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Small Loans Help Chinese Farmers Escape Poverty
Kong Keming, a poor farmer in Yongjing County in northwest China's Gansu Province, is now leading a better life thanks to a loan provided by the local agricultural bank.
Kong used to lead a very hard life. Last year, he built eight warehouses to grow vegetables in with a loan from the county's agricultural bank and earned a good income at the end of the year.
Like Kong, more than 150,000 families in poor areas across the province also were able to break the chains of poverty through planting vegetables, growing herbs, farming, raising livestock and opening businesses with financial assistance from the local agricultural banks.
The system of small loans was introduced to China in the mid-1990s. In Gansu, the agricultural banks started to give loans to poor farmers in 1998. So far, more than 397 million yuan (US$47.83 million) in loans have been awarded.
According to local officials, most of the poor families, which have been given small loans, were able to use the money to successfully increase the amount of money they make and live a better life.
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