Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has called continued efforts to
accelerate infrastructure construction and "grain for green"
projects in carrying out the
west
China development strategy.
Zhu presided over the second plenary session of the West China
Development Office under the
State Council and heard a report on the plan for west China
development next year. The meeting was held in Beijing last
Friday.
The participants agreed that a significant step forward had been
made over the past year in infrastructure construction, ecological
protection and construction, human resources development, science
and technology, education and social development, industrial
structure adjustment and opening to the outside world.
All this shows a good beginning in implementing the strategy.
They also agreed that greater efforts should be made to improve
infrastructure facilities and strengthen ecological building in
west China.
According to the plan, a number of new expressways, power grids,
radio and television networks and ecological recovery projects will
be completed in western rural areas by the end of 2002.
Emphasis will be placed on ensuring the quality the state key
projects under construction, especially the Qinghai-Tibet railway,
the west-east gas pipeline, the west-east China power transmission
project, and state trunk roads and water conservancy projects on
the upper reaches of rivers in the western region.
Figures revealed at the meeting show that by the end of September,
1.02 one million hectares of sloping fields had been returned to
forests, and 908,000 hectares of waste mountains and land had been
reforested, with the survival rate of trees up to the state
standards. State subsidies had reached local farmers who gave up
farming for the afforestation effort.
It
was also stressed at the meeting that efforts must be made to
ensure a rise in the income of farmers during the implementation of
west China development strategy.
The meeting also reviewed the comprehensive plan for west China
development in 2001-2005 and a human resources development plan for
west China in 2001-2010.
Grain-for-Green Project Takes off in West China
The Chinese government has started a 1.9-billion-yuan
grain-for-green project in China's western region and unveiled a
detailed plan of grain aid to the western region.
According to a notice issued by the State Forestry Administration,
the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance
March 29 last year, farmers in the west would receive subsidies in
the form of grain after they turn cultivated land into forest and
pasture.
For every hectare of forest and pasture redeveloped, farmers in the
upper regions of the Yangtze river will receive 2,250 kg of grain
every year, while farmers in the upper and middle reaches of Yellow
river will receive 1,500 kg of grain every year.
The government has put no time limit on grain aid to ensure that
farmers will not cultivate re-developed forests and pasture areas
in the future.
The government will also give 300 yuan to farmers for re-developing
every hectare of forest and pasture every year to help cover
medical and educational expenses.
While the government provides seedlings, farmers are allowed to
retain all profits from planting trees and grass on cultivated
land. In return, they will be responsible for taking care of
forests and pastures.
The level of grain aid will depend on the area of forest and
pasture that each farming household redevelops and on the output of
grain in different specific regions.
The grain-for-green project will be carried out in vast areas
including 174 counties in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi,
Gansu, Qinghai Shanxi and Henan provinces, Chongqing, Ningxia Hui
Autonomous region, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region.
The project will turn more than 340,000 hectares of cultivated land
back to forest and more than 430,000 hectares of bare mountains and
lands in western China.
The grain-for-green project is aimed to help restore ecological
balance in China's western regions. Local analysts say that this
project marks a fundamentally change in the style of economic
growth in China and will have a profound influence on the
sustainable development of the economy.
Western region has suffered severe soil erosion because of
excessive logging and cultivation over the past decades.
Deforestation and desertification were major causes of severe
flooding in China in 1998.
However, local governments in the backward western areas cannot
afford to subsidize farmer’s livelihood after turning grain fields
back into the forest. The central government therefore came in and
launched its grain-for-green project.
The central government will pay 1.40 yuan for every kg of grain
that local governments give to farmers for reforestation. Local
economists say that the project is totally feasible because China
has huge stockpiles of grain after several consecutive bumper
harvests. Since 1996, annual grain output has exceeded 500 million
tons.
Economists say that the grain-for-green project not only will
reduce stockpiles of grain in the short term, but also help
increase grain output in the long term by improving the
environment. It will also help optimize the agricultural industry
and increase farmers’ income in the western region. The forestation
project will eventually eliminate the threat of flooding in China'
s longest rivers.
( October 29,2001)