A new house and a tractor-tricycle seemed like an unobtainable
dream to Wang Zhengyi, a farmer in a poverty-ridden northwest China
Loess Plateau village, just two years ago.
But Wang, who lives in Lianxing Village, Dingxi City -- one of
the country's poorest regions -- says the bad old days are
gone.
"I have rebuilt my house and bought a tractor-tricycle for farm
work," he says.
It's a far cry from the days of burning turf for cooking because
he could afford neither timber nor coal. "Now I use methane gas and
the environment is much cleaner."
Wang raises cattle and sheep, and cultivates potatoes for a
living -- going to market on the new road leading from his
doorstep.
The improvements are the result of the central government's
"whole village poverty eradication program" introduced in 2001 to
provide the country's 26.1 million poor with adequate food,
clothing and housing.
The program's general targets include: one source of steady
income per household; at least one laborer per household trained in
a skill other than farming; construction of transport
infrastructure; healthcare and leisure facilities as well as
compulsory education for all school-age children.
Shen Guowei, chief of the poverty eradication office of Linxia
Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province, says the whole village
poverty eradication program has proved to be relatively
effective.
"The will of the farmers is respected in the implementation of
the program, which inspires enthusiasm in shaking off poverty,"
says Shen. "Farmers can find new ways of making a living by
participating in the program."
Wang Xuewen, secretary of the Lianxing Village committee of the
Communist Party of China, says Lianxing was given 1.2 million yuan
(US$147,966) in program funding, including 700,000 yuan from the
central government.
In accordance with the will of the villagers, the money was
spent on the construction of new roads, schoolhouses, a clinic,
exercise and leisure facilities, 150 shelters for cattle and sheep,
procurement of breeding stock, and of seed for pasture grass and
potatoes.
Each household was also offered a subsidy of 1,200 yuan to build
a methane gas pond.
Thanks to improvements, farmers participating in the program
have all witnessed significant increases in income.
At Taiping Village, also in Dingxi City, where the program was
introduced in 2002, per capita net income of farmers exceeded 3,000
yuan last year, compared with 1,088 yuan in 2001.
To date, the program has been implemented in 45,000 villages
across the country, with encouraging results in all of
them.?
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2006)