Farmers reap benefit of loans system
Print Edition
VILLAGERS in Chisha in northwest China’s Gansu Province have long made their living through farming, but profits have always been thin. Steep mountainous terrain, frequent droughts and a hostile natural environment limited local farmers from doing other business.
Zhang Zhiqin had been keen to raise livestock, but he lacked the money to buy cows and sheep.
“My neighbors were also poor. I did not know where to borrow money,” said Zhang.
This year, however, he has bought three cows and several lambs thanks to the help of local banks.
In 2006, Chinese authorities started a loans program in poverty-hit villages across the country to help villagers to develop new businesses. Every village was given 100,000 to 150,000 yuan (US$14,500 to US$21,700) and farmers could borrow up to 10,000 yuan each.
However, the program could not meet the demands of needy people due to its low quota and short loan period.
In 2015, Dingxi, the city where Chisha is located, upgraded the loans program and launched a credit plan to increase the lending quota, under which villagers can borrow 50,000 yuan from banks after saving 10,000 yuan as a guarantee.
“We also prolonged the repayment period to meet the long-term financing needs of farmers,” said Xu Binke, deputy head of Dingxi’s Tongwei County.
Zhang borrowed 50,000 yuan last year and bought the cows and lambs as well as the tools needed to expand his cultivation area.
“I will sell six to seven grown sheep and one cow some months from now. The income is much higher than that from selling crops,” he said.
More than 1,800 villages in Dingxi have established special associations to help villagers attain these loans. Each poor village in Dingxi receives 300,000 to 500,000 yuan. By last year, about 530 million yuan had been lent to 867 such associations, helping 12,000 farmers.
The project has also allocated money for critical illness insurance to help cover villagers’ medical costs. “We are no longer worried about the medical costs and can pay more attention to our farm work,” said Zhang.
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