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.

(People's Daily October 29,2001)