On November 5, 2007 more than 3,000 poverty-stricken people have moved to Hongsibao irrigated land, in Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, from southern mountainous areas of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The movement marks the successful ending of the Hongsibao Development Zone Poverty Reduction Yanghuang Project, which took nine years, cost more than 2 billion yuan, developed more than 400 thousand mu of land and moved more than 195 thousand poverty-stricken people from arid areas

Before relocating to the irrigated land, farmers in southern mountainous areas of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region were affected by the harsh climate. Over a long period of time, in order to increase income, their over-exploitation of the region worsened the environmental conditions.

Zhufang, director of the Yanghuang Office of Hongsibao Development Zone, said that the Hongsibao Development Zone Poverty Reduction Yanghuang Project has greatly benefited farmers; greenhouses have been built; roads, electricity supplies, water supplies, telecom communications, local ecology, local agricultural development and social service systems have been implemented to lead farmers toward producing high efficiency ratios in agriculture.

For nine years, the living conditions of the Hongsibao migration have vastly improved by developing modern agricultural practices and characteristic agriculture. In fact, the farmers’ per capital annual net income increased from 500 yuan to 2000 yuan.

Today, this ecological migration has made an enormous positive impact. The ecology of the local environment has greatly improved after many farmers moved out of the mountainous and arid areas. Four million trees have been planted inside the original Gobi desert, the forest cover rate has reached 40 percent, and annual rainfall has grown from 270mm to 300mm.

(China Development Gateway by Wang Sining, November 21, 2007)