BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Central government of China will increase an additional 25.25 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) as subsidies to farmers this year in an effort to boost agricultural production and cool down rising inflation, Premier Wen Jiabao announced here on Thursday.

    The original budget was 562.5 billion yuan for this year, 130.7 billion yuan more than in 2007, Wen said at a national conference on agriculture and grain production.

    The government is to adopt 10 major measures to support agriculture and boost grain production, Wen said.