China's central bank said Wednesday it would selectively cut reserve requirements for hundreds of branches of a leading farm lender in a bid to boost rural credit.

From March 25, some branches of the Agricultural Bank of China which pass government checks would enjoy a "favourable" reserve requirement that is two percentage points lower than other banks, the central bank said in a statement.

The People's Bank of China said more than 500 branches could benefit from the lower reserve requirement -- the funds banks must place in reserve.

The move would free up an additional 23 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in lending, according to the statement.

China last month trimmed the reserve requirement for all commercial banks nationwide by 0.50 percentage points -- the second cut since December last year -- to ease restrictions on lending and boost slowing economic growth.

That reduction brought the reserve ratio for most large banks to 20.5 percent.

Since 2010, however, the government has allowed more flexibility for rural banks as part of a policy of encouraging lending in the countryside.

In a similar move, China last November eased lending restrictions on a handful of small banks in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where many privately owned companies faced a credit crunch.

China is largely expected to further ease monetary policy by cutting reserve requirements as growth slows to help prevent a "hard landing" for the world's second largest economy, analysts say.