BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) -- China and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Friday jointly launched a project to boost agricultural industry development in the country's poverty-stricken rural areas.

The "Development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Villages" project, launched jointly by the FAO, the China Agriculture Science and Education Foundation and GF Securities Co., Ltd., will run between 2019 and 2021 in 16 impoverished villages, according to the launching ceremony.

People in the pilot villages will undergo training about organic farming techniques, learn how to sell their farm produce on e-commerce platforms and improve their packaging, among other topics.

The project, with a total investment of 1 million U.S. dollars, is expected to directly benefit more than 1,000 farmers.

It aims to promote the implementation of China's rural revitalization strategy and the realization of the SDGs, and provide poverty alleviation experience that can be shared with other developing countries.

"This is a great example of a multi-stakeholder effort for fighting against poverty and promote rural revitalization," said Vincent Martin, FAO Representative in China and DPRK, who added that the project was the result of the innovation program established by FAO China since 2016 to explore new ways of addressing development issues.

Liu Wenwu, a county official from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in south China's Sichuan Province, hoped the project would introduce modern agricultural technologies to his county and help the farmers apply them.

"The project can also help fill up the gap in transportation and communication, which is in line with our county's development demand," Liu said.