BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang called for a better rural credit guarantee system to direct more loans into the money-starved rural economy.

Establishing a government-backed system is significant to boosting efficiency of support policies for rural areas and carrying out the agricultural supply-side structural reform, Wang said during a meeting on Friday.

To help farmers secure loans, efforts should be made to build more guarantee institutions specializing in rural financing and create new business models, according to Wang.

Chinese farmers and agri-businesses have been facing difficulties in borrowing money from banks partly due to the lack of high-quality collateral, and the government is encouraging pilots in rural credit guarantees to solve the problem.

Wang urged more cooperation by governments, banks and guarantee institutions.

Outstanding agriculture-related loans in China stood at 29.23 trillion yuan ($4.24 trillion) as of the end of the first quarter this year, up 8.9 percent year on year, according to the central bank.

The growth was 1.8 percentage points higher than the level a quarter ago.