Nearly 100,000 poor and ethnic minority households in the northern province of Tuyen Quang will eventually benefit from a rural areas support project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The six-year project, which started in 2011, aims to encourage households in 64 communes in six districts of Tuyen Quang province to take part in sustainable economic activities to raise their living standards. The project is structured around three main tasks; strengthening local capacity to carry out initiatives in farming and rural areas; promoting pro-poor value chains and introducing more market-oriented policies for communes when planning and carrying out socio-economic development. It will bring several important social-economic benefits, such as empowering communities, especially poor households and ethnic minorities living in upland areas, by improving their material and spiritual lives. According to Ha Van Hoa, Director of the project’s Coordinating Board, in the first year, the project focused on 15 communes with over 13,000 households taking part. It has instructed people in models of bio-gas production; how to plant and maintain forests as well as in the modern techniques used in farming and aquaculture. The project is on target to disburse nearly 146 billion VND this year. (Vietnamplus.vn June 13)
