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)
|