China allocates funds to boost food security

BEIJING - The Chinese central government has allocated 600 million yuan ($97.88 million) to encourage food output and help boost China's food security, the Ministry of Finance announced on Monday.

The funds have been allocated to five major agricultural provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangxi to subsidize food production and upgrade agricultural technology, said the ministry.

The funds will be used to encourage banks to increase lending to rural areas, to improve farming conditions and farmers' productivity, according to the ministry.

China's grain output this summer, mostly wheat, hit a record high of 132 million tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The production of maize, harvested in autumn, is expected to hit a record high of 215 million tonnes, according to the State Administration of Grain.

The country's grain output rose 3.2 percent year on year to hit 589.57 million tonnes in 2012, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth, according to NBS data.