Ying & Quan River Watershed Self-help Program
Location: Yingquan District, Fuyang Prefecture, Anhui
No. of Recipients households: 280 No. of pass-on families: 280 Target villages located at the drainage basin of Ying River or Quan River have suffered from water logging for years. As flood and drought occur alternately, simplex crop cultivating on less than 0.165 acres per capita average arable land is not suitable to helping farmers out of poverty. The two rivers are severely polluted from the upriver industry, and cannot be used for irrigation. Local people take the superficial ground water for drinking and irrigation. Improper fertilizing and usage of pesticides brings pressure to the groundwater resource.
Project villages are located at the boundary zones of the two counties. Undeveloped transportation, lack of information, infrequent input of public resources, and a traditional method of cultivation and husbandry leads to low social productivity.
This project will provide recipients with high quality animals, support them with practical skills and technical services, and provide them with market information, therefore improving their physical living conditions. Utilities and materials for the animal health service will be provided in the project, along with training for the village animal health workers. In order to promote agricultural technical popularization, high-quality grass seed, specific vegetable seed, straw catabolism preparation, etc. will also be provided.
In additional, awareness training on “fertilization after the soil analysis”, “properly and timely fertilization” and “drinking water security”, which are closely related to groundwater resource protection, will be conducted to farmers. Gender and HIV/AIDS awareness training will also be conducted along with the economic development of the communities to achieve social harmony.
