Famers get $2.1m bonus in agricultural mechanization drive

　　Changsha county in Hunan province spent more than 13.6 million yuan ($2.1 million) subsidizing farmers' purchases of agriculture machinery last year, local news portal rednet.cn reported on March 25.

　　The move to promote agricultural mechanization has benefited over 780 households which were enabled to buy as many as 1,144 sets of machines and tools, the website quoted local agricultural and forest bureau as saying.

　　He Chi is among the biggest beneficiaries. The pharmaceutical-company-boss turned farmer took two drying machines, three rotary cultivators, three reapers and one high performance rice transplanter worth around 1.2 million yuan into his cooperative and received subsidies of 600,000 yuan based on central and local policies.

　　"Agriculture is profitable nowadays," he said. "You can make a fortune from large-scale farming. And we receive a bonus for buying machines."

　　Changsha county rolled out a set of agriculture subsidies last year in addition to those made by the central authorities, leading to direct investment of 35 million yuan by farmers and a significant growth in the agricultural mechanization rate.