Vice Premier Wen Jiabao paid a three-day visit to the rural areas in Xinyang, central China's Henan Province, which suffered from severe drought last year.
The Vice Premier asked local villagers about the local government's work on disaster relief, and taxation and fee reduction.
He stressed that measures should be taken to ensure that every household in the countryside gets enough food.
Wen said that the agriculture structure should be changed to take account of disastrous weather.
The Vice Premier also talked about the coming spring ploughing. He called on local governments to prevent poor quality seed from entering the market and to provide credit loans to farmers.
(People's Daily February 25, 2002)
