When the government does intervene in the agricultural sector, care should be taken to ensure that policy support is designed in a way that it can be removed in the future without causing significant disruption. Policies that encourage the modernisation of agricultural production at the same time as supporting rural incomes include the machinery-purchase subsidy and the improved seed variety subsidy. Focusing on the first of these, purchasers receive a 30% discount on a list of approved equipment, with the purchase price of a single item not allowed to exceed 50 000 RMB (Ni, 2013). The list is updated every three years and has 185 eligible equipment types.