FAO, Tsinghua plan agricultural project to help impoverished county

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and Tsinghua University released designs of their products and service systems for a joint agricultural innovation project on July 5.

The designs are for the Hani Rice Terraces in poverty-stricken county of Honghe in Southwest China's Yunnan province, as part of the project jointly launched by the FAO and Tsinghua's Academy of Arts &Design this spring.

Their plans include an adoption program for the rice fields in the region, setting up a local cultural ecology museum and finding ways to cultivate rice, according to a statement released by the FAO.

Named Ag-LabCx, the project combines the FAO's expertise in agriculture with Tsinghua's academy's design know-how to create a special service design course to explore agricultural innovation.

The event also saw the launch of the Honghe Innovation Plan.

"To realize a world free of hunger and malnutrition is the goal of the FAO," said Vincent Martin, who's the FAO representative in China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, at the launch event.

"We believe that agricultural innovation is the central driving force for achieving this goal."

Luo Chongkai, deputy head of the Honghe county government, said the project will help to solve the major problem of how to increase the land productivity and farmers' income in the county.

"Based on the functions of the internet, e-commerce and new media, the solutions proposed by the Ag-LabCx fit the local resources and the characteristics of the Hani Rice Terraces, and set a benchmark for connecting our local farmers with the market," Luo said.