The aim of the programme is to support innovative and diversified development modules in eight poverty-stricken counties in Xinyang Prefecture, in Hunan Province in east-central China. The objective is to increase incomes and reduce poverty in poor farm households, including very poor and vulnerable low-income families, in a sustainable and gender-equitable way.

A majority of the households have little access to technology, know-how and credit, which would help them specialize and diversify into the production of higher-value crops. Because poverty levels are uneven across the area and there is considerable out-migration, the programme gives particular attention to a finely tuned targeting approach. Villagers themselves will decide on and implement village-level activities. The highly decentralized participatory approach includes the participation of poor households and particularly of women, and the establishment of a village implementation group in each programme village.

The programme will work to strengthen agricultural support services so that poor people have better access to the knowledge they need to improve their capacity to adopt improved technology. In response to recent government regulations concerning cooperatives, the programme will support the development of private farmers’ cooperatives and ensure that their membership includes poor producers, in order to improve their access to inputs and markets.
The programme focuses on three main areas:

• agricultural development and market access, linking poor women and men with sustainable production technologies, know-how, investment support, information and markets. In this area it supports the production of cash crops, including trees and medicinal plants, and activities such as pig- and poultry-raising and fish pond farming
• strategic support to very poor people, improving their access to community infrastructure and services and increasing their integration into agricultural production and markets. A village development fund will support this activity, which provides training to very vulnerable women in basic and specialized skills to enable them to engage in on-farm activities and off-farm employment
• programme management and village participatory planning, providing support for programme management offices at various local levels and for village implementation groups

The programme’s innovative features include a modular approach that provides flexibility, a pilot system for technology transfer, support for integrating poor people into the country’s emerging farmers’ associations and cooperatives, and a stronger decentralized development approach through self-managed village development funds.

Source: IFAD