3. Work related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers was further intensified.

We constantly invigorated our policies to strengthen agriculture and benefit farmers and continued to intensify our efforts to protect farmland. We worked out ten measures to further support agriculture and grain production and organized the compilation of the Plan for Increasing the National Grain Production Capacity by 50 Billion Kilograms (2009-2020). We worked harder on the grain purchase prices, agricultural subsidies, and the purchase and storage of major farm products. We significantly raised minimum grain purchase prices three times, increasing them altogether by more than 20 percent. In addition, government allocations for direct subsidies to grain growers, general subsidies for agricultural supplies, subsidies for superior varieties of crops, and subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery and tools reached 103 billion yuan, up 100 percent from the previous year. We implemented the policy of temporary purchase and stockpiling of major agricultural products, and accordingly purchased 11.78 million tons of grain, 8.52 million tons of corn, 1.31 million tons of cotton and 670,000 tons of oilseed.

We continued to increase funding to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers. Central government allocations in this area rose 37.9 percent to 595.55 billion yuan in 2008. We moved faster to build production bases for grain, oilseed, sugar crops and cotton, and demonstration bases for drought-resistant agriculture. We made smooth progress in developing the system for preventing and controlling animal and plant epidemics, large-scale standardized livestock, poultry and aquatic farming operations, bases for cultivating superior varieties and breeds, the system for quality and safety inspection and testing of agricultural products, wholesale markets for farm products, grain and edible oil storage facilities, and modern logistics facilities.

The output of major farm and sideline products increased significantly. We had good harvests for five consecutive years, with last year's total output rising 5.4 percent to 528.5 million tons, a record high for both total output and yield per unit area. Cotton output reached 7.5 million tons in 2008; oilseed production was 29.5 million tons, up 14.8 percent, and sugar crop yield stood at 130 million tons, up 6.7 percent. Hog production recovered rapidly last year, and the total output of meat increased 5.9 percent to 72.69 million tons. Dairy farming also recovered gradually with total milk output up 3.6 percent. The output of aquatic products came to 48.95 million tons, up 3.1 percent. Further progress was made in developing high-quality, high-yield, and cost-efficient agriculture. Production of pollution-free agricultural products and green and organic foodstuffs and standardization of agricultural production were accelerated. High-quality wheat was planted in 68 percent of China's total wheat acreage, and high-quality rice accounted for 74 percent of the total rice acreage, up 6.3 and 1.9 percentage points respectively from the previous year.

Working and living conditions continued to improve in rural areas. Implementation of the projects to reinforce dangerous reservoirs, and build auxiliary facilities and upgrade water-saving devices in large irrigated areas was sped up; work on the plan to upgrade large drainage pumping stations in the central region was completed ahead of schedule, and construction on a number of key water conservancy projects was begun. Development of water and power supplies, methane facilities and roads was further strengthened in rural areas. As a result, 48.24 million farmers benefited from the safe drinking water project; methane gas was made available to five million more households; an additional 391,000 kilometers of rural roads were built or upgraded last year. The project to encourage retailers to open stores in more townships and villages and the project to support 100 large wholesale markets for farm products and 100 large rural retail distributors both progressed smoothly.