Baoshan Mountainous Area Livestock Development Project
Location: Baoshan City, Yunnan
No. of Recipients households: 44
No. of animals given: 82 beef cattle and 166 black goats
No. of pass-on families: 44
Ping Zhang village is the poorest village among 18 administrative villages of Yang Liu Yi and Bai Ethnic township of Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, China. The farmers' annual income is RMB 579, which is about 61.9% of the township average level. Forty percent of farmers do not have enough grain to feed themselves each year. The villagers have low education - about 260 villagers (16.1% of village population) are illiterate.
The crop planting and livestock raising are the main income resource of the village. Due to limited local natural resource and agricultural inputs, the crops have low yield level. Furthermore, the villagers are facing more pressure on grain yield as they returned totally 40 acres slope cropland back to forest in 2002. Thus, livestock rearing is an alternative way for farmers to increase their income and improve their lives.
This project will assist 44 impoverished families to purchase goats or beef cattle depending on farmers willingness and genuine need. The project farmers will receive training on breed improvement, disease control, feed planting, feed formulation and animal barn improvement. Heifer will also help farmers improve their livestock rearing skill. Through passing on the gift, the project will promote community livestock development and improve local farmers' livelihood.