The World Food Program (WFP) and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) will continue to provide preferential loans and give free grain worth 710 million yuan (US$85 million) each year to China's impoverished western regions for the next five years, said sources at an ongoing meeting for aiding China.
The money will go to complex agricultural development and small-scale loans.
Li Zhengdong, deputy director of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, told Xinhua the five-year aid China plan approved by the WFP also includes providing free meals for students in western areas.
An estimated population of 4.7 million peasants in western regions will benefit from the aid program. Over 60 percent of those benefiting will be women.
Li said that assistance from the two international organizations is the main financial source for China's agricultural development. The project areas have seen an improved irrigation system, anti-disaster capacity and increased output.
(People's Daily 10/12/2001)
