China-Farming becomes expensive.

CHINA-POWER ON THE FARM.

The wide-ranging plan from the NDRC, which oversees China’s pricing and resource policies, also vowed to increase efficiency in the power sector and to push through more fuel price reforms, while closing down inefficient enterprises, echoing similar policies that have been in place for years.

"We will deepen reform of electricity prices, and gradually improve the mechanism for setting the price of electricity supplied to power grids, the price for its transmission and distribution, and the price for its sale to end-users," it said.

It also pledged to work to make China greener, introducing regional climate change programs, shutting small coal mines and power plants and continuing to experiment with cap and trade emissions programs.

Its efforts to increase efficiency include plans to enable power trade between provinces and to upgrade urban power grids.

The NDRC said it would keep strengthening international cooperation on energy and resources, including overseas direct investment, which it said should rise by 13 percent from $40.65 billion last year, an increase of 64 percent over 2007.

China has used the downturn in commodity prices to buy up commodities and guarantee long-term oil supplies, with investments by state-owned firms and lending by state banks topping $50 billion in Feb.