HOHHOT, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a major agricultural base in north China, has finished the spring plowing work, with more grain seeds sown than the target set by the central government.

The total sown area in the region this spring reached 9.09 million hectares, including 7.28 million hectares of grains, up 1.7 percent and 2.4 percent respectively compared with the previous year, said Wang Yufeng, spokesman for the regional department of agriculture and animal husbandry.

The sown area of grains exceeded the 6.83-million-hectare target set by the central government, said Wang.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the region guided farmers in seedling management, disease and pest control, and disaster prevention and reduction by means of short videos, online classes and online lectures.

A total of 14.6 billion yuan (about 2.07 billion U.S. dollars) of subsidies were allocated to farmers, including corn, soybean and potato growers, according to Wang.

Inner Mongolia is one of the provincial-level regions with the most arable land in China, with corn, soybean and potato as its major farm produce.