Lennart Bage, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said in Beijing on Thursday that the IFAD will offer its small-loan programs to more poor rural people in China's remote and mountainous areas.

 

The IFAD, a special financial agency under the United Nations, is launching a microfinancing strategy to reduce poverty in rural China. It plans to target some poor villages in the remote mountainous areas in the central and southern regions of northwest China's Gansu Province.

 

"People there face harsh living conditions, regular droughts and a severe lack of water for irrigation and domestic use. They have inadequate health care and education. The arable land is low-yielding and they do not have the funds or education to use improved technology," Bage said.

 

At a total cost of US$80.6 million, the Gansu program will be undertaken by the IFAD and the World Food Program, in which loans from the IFAD will total US$29.3 million, directly benefiting 300,000 households.

 

Bage hopes the program may increase food production and income, and improve rural people's access to education and health.

 

"China's new strategy on rural development will make the IFAD a stronger partner of the Chinese government," Bage told Xinhua.

 

Since 1981, when the IFAD became one of the first international donors to operate in China, it has provided loans of US$473.08 million for 19 rural development projects in China.

 

The 19 projects, at a cost of US$1.26 million, have benefited about 15 million poor people in 19 provinces.

 

Project activities have included land improvement, irrigation and water conservation, as well as food, cash-crop, livestock and fish production. Most activities are funded through IFAD-supported microfinance services, which allow poor rural households to obtain access to small loans or savings schemes, said Bage.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2006)