More than three hundred organizations and individuals who helped bring science to the countryside received awards totaling 50 million yuan (US$6.25 million) on Saturday.

The awards given by the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and the Ministry of Finance, honored a variety of rural science education institutions from Beijing to Inner Mongolia.

"The central government has for five successive years awarded 50 million yuan to excellent rural science promotion work," said Zhai Xiaobin, director of the rural special technique service center under the CAST.

This year's recipients included an edible fungus association in North China's Tianjin Municipality, an organic agricultural science education base in Beijing, and a science promotion team in Xilinguole League in Inner Mongolia, which promotes scientific farming and herding methods to the Mongolian ethnic minority living there.

Zhai said the 50 million yuan will mainly be used for science education materials, equipment lectures, exhibitions and the introduction and promotion of new technologies and agricultural.

In February the country embarked on a program to promote economic growth and social progress through the development of advanced science and technology, said Zhai.

Statistics show that China has more than 140,000 rural science and technology associations where nearly 900,000 people help promote and popularize science in rural areas.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)