agriculture-based county, which enhanced public services at the grassroots level, and encouraged local agricultural technicians to provide service in villages and households. The subsidy for soil-testing formulated fertilization was 700 million yuan. It was spent on building more than 102 300 demonstration areas, which was 9 million hectares in total; it was also spent on providing technology service on soil-testing formulated fertilization for 210 million farming households, covering an area of more than 100 million hectares. The subsidy for training farmers was 1.1 billion yuan, with an emphasis on training new-type farming business entities. The number of trained professional large farming households and family farmers was over 1 million. Some 1.323 billion yuan was given to construct the modern agriculture industry technology system, subsidizing chief scientist, in-post scientists, and leaders of comprehensive experimental stations from 50 agriculture product system for research and development, so as to form an agriculture industry technical support system linking production and consumption, research and market, with the aim of serving the nation. The amount for technology promotion for dry-land agriculture was 1 billion yuan, which was spent on promoting dry-land farming technology such as plastic mulching for 1.68 million hectares of fields in eight provinces or autonomous regions, including Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces, and Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Ningxia Autonomous Region. The amount for modern agriculture demonstration area was 250 million yuan, benefiting 25 national-level agriculture demonstration areas. The subsidy for the preliminary processing of agro products was 600 million yuan, which was used in an "building before subsidizing" approach, encouraging the construction of 18,000 agro product storage, preservation, drying and other preliminary processing facilities. The amount for building comprehensive control pilot in Hebei province's groundwater over-exploited areas was 1.5 billion yuan, covering 51 counties (cities, or districts, or sites), such as Hengshui, Cangzhou, Xingtai and Handan. Winter wheat water-saving irrigation technology, wheat water-saving cultivation technology and water-fertilizer integration technology were promoted in these areas. The subsidy for the identification, registration and certification of rural land contract and management rights was 1.36 billion yuan. Shandong, Sichuan and Anhui provinces conducted the province-wide rural land contract registration pilot program, while the other provinces conducted the pilot program in one selected county respectively.
3. Disaster prevention and relief support policy In 2014, 10.9 billion yuan was spent on disaster prevention and relief projects. The subsidy for agriculture disaster prevention and relief was 5.06 billion yuan, which realized full coverage of winter wheat's main production areas on chemical spray technology against pests, dry hot wind and lodging, and carried out prevention for crop pests, crop diseases and grassland rodent damage. These technologies greatly contributed to preventing regional natural disasters and providing timely disaster relief. Some 5.8 billion yuan was spent on preventing animal epidemics as compulsory epidemic-prevention subsidy for major diseases, such as the culling of animals with FMD. The money was also used to subsidize the village-level animal quarantine staff's work and the bio-safety treatment of dead pigs in large-scale farms.
4. Ecological and resource protection policy In 2014, 18.4 billion yuan was spent on ecological and resource protection projects. The amount for grassland ecological protection award was 16.07 billion yuan, which was used in 13 provinces, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and Heilongjiang Agricultural Reclamation Bureau, to prohibit grazing on 82 million hectares of grassland, and control livestock numbers in 173 million hectares of grassland. Some 2.84 million households' living conditions were improved, supports for nurturing industries were enhanced, and the transformation of the animal husbandry industry was promoted. These measures increased farmers and herdsmen's income, improved grassland ecology, and achieved the goal to prohibit grazing and reduce livestock numbers without affecting production and income. Some 800 million yuan was spent on farmland protection and improvement, covering 3.14 million hectares of farmland in 770 counties, with an emphasis on promoting straw return on soil, green manure cultivation, organic fertilization and other technologies. Some 1.156 billion yuan was spent on reducing heavy metal soil contamination in Hunan province, mainly for adjusting cultivation structure and promoting low-cadmium rice. Some 400 million yuan was used for fishermen job transfer and fishery resource preservation. Governments conducted the release of endangered fish and important aquatic larva, which effectively promoted fishery resource restoration. Some 300 million yuan was used to prevent and control heavy metal soil contamination. Investigations were conducted in heavily polluted areas, and long-term monitoring would be carried out.
