Chinese Province to Invest Heavily in Building Infrastructure for Tobacco Production

Source from:  Henan Province 02/20/2006

Central China's tobacco-producing Henan Province will invest 1.67 billion yuan (205.9 million U.S. dollars) in building infrastructure facilities for tobacco production over the next three to five years, to fundamentally improve conditions for tobacco production in the province. On February 14, the government of Henan held an on-the-spot meeting on tobacco production in the province, deciding that Henan Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration will be responsible for making the investment. Specifically, the investment will mainly be used to build support irrigation systems and intensive leaf tobacco curing barns for 2.6 million mu (173,333 hectares) of tobacco-growing farmland, in order that the farmland will have access to irrigation and will be able to meet the requirement for tobacco production in terms of physical and chemical indexes and ecological environment, and in order that over 80 percent of the leaf tobacco produced in the province can be processed with intensive curing barns or semi-intensive curing barns. The construction of these infrastructure facilities will contribute to greatly improving conditions for tobacco growing and processing in Henan Province and more effectively assisting local tobacco growers in preventing and combating natural disasters in tobacco production. In 2005, Henan Province already made remarkable achievements and even breakthroughs in tobacco production and construction of infrastructure facilities for tobacco production. Enditem