About 600,000 poverty-stricken farmers in Shaanxi, an inland province in Northwest China, are to be supplied with adequate food and clothing by the end of this year, thanks to a well implemented province-level project.

The project, made possible with 539 million yuan (US$66.5 million) of provincial government anti-poverty money, aims to raise these people's living standards, said Yang Shixing, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Poverty Alleviation Office.

The anti-poverty fund is used for the construction of facilities and public works in 1,200 so-called key anti-poverty villages to make local farmers better equipped in their fight against poverty. It also makes provision for the relocation of 100,000 poor farmers to better areas and for the technical training of 50,000, the deputy director told China Daily.

Yang said Shaanxi injected between 250,000 yuan (US$30,826) and 300,000 yuan (US$36,991) into each of the 1,200 key poverty alleviation villages, helping construct power and water supply systems, telecommunications, irrigation facilities and schools. The total investment for this amounted to 333 million yuan (US$41 million).

Gu Pingwa, a farmer in a small village deep in the Qinling Mountains, is very happy to talk over the phone with his son who is a university student in Shanghai. His village is one of the 1,200 villages enjoying the project's benefits.

"My son has been away for two years and did not come back for Spring Festivals so he could save money. Letters were our only form of contact, now we can speak directly by phone," Gu said, smiling.

"Telecommunications and TV programs help us access information on agricultural technology and production, which in turn aids us to increase yields," said Gu Jianjun, head of the village.

The anti-poverty project also used 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million) to move poor farmers from their homes to more suitable places. By the end of this year, the project will have relocated around 50,000, Yang said.

Shaanxi's development lags behind its coastal counterparts, it also has more people living below the poverty line. In 1993, 69 out of its 109 total counties were State-level poverty-stricken counties with a population of 5 million, one-sixth of the total population of the province.

In the past decade, the provincial government has made great efforts to help poor farmers. More than 4 billion yuan (US$493.2 million) of the anti-poverty fund has been used and some 3.8 million people have escaped poverty, said Lei Shenghui, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Anti-poverty Office.

(China Daily September 7, 2005)