From the Associated Press via the New York Times (link):
China will pay an extra 12.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in subsidies to grain growers this year, more than doubling support to help compensate for higher fuel prices and other production costs, the government said.
The government has sharply raised subsidies to farmers in recent years, attempting to boost grain production and to reverse the divisive, widening gap between rapidly growing cities and the impoverished countryside.
The extra spending this year will increase direct subsidies to the country’s nearly 600 million grain growers to 26.7 billion yuan ($3.3 billion, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
