OREANDA-NEWS. July 11, 2013. Agricultural Bank of China Limited ("ABC") has responded to the CPC's strategy of synchronized development of industrialization, urbanization, informationization, and agriculture modernization. ABC completely committed to the backbone role of rural finance and continuously granted more credit and innovative banking services for farmers, agriculture, and rural areas ("Sannong").

ABC vigorously supported the development of leading enterprises of agriculture industrialization, new agricultural business entities and specialized farmer cooperatives. It also promoted the construction of modern facility-based agriculture, modern agriculture logistics system and agriculture demonstration zones, contributing greatly to a more productive China.

Additionally, ABC has actively supported the development of leading enterprises of agriculture industrialization to mobilize scale agriculture.  As of today, ABC has established nearly 3,000 special teams for industrialization of agriculture as well as 200 review & approval centers. By the end of March 2013, ABC granted RMB154.6 billion loans to leading enterprises of agricultural industrialization, up 5.39% since the beginning of 2013. Service coverage rates in state-level and province-level leading enterprises of agricultural industrialization reach 82% and 57%, respectively.

Also, ABC has fulfilled its promise that during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, it would give strong support to 1,000 high-performing, major enterprise leaders.  ABC accomplished this by extending its financial services to over 90% state-level enterprise leaders and to over 70% provincial-level enterprise leaders.

In addition, ABC mobilized over 5,000 farmers in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain in the form of "agriculture bank + leading enterprises + farmers", thereby effectively improving the intensive operational level and risk resistance capacity of agriculture.
Besides traditional credit service, ABC offers modern comprehensive banking services such as financial consulting, notes issuance, and e-commerce. Recently, ABC launched a cash management system for 70% of its leading corporate customers in the agricultural industrialization sector.

Further, ABC vigorously supported the new agricultural business entities' expanding production scale. As of the end of March, ABC granted RMB96 billion loans to 1.25 million large farmer-households. Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Branch issued management measures on loans to large farmer-households. It also established a green channel for agriculture credit, granting over RMB1.2 billion loans to more than 150 large land contractors of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

In response to the accelerated circulation of rural land and the trend of intensive operation, ABC granted RMB2.4 billion to 2,443 family farms. It achieved this by innovating guarantee methods including mortgages collateralized by agricultural implements, pledge of forest ownership, and use rights of seas and beaches.

In terms of servicing the financial needs of cooperatives, ABC formulated the Management Measures on the Working Capital Loan of Specialized Farmer Cooperatives to enhance its support for cooperatives. As of the end of this March, ABC granted RMB1.1 billion in loans to 565 specialized farmer cooperatives nationally and RMB7.9 billion to 170,000 members of farmer cooperatives.

Additionally, ABC has endeavored to improve agriculture modernization by supporting agricultural scientific and technological progress. As of the end of this March, ABC offered credit support of RMB10.3 billion to 244 agricultural scientific and technological enterprises, with a loan balance of RMB7.2 billion. It extended credit of over RMB4 billion to 50% of leading state-level seed industry enterprises. It also established cooperative relationships with 65 state-level agricultural science parks, supported 4,500 leading enterprises' settlement in those parks, and promoted the application of over 5,400 new technologies and 8,000 new products.
ABC also strongly supported modern facility-based agriculture.

In terms of construction of irrigation and water conservancy, ABC put its efforts towards improving agricultural facilities with a focus on large water conservancy projects, river control, small irrigation and water conservancy, and new water-saving and high-efficiency agriculture. It has strived to improve agricultural production facilities and conditions. As of the end of March, ABC granted RMB77.3 billion loans in this area, up 7.2% over the beginning of the year. This gave support to many cross-basin and cross-region water conservancy projects such as Phase I of the Central and Eastern Line of South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Central Guizhou Hydro-Junction Project, Guangxi Longtan Hydro-Junction Project, Mid-Yunnan Water Diversion Project, and transformation of large irrigation districts.

In terms of support for the construction of modern agriculture logistics system, ABC, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce and All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, provided credit support of RMB12.5 billion for 269 wholesale markets of agricultural production. ABC extended credit of over RMB5.2 billion to enterprises and countryside stores involved in the project of developing rural retail network, circulation enterprises, and sales network of home appliance in rural areas. ABC also developed financial services in over 70% of wholesale markets designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and 50% of leading fertilizer enterprises involved in the state’s off-season fertilizer reserve program

As for the construction of agriculture demonstration zones, ABC has accumulatively granted RMB81.8 billion in loans to 52 state-level modern agriculture demonstration zones since 2012. As of the end of this March, the loan balance reached RMB116.5 billion. Shaanxi Branch of ABC extended credit of RMB5 billion to state-level Yangling agriculture demonstration zone for its establishment of 151 agricultural science and technology promotion bases, introducing more than 1,700 domestic and overseas goods, agricultural varieties, and promotion of 1,000 agricultural technologies, benefiting more than 5,000 farmers in 20 provinces.

ABC has always been committed to the innovative banking services for modern agriculture. In terms of financial product innovation, it has established special teams to research and develop financial products adaptable to modern agriculture. As of the end of March, ABC developed as many as 103 Sannong products under the brand of "Golden Harvest". In particular, "Agricultural Industrialization Cluster Customer Rongxinbao", "Seasonal Acquisition Loan" and "Off-Seasons Fertilizers Reserve Loan" and other products provide effective solutions for satisfying the unique financial requirements of various subjects and of various links in modern agricultural industry. ABC innovated diversified risk mitigation and dispersion instruments including rural real right mortgage, farmer mutual guarantee, and fiscal guarantee funds support for new agriculture business entities such as large farmer-households, family farms, and specialized cooperatives.
In terms of service mode innovation, ABC developed diversified Sannong modes including "ABC + industry chain + farmer-household", "ABC + specialized market + farmer-household" and "ABC + specialized cooperatives + farmer-household".

In terms of service channel innovation, ABC actively promoted the construction of the "Kins Farmer Benefit" project to distribute more electronic equipment by establishing Sannong financial service centers in rural areas, striving to realize full-range coverage of rural financial services.