Henan, China's most populous province, is expecting a grain harvest of 50.15 billion kilograms this year, an annual rise of 9.5 percent, according to a forecast from the provincial agriculture department.

The Henan Provincial Agriculture Department said the province's acreage of crops totaled 9.3 million hectares this year, 149,000 hectares up from last year.

Henan, as a national gain producer, produces about one-tenth of the country's annual grain output, the result of a series of active grain output boosting policies.

This year alone, the province earmarked approximately 3.045 billion yuan (US$380 million) as subsidies for farmers to grow crops, buy grain seeds, update farming machinery and other materials in agricultural production.

Following last year's agricultural tax exemption for farmers, the province's agriculturalists saved around 2 billion yuan (about US$250 million).

China is banking on a grain harvest of 490 billion kilograms this year, 6 billion kilograms more than last year, according to a forecast from the China Information Center of Grain and Oil.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)