HOHHOT, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's only rural policy bank has started to award loans with a lending rate of 4.35 percent to private firms on purchasing potatoes and grain such as sorghum to help ease private firms' money shortage and expand the scale of grain purchasing.

The Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADB) gave its first two loans to private firms in the agricultural sector in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region this week.

"We expanded our production, as the demand for potatoes increased from 70,000 tonnes last year to 120,000 tonnes this year, so we need 200 million yuan (28.75 million U.S. dollars) for purchasing, but we lack 20 million yuan," said Yan Hongzhi, president of Linkage Potato Co. Ltd. in Chifeng City.

His company received a loan of 19 million yuan from ADB on Tuesday. "The loan was issued in a very short time and has helped us solve the urgent problem we are facing," he said.

It took only five working days to issue the loan, which solved the company's financial difficulty and helped farmers sell their potatoes, said Wang Mingyu with the bank's branch in the city.

Potatoes and grain are the main agricultural products in Inner Mongolia, and many of those in the industry are private firms.

Li Guoliang with Lianghui grain company in Tongliao City that purchases sorghum, green bean and buckwheat has also benefited from the loan.

His company received a loan of 10 million yuan from ADB on Monday. "The loan rate is 50 percent lower than that of other financing methods, which helps save the company's financial costs," he said.

Cameras have also been installed at his company's grain depot to make sure that the loan is used for grain purchasing.

The bank's branch in the city also plans to issue a loan of 50 million yuan for green bean purchasing and 120 million yuan for sorghum purchasing.

"The bank has been issuing loans to support the purchase of wheat and corn, but in order to better promote the development of the agricultural market, the bank has decided to support private firms in purchasing potatoes and grain such as broomcorn," said Tian Feng, head of the bank's Inner Mongolia branch.