China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Thursday it had earmarked 86.7 billion yuan (US$12.7 billion) of subsidy for grain-growing farmers nationwide.

The subsidy is to partly offset the seed, pesticide and chemical fertilizer cost of farmers in their spring farming efforts, said the MOF in a statement on its website.

China vowed to put more investment, subsidies, fiscal and policy support into rural areas this year to better coordinate urban and rural development, the central government said Sunday in its first policy document of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2010)