Agricultural machinery aids spring farming amid epidemic: official

BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- China has taken a slew of measures to give full play to agricultural machinery in spring farming while containing the COVID-19 outbreak, said an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) Sunday.

Efforts were made to strengthen organization, increase equipment supply and ensure orderly transportation of agricultural machinery, MARA official Wang Jiayun said.

Data from the ministry showed that over 30,000 spraying drones have been put in place across the country in this year's spring farming, up 25 percent from a year ago.

The number of intelligent equipment including automatic plowing tractors used in the farming, assisted by the Beidou Navigation System, jumped by 15 percent to 20,000 units, Wang said.

The ministry also provided online service related to agricultural machinery to facilitate farmers who purchase to get subsidies via mobile applications, while strengthening technical training and organization.

According to a circular released earlier this year, appropriate subsidies should be given to scrapped agricultural machinery and tools in a bid to accelerate the application of energy-saving, environmental friendly and safe equipment to promote the green development of agricultural industry.

China in this year's "No. 1 central document" pledged to step up breakthroughs in key agricultural core technologies and develop heavy smart agricultural machinery.