Innovative Poverty Reduction Programme: Specialised Agribusiness Development in Sichuan and Ningxia

Though China has experienced significant economic growth, at the end of 2016, 43 million people still lived below the poverty line in rural areas, largely in remote and mountainous areas of the central and western regions.  Smallholder farmers typically cultivate traditional crops. Remoteness, poor community infrastructure and limited access to productive assets, markets, and financial resources are the main challenges in improving farmers’ incomes and opportunities.

This new programme will support poor smallholder farmers to increase their incomes by helping them to access finance and new markets, develop agribusinesses and participate in value chains. The overarching aim of the programme is to reduce rural poverty by strengthening local economies, and providing incentives to cooperatives and agro-enterprises to integrate poor smallholders in their supply chain.

The programme will directly benefit 198,847 people in Cangxi, Xuanhan, Guang’an, Xuzhou and Yilong counties in the Qinba Mountains in Sichuan Province and Pengyang, Yuanzhou, Sunjiatan, Hongsipu and Xingqing counties in the Liupanshui Mountains in Ningxia Province.

Innovative elements in the programme include linking smallholder farmers to e-commerce and supermarkets and promoting innovative benefit-sharing mechanisms between agro-enterprises and poor farmers. By working in two different provinces, the programme will test the viability of the innovative methods in varied contexts and assess the potential for replicating them at a larger scale.