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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:09(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Farmers Improve Lives as Their Hills Turn GreenThe policy of turning hillside farmland to forestry and grassland is making life easier for farmers in northern Shaanxi Province."In the past, farmers could not grow 100 kilograms of grain per mu (0.07 hectare) after one year of hard working, but now they can get 100 kilograms of grain and 70 yuan (US$8.43) from local government if they turn 1 mu (0.07 hectare) of farmland on hills to forestry and grassland," said Wang Sousen, deputy governor in charge of the work in Shaanxi, in Northwest China. As well as improving conditions for farmers and their families, the ecological environment is benefiting from the State policy. In 1999, Premier Zhu Rongji, during an inspection tour, told Shaanxi's officials and farmers to turn poor farmland on hills to forestry and grassland to green up the barren mountains and conserve water and soil. The central government is investing 2 million yuan (US$240,000) within 10 years from 2000 to 2010 to support Shaanxi in this project. "Local farmers are greatly encouraged and in 1999 the province turned 3 million mu (200,000 hectares) of farmland into forestry and grassland, and we plan to turn 800,000 mu (53,333 hectares) this year," said the deputy governor. Wang said that more than half the total land in Shaanxi - 130,000 square kilometres - has suffered from soil erosion. In the past 50 years efforts to achieve water and soil control have been far from effective. Lack of funds and policy support has been blamed.
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