Gansu projects

	Poverty Alleviation Projects in Gansu

Shandan is situated in the Hexi Corridor, Gansu. NZCFS has a long standing friendship with the Shandan Bailie School through the work of Rewi Alley and with the Gung Ho co-operatives of Shandan.

The population of Shandan is 200,800 of whom 68% are farmers. The level of agricultural production is low with factors such as the harsh climate, poor soil, low education levels of the farmers, small scale of farms and lack of farmer capital all contributing. In recent years, to increase family income, about 65% of men migrate to the cities or to the large construction projects in Gansu for work, leading to social problems for women and children staying at home.

Current project 2007-08
After the successful project in 2005-06 to introduce co-operatives to eight villages a further twelve cooperatives will be formed in Shandan to harness the enthusiasm and demand from villages to participate. Four of these will be based on non-production activities which may include forming a rural credit cooperative for management of cash flow within the membership, a consumer cooperative in which members benefit from the bulk purchase of goods and services, including materials required for a variety of livelihood activities, or a machinery cooperative in which members engaged in different livelihood activities have access to machinery, e.g. small tractors, rather than individual ownership.

The Shandan Cooperative Federation supports the existing cooperatives in Shandan and part of this project is to provide advanced training for the three men and two women staff in cooperative establishment.

These projects are centred in Shandan, where NZCFS has a long history of involvement and encourage the practice of the legacy of Rewi Alley, who had a focus on rural development through practical education and forming cooperatives. This is increasingly relevant to current Chinese government policy to develop poor rural communities, with recognition of cooperatives as a useful tool in developing local economies.

Previous project 2005-06
The International Committee for Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (ICCIC), Shandan Cooperative Federation (SCF), Shandan Bailie School, Shandan Women's Federation and the New Zealand China Friendship Society worked together to develop rural cooperatives. The benefits of establishing a cooperative was introduced to a large group of villages and from this eight producer cooperatives were established. One cooperative began to market these watermelons which are particularly sweet as they are non-irrigated. Since forming the cooperative the farmers grade them into three different qualities and so receive better prices from the market.