New round of returning farmland to forest and grassland launched with central government financial support
According to the "Overall Plan for the New Round of Returning Farmland to Forest and Grassland" (hereinafter referred to as the "Overall Plan") approved by the State Council, recently the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance, together with the State Forestry Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant departments, issued the 2014 annual task of returning farmland to forest and grassland of 5 million mu to ten provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Shanxi and Hubei, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Of this, 4.83 million mu was for returning farmland to forest and 170,000 mu was for returning farmland to grassland.
The "Overall Plan" specifies the subsidy policy for the new round of returning farmland to forest and grassland: for returning farmland to forest, the subsidy is 1500 yuan per mu, of which the Ministry of Finance arranges a cash subsidy of 1200 yuan through special funds, and the National Development and Reform Commission arranges 300 yuan for seedling and afforestation costs through central budgetary investment; for returning farmland to grassland, the subsidy is 800 yuan per mu, of which the Ministry of Finance arranges a cash subsidy of 680 yuan through special funds, and the National Development and Reform Commission arranges 120 yuan for seedling and grass-planting costs through central budgetary investment. The subsidy funds for returning farmland to forest arranged by the central government are issued to the provincial people's governments in three installments: 800 yuan per mu in the first year (of which 300 yuan is for seedling and afforestation costs), 300 yuan in the third year, and 400 yuan in the fifth year; the subsidy funds for returning farmland to grassland are issued in two installments: 500 yuan per mu in the first year (of which 120 yuan is for seedling and grass-planting costs) and 300 yuan in the third year. At the same time, the "Overall Plan" also specifies that the funds needed by local people's governments at all levels for policy publicity, inspection and acceptance, and other work shall mainly be borne by provincial-level finance, with appropriate subsidies from the central finance.
According to the above subsidy policy, in 2014 the central finance arranged a total of 2.4976 billion yuan in special funds for the new round of returning farmland to forest and grassland, of which: 2.4796 billion yuan was for cash subsidies and 18 million yuan was a one-time subsidy for working funds.