Central government provides 16.649 billion yuan in funding support for grassland ecological protection

According to the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Finance, in 2015 the central government further increased its investment, allocating 16.649 billion yuan, an increase of 880 million yuan over the previous year, to provide herdsmen with grassland grazing ban subsidies, grass-livestock balance rewards, improved forage seed subsidies and herdsmen production material subsidies, as well as, through performance evaluation rewards, to support the transformation of the development mode of animal husbandry in grassland pastoral areas. At the same time, research is being launched on a new round (2016-2020) of the grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward policy.

It is learned that, in order to strengthen grassland ecological protection and construction, since 2011 the central government has allocated funds to comprehensively establish a grassland ecological protection subsidy and reward mechanism in 8 pastoral provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. In 2012, the coverage of the policy was further expanded to all pastoral and semi-pastoral areas. The policy has effectively promoted the coordinated development of the economy, society and ecological environment in pastoral areas and increased the income of farmers and herdsmen.