BEIJING - The Chinese government has alloted a total of 1.5 billion yuan ($239.6 million) to drought-hit areas to aid their agriculture production, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday.

The funds will go to the provinces of Shanxi, Henan, Yunnan, Gansu and Sichuan, where droughts had affected large areas of farmland, a ministry statement said.

China's drought relief authority said last week that drought in the country's central and western regions has affected 7.3 million hectares of farmland.

The ministry said the latest policy support is in response to the central government's call for increasing efforts to ensure grain output as the country has entered the season of spring farming.