Northeast China's Heilongjiang province is expected to see a record harvest year in grain production, with the total grain outputs to hit 36 billion kg this year, an increase of 14.8 percent to the previous year, according to sources with the provincial government.

Since 2004, a series of preferential policies on supporting grain production have been issued. Farmers in the province were exempted from agriculture taxes and were given grain planting subsidies.

Report of the provincial statistics bureau shows that there is totally 9.87 million hectares of grain production area in Heilongjiang this year, an increase of 0.6 percent to that of the previous year.

To promote grain production and help farmers earn more money from grain planting, Heilongjiang put in 260 million yuan (about 32.5 million US dollars) in farming mechanization building.

China's largest grain production base, Heilongjiang enjoys the praise as "great barn in north China".

Source: Xinhua