WFP-funded Program Brings Benefits to Chinese FarmersTao Xiangmei, a farmer living in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is earning much more money since she participated in a program funded by World Food Program (WFP), which aims to help eliminate poverty and improve the environment in rural areas.In the past, Tao earned less than 1,000 yuan annually by farming on sterile land. Now, she can earn at least 5,000 yuan annually by raising chickens. Tao is only one of the 23,000 women who have shaken off poverty with loans provided by the WFP. With the help of the WFP program, another 25,000 women have become literate. The WFP-China 4071 program consists of 13 sub-programs including water conservancy, irrigation, conservation of soil and water, construction of infrastructure facilities in rural areas, involvement of rural women and the development of rural areas. The WFP has offered more than 84,000 tons of free grain since the program was launched in the Guyuan, Pengyang and Longde counties in 1994. China provided a supporting fund of more than 80 million yuan (9.63 million U.S. dollars) for the project, which has brought benefits to more than 200,000 people. The Guyuan, Pengyang and Longde counties are located in the poverty-stricken Xihaigu area. Ningxia has extended great efforts to comprehensively harness the local environment in carrying out the program. As a result, the forest coverage rate in the project-funded area has risen from the former 6.8 percent to the current 15.3 percent. The region has also treated 53 key river valleys and effectively brought the soil erosion under control. The WFP program has produced more encouraging results like more than 20 running water projects, over 10,000 hectares of terraced farmland and more than 3,300 hectares of irrigated land was built in the project-funded area. The per capita grain output has also risen to 358 kilograms, 84 percent more than the figure before the implementation of the program and the per capita income has exceeded 1,000 yuan, seven times the figure before the implementation of the program. WFP officials spoke highly of the implementation of the project in China and the great effort the Chinese government has made in this regard. The program recently passed the appraisal of WFP experts. |
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