亚洲开发银行正在福建省推进一项农业实践，推进合理利用环境。该项目获得贷款总额为8000万美元，主要用于提高贫困人口的收入和使收入来源多样化。
福建水土保持和农村发展二期工程旨在缩小环境较差的农村特别是山地和沿海地区与城市的收入差距。
这个工程将通过推进市场机制，利用农村基础设施和制度保障，把水土保持和脱贫融入农业体系生产、加工和销售的各个环节，从而解决土地持续恶化和制约农村发展的关键问题。它还可以帮助私营机构抓住农业生产和农村基础设施建设的商机。
“农村基础设施和基本服务例如市场、道路、供水和电力的改善，将为该省增加收入和脱贫提供大好机遇。”亚行高级自然资源专家乔德瑞先生（Tahir Qadri）说。
“该工程将促进私营机构参与可持续农业技术，恢复果园和农田的生产力，在贫困的沿海和内陆水系地区发展水产业，扩大农业加工产业，增加农业收入，缩小日益扩大的农村和城市间的差距。”
福建位于中国东南沿海，最近十多年来经济增长迅速。
山地和丘陵占全省面积的80%，这些地区密集的梯田造成了严重的水土流。有限的可耕地面积和收入机会迫使当地农民采用不可持续的方法，在极易受到破坏的丘陵地区耕作。农村和一些贫困的沿海地区缺乏技术、基础设施和诸如信贷、信息、培训和推广等服务保障。
虽然以前的脱贫计划，如亚洲开发银行1995年批准的福建水土保持第一期工程增加了农村的收入，但是与城镇和城市的收入相比，还有很大差距。
工程涉及50个县、198个乡镇和497个自然村的1880万人口，包括三个主要部分：
* 水土保持和综合性农业：工程将采取以水土保持为目标的方法，帮助丘陵地区的1.5万公顷果园和农田恢复生产力，支撑高地斜坡和山顶8000公顷的森林发展，控制水土流失。它还将构建7000公顷有植被覆盖和保护措施的河盆地区，保护果园和农田免受风灾，并提供相关推广和培训服务。发展水产基地养殖鱼类、鲍鱼、牡蛎和海藻。工程将支持发展水果、蔬菜、茶叶、竹笋和其它农副产品的加工厂，发展中型畜牧场。
* 农村基础设施： 工程将在16个乡镇建立或使已经存在的批发和村级市场实现现代化，按照股份公司的形式运营。它还将帮助改善现有的农村基础设施，包括道路、防洪设施、贫困地区的供水系统、修缮或新建21个小型水电站，满足新增35万个家庭的年用电需求。工程还将发展25个乡镇的供水系统，包括蓄水池和管道。
* 项目的服务保障和管理：省农业推广服务部门将为所有参与机构的受益人和员工制定一个综合性的推广、沟通和培训计划。培养女性参与者具备农场管理方面的能力。在乡村，有4万农民和渔民接受培训。项目还将为农业企业和协作性项目管理的设备和设施提供长期融资。
预计此项目可以增加收入，并使贫困农户、妇女和少数民族畲族获得平等的中短期就业机会。估计项目受益者中有6.6万多人属贫困人口，还有11.6万人的收入刚刚过贫困线。
项目的目标是使贫困人口脱贫，使相对贫困人口的收入上一个台阶。约有150万的受益人是妇女，她们通过参与保持性农业、果园恢复和造林可以提高收入。畜牧场、农业市场和农产品加工也可以为妇女和其他达到工作年龄的贫困户成员提供更多的就业机会。
项目总成本为2.8596亿美元，其中亚洲开发银行提供的贷款占28%，其余款项由国家、省及乡镇政府（7600万美元）、企业（6810万美元）、农业经济合作社及受益人（3894万美元）和地方银行（2285万美元）共同承担。
亚洲开发银行的贷款出自其普通资本源，贷款期限为25年，包括6年的宽限期。利息按亚洲开发银行以伦敦同业银行间拆借利率计算。
福建省政府是该项目的执行机构，整个工程将于2010年6月完成。
原文如下：
Conservation and Rural Development Program to Help Boost Incomes and Jobs in Fujian, PRC
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (6 May 2004) - ADB is promoting environmentally sound farming practices in Fujian Province, the People's Republic of China (PRC), through a loan approved for US$80 million that will raise poor people's incomes and diversify income sources.
The Fujian Soil Conservation and Rural Development II Project aims to narrow the income disparity between urban and rural households in fragile environments of the province, particularly mountainous and coastal areas.
The Project will address continued land degradation and key constraints in rural development by promoting market mechanisms that incorporate conservation and poverty reduction into agricultural systems of production, processing, and marketing, with rural infrastructure and institutional support. It will also help the private sector respond to market opportunities in agricultural production and rural infrastructure.
"Improvements in rural infrastructure and basic services, such as markets, roads, water supply, and electricity, will provide better opportunities to raise incomes and reduce poverty in the province," says Tahir Qadri, an ADB Principal Natural Resources Specialist.
"The Project will promote private sector involvement in sustainable farming techniques to rehabilitate orchards and farms, develop aquaculture in poor coastal areas and inland waterways, and expand agroprocessing to help increase rural incomes and narrow the widening rural-urban divide."
Fujian Province, on the southeast coast of the PRC, has experienced rapid economic growth over the last few decades.
Mountains and hills cover more than 80% of the province, where intensive cultivation of hill slopes has caused significant erosion. Limited arable land and income opportunities have forced rural people to cultivate fragile and hilly areas using unsustainable methods. Rural areas as well as some poor coastal communities lack technologies and infrastructure and support services, such as credit, information, training, and extension.
Although previous poverty reduction programs, such as ADB's first Fujian soil conservation project approved in 1995, have improved rural incomes, there is still a big income gap in rural areas compared to towns and cities.
The Project covers a population of 18.8 million in 50 counties, 198 townships, and 497 villages and comprises three main components:
* Soil conservation and integrated agriculture: The Project will help rehabilitate and develop up to 15,000 ha of upland orchards and farms using conservation-oriented practices and will support up to 8,000 ha of forestry development on upper slopes and hilltops to control soil erosion. It will create a forested and protected catchment area of about 7,000 ha to protect orchards and farms from wind and support related extension and training. Aquaculture sites will be developed to culture fish, abalone, oysters, and kelp. The Project will also support development of processing facilities for fruits, vegetables, tea, bamboo shoots, and other farm produce and will help extend medium-sized livestock farms.
* Rural infrastructure: The Project will support the establishment and/or modernization of wholesale markets and village markets in 16 townships to be operated as shareholding corporations. It will also help improve existing rural infrastructure, including roads, flood protection measures, and water supply schemes in poor areas, and repair or develop up to 21 small hydropower schemes to meet annual power requirements of 350,000 additional households. The Project will also help develop about 25 township water supply schemes, including storage tanks and pipes.
* Project support services and management: The Provincial Agricultural Extension Service will develop a comprehensive extension, communication, and training program for beneficiaries and staff of participating agencies. Participation of women will be stressed to enable them to manage farms. In the villages, about 40,000 participating farmers and fisher folk will undergo training. The Project will also provide long-term financing for equipment and facilities to agricultural enterprises and coordinate Project management.
The Project activities are expected to increase incomes and give poor farm households, women, and members of the She minority equal access to jobs in the short and medium term. More than 66,000 of the Project's household beneficiaries are estimated to be poor and another 116,000 have incomes only just above the poverty rate.
The Project aims to move the poor out of the poverty level and raise the vulnerable poor to a higher income rung. Some 1.5 million beneficiaries will be women, who will have access to conservation farming, orchard rehabilitation, and forestation to increase their incomes. Livestock farming, agricultural markets, and agroprocessing are also expected to provide more jobs for women and other poor household members of working age.
The total cost of the Project is $285.96 million, of which ADB's loan accounts for 28%. The balance is to be met by provincial, country, and township governments ($76 million), enterprises ($68.1 million), rural economic cooperatives and beneficiaries ($38.94 million), and local banks ($22.85 million).
ADB's loan comes from its ordinary capital resources and carries a 25-year term, including a grace period of six years. Interest is determined in accordance with ADB's LIBOR-based lending facility.
The Fujian provincial government is the executing agency for the Project, which is due for completion in June 2010.
