BEIJING — The Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), an agricultural policy bank, has ramped up financial support in the first quarter of this year to support farmland infrastructure building.

In the first quarter, the ADBC funded 170 farmland-related projects with 28.59 billion yuan (about $4.04 billion) in loans, according to the ADBC.

Of the total, 22.5 billion yuan was lent to support the building of farmland infrastructure.

By the end of March, outstanding loans to the sector totaled 151.68 billion yuan, increasing by 21.43 billion yuan from the same period last year.

The bank has stepped up credit support for high-yield farmland building and other key agricultural areas since the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak to ensure sufficient funding for spring farming as well as farmland infrastructure building, the ADBC said.