The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced it would provide financial support to help poor farmers in Central China's Henan Province adopt advanced cultivation practices to grow fruits and vegetable.

In a statement released, the regional lender said it will provide US$66.7 million in loans and US$400,000 in grants for a US$135.6-million project that creates value for poor farmers, local agro-enterprises and consumers. The project will cover 215 villages, and about 250,000 farmers in Sanmenxia City of the Henan Province, the report said.

The project will introduce improved crop and farm technologies and cultivation practices on 16,330 hectares in fruit tree crops and high value vegetable production bases. More effective utilization of fertilizers and agrochemicals will be achieved through improved access to soil and water testing facilities, it said.

Farmers there have limited access to markets or the technology required to introduce more economically and environmentally sustainable practices and diversity into more productive, higher- value crops.

Sanmenxia Municipality has witnessed high economic growth in the past years due partially to massive production of fruits and vegetable as well as the expanding fruits trade, but farmers still lack the access to information and technologies that make ways to a more economically and environmentally sustainable growth, the bank said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2008)