Wednesday, January 24, 2018

China: 31 Farmer Subsidies for 2018

The official "Voice of China" listed 31 subsidy programs to apply for in 2018 that illustrate Chinese leaders' plans to transform agriculture. According to Voice of China, agricultural subsidy programs will emphasize aid for businesses engaged in environmental protection, those that increase industry efficiency and those that strengthen food safety. The list below includes the name of each program and the dates for application. (Voice of China also listed the government entity to apply to, but these are excluded here for brevity.)

Applicants for these programs must be registered as enterprises (which would include farmer cooperatives, agribusinesses and "family farms" holding a business license, but not individual farmers). They must demonstrate adequate "business management capability" and cannot have a bad social credit score, nor can they be on a black list. Aid cannot exceed the expenses of the project and a project cannot be supported by multiple subsidies.

The programs below focus on developing new-type farms, cooperatives, agricultural service providers, farm-industry linkages, soil improvements. Many of these programs are ideas that have been tried before. For example, producing oils from tree nuts has been proposed every 15 years or so, and feeding crop stalks/straw to cattle and sheep was a big initiative in the 1990s that has been revived. The programs feature "model farm" approaches and upgrades of the animal breeding system that have been around since at least the 1950s. Also prominent is the "comprehensive agricultural development" begun in the 1980s, which finances an overhaul of farming infrastructure in a village or larger contiguous area, including development of a processing or other agribusiness linked up with farmers. Industrial parks are another long-time socialist favorite now being adopted for agriculture.

This does not appear to be an exhaustive list of agricultural subsidies. It does not include payments to the broad population of farmers, such as the "support and protection payment" for grain farmers, target subsidy for cotton producers in Xinjiang, nor direct payments to producers of corn, soybeans, and rapeseed in select provinces. The programs below appear to be special project aid that companies, cooperatives, and licensed farms can apply for, not broad entitlements to all farmers.

Directory of China agricultural subsidy/aid programs, 2018
Program description Application period
Model farmer cooperatives Jan-June
Cropland protection and quality improvement aid Jan-March
Aquaculture breeding and production model farms Feb-June
Projects raising livestock on crop straw Feb-June
Grassroots agricultural technology extension system aid Feb-March
Modern agricultural industrial parks March-April
Grain/cotton/oilseed/sugar high-yielding field construction March-May
Agricultural machinery purchase subsidy (for "green" projects) March-May
Aid for production of agricultural resources and ecological protection March-May
Agricultural disaster prevention fund March-May
Socialized services for the whole agricultural production process April-Dec
Soil fertility testing aid Before April
Aid for potato, fruit, vegetable storage facilities Before April
Pastoral complex construction May-June
Logistics upgrades May
National agricultural industry chain innovation model districts June-July
National comprehensive agricultural industrialized development (for new-type farms) June-July
Modern young farmer plan June-Aug
Model districts integrating production with cities (agricultural industry parks) July-Aug
Ministry of Agriculture Food Grain Processing Model Enterprises July-Sept
Fostering of New-type Professional Farmers July-Aug
National Agricultural Comprehensive Development Industry Integration for managed land, organic fertilizer, low-residue pesticides July-Oct
Aid for Outstanding Young Agricultural Technicians July-Oct
National Outstanding Rural Practical Personnel Aid (large farms, S&T model farms, returned migrants) Aug-Oct
Model Agricultural Comprehensive Development of Forestry (for tree-based oils, national forest reserves, forest economy) Aug-Jun2019
National Agricultural Comprehensive Development (for production and breeding of improved varieties of crops and livestock) Aug-Dec
Closed-System Ecological Agriculture Model (storage and processing of ag by-products, straw, manure) Aug-Dec
National Model Districts Combining Rice and Fish production Sept-Dec
Action Plan for Rural Migrants and Other Entrepreneurs Returning to Countryside (targeted tax and fee reductions, support for rural industry) by Dec 31
Agricultural Comprehensive Development Fund for High-Yielding Fields, Ecological Projects, Irrigation water conservancy by Mar2019
Modern Crop Seed Resource Protection, Crop Breeding, Variety Testing by Jan2019

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