(New China News Agency) Beijing, 19 April - The Chinese Ministry ofAgriculture on Monday [19 April] announced the country will subsidizegrain farmers who plant high-quality soybeans, wheat, corn and rice.According to the ministry, farmers growing high-quality soybeans, wheatand corn will get 150 yuan of subsidy per hectare, and those planting ricewill be subsidized 150 to 225 yuan per hectare.

The subsidy programme this year covers a total of 13 provinces andautonomous regions including Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang,Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Sichuanprovinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the ministry noted.The subsidy programme covers 670,000 ha of high-quality wheat farmland,670,000m ha of high-quality soybean land and 670,000m ha of special-usecorn fields. China's weakening grain production capability in recent yearsprompted the government to kick off in 2004 a seven-year project topromote high-quality grain output nationwide.