Govt subsidies helping farmer replant grains
Seeing that his newly planted buckwheat began sprouting on once-flooded farmland, Zhou Jihong said he felt relieved.
Zhou, a farmer in the township of Shannan in Anhui province’s Feixi county, had his 93.3ha of rice plants devastated after an unusually heavy rainfall on July 18.
“The flood left me nothing but hopelessness. I thought I was going broke,” he said last week.
“Fortunately, the government quickly offered me a helping hand after the flood receded.”
The farmer replanted on the farmland following local officials’ advice, and he received 182,000 yuan (RM110,900) from the local government as a subsidy to buy seed and plow the land for replanting.
Yao Weidong, deputy head of the township, said that subsidies aim to help the farmers replant and secure the town’s grain production.
“General Secretary Xi Jinping has paid great attention to the country’s food security, and we must overcome the problems caused by the flood and try to stabilise grain production,” he said.
Xi extended greetings to farmers and people working in agricultural and rural fronts before the third Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival celebrated yesterday.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed the fostering of an atmosphere in the whole society where agriculture, rural areas and farmers are cared for.
He commended farmers and officials working at the primary level on managing to ensure spring plowing and agricultural production amid effective epidemic control. — China Daily/ANN