3. Promote steady agricultural growth

1) Steadily developing main agricultural products. We will more quickly implement the plan to increase China' s grain production capacity by 50 million metric tons, and build up regional and large-scale commercial grain production centers in contiguous areas. We will speed up innovation in and promotion of agricultural science and technology and increase yield per unit area. We will quicken the development of modern seed industry and agriculture mechanization. We will support Xinjiang in its efforts to become a quality cotton-producing center. We will continue to implement the national plan for developing the vegetable industry, and standardize large-scale breeding operations of hogs, dairy cattle, beef cattle and sheep raised for meat. We will strengthen prevention and control of animal epidemics. We will support the development of fishery administration and the building of fishing ports as well as the renovation of sea fishing boats. We will continue to build a system for inspecting and testing the quality and safety of agricultural products. Total grain output is projected to top 550 million metric tons in 2014.

2) Improving and strengthening the systems to support and protect agriculture. Investment from the central government budget will continue to favor agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The minimum purchase prices of wheat and rice will be raised by 6 yuan and 3.7 yuan per 50 kilograms, respectively. We will continue to implement the system of purchasing and stockpiling corn, canola seeds and sugar on an ad hoc basis. We will launch trials of guaranteed base prices for soybeans produced in northeast China and Inner Mongolia and cotton in Xinjiang. We will scale up funds for agricultural subsidies, and devote more of the added subsidy to the production of grain and other important agricultural products, new types of agricultural businesses, and major agricultural regions. Where conditions allow, we will carry out trial subsidy programs based on the actual area sown to grain or grain output, and use subsidies in a more precise and targeted way. We will improve the policy-based agricultural insurance system. We will increase rewards and subsidies to main commercial grain-producing provinces and major counties that produce grain, edible oil or pigs, support beef and mutton production, and improve the mechanism for subsidizing major grain-producing areas.

3) Strengthening agricultural and rural infrastructure development. We will implement the national master plan for building high-grade farmland, and strengthen construction of major water conservancy projects to protect key water sources, divert water, and develop large irrigated areas. We will harness rivers and reinforce reservoirs and sluices of theirs in disrepair, and build up the system for resisting floods, combating drought, and preventing and mitigating other disasters. We will formulate a general plan to control serious agricultural environmental pollution, intensify the treatment of heavy metal pollution in farmland and severe over-abstractions of groundwater, and work harder to prevent and control pollution from non-point agricultural sources. We will make drinking water safe in more rural areas, upgrade and renovate rural power grids, and build roads in counties, townships and villages. We will improve and develop biogas, rebuild rundown houses, and speed up telecommunications infrastructure development in the countryside.

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