Over 400 billion yuan of state investment has gone into the Grain for Green program
As of now, the central government has invested a cumulative 405.66 billion yuan across 25 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the first round of the Grain for Green program, completing afforestation on 139 million mu of retired farmland and 309 million mu of supporting afforestation on barren hills and wasteland and closed-off mountain areas for forest cultivation, involving 32 million rural households and 124 million farmers.
Reporters learned from the national on-site experience exchange meeting on the Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration work held on the 7th that the average forest coverage rate in the first-round Grain for Green project areas increased by more than 3 percentage points, the tree survival rate reached 99%, and soil erosion and wind-sand damage were significantly reduced; by building basic ration fields and concentrating efforts on intensive cultivation, households that returned farmland to forest increased per-unit grain yields and largely solved the problem of feeding themselves.
⟦NL> He Lifeng, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that this year is the final year of implementing the special plan to consolidate the achievements of the Grain for Green program, and also a year of full implementation of the new round of the Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration project. All localities should, in conjunction with targeted poverty alleviation, coordinate funds from different channels, properly resolve the long-term livelihood problems of disadvantaged households that returned farmland to forest, give priority to relocating disadvantaged households that returned farmland to forest in areas with harsh natural conditions and living environments, and promptly revise and improve the implementation plan for the new round of the Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration project.
To continuously advance China's ecological civilization construction, in 2014 the state launched a new round of the Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration project. From 2014 to 2015, the country arranged a cumulative 15 million mu of Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration tasks, with a cumulative central investment of 12 billion yuan, including 7.5 billion yuan in cash subsidies and 4.5 billion yuan for seedlings, afforestation and grass planting.
It is understood that from August 6 to 7, 149 responsible persons from the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Forestry Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources, the 22 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with new-round Grain for Green tasks and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and other relevant departments attended the national on-site experience exchange meeting on the Grain for Green and Grassland Restoration work held in Bijie City, Guizhou.