The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has urged China to step up efforts to participate in international anti-poverty projects after it phased out food donations to the nation yesterday, the organization said.

A final delivery of 43,450 tons of Canadian wheat worth US$7.2 million arrived in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province yesterday, earmarked for poverty alleviation projects in four poor inland provinces and autonomous regions: Gansu, Guangxi, Ningxia and Shanxi.

Over 60 per cent of the recipients will be women and children. The shipment is part of a multilateral donation from the Canadian Government, allocated by the WFP to China.

"This final cargo is above all a tribute to China's singular success in alleviating hunger at home," said WFP Executive Director James Morris. "China is now one of the world leaders in fighting hunger - this is a truly historic moment."

"The WFP has phased out assistance to more than two dozen countries over the past 10 years, but China's transition is by far the most significant. We need China's help and resources to apply the crucial lessons learned here to other countries still struggling with hunger," said Morris.

"This last shipment represents a turning point in our relationship with China," said the WFP's representative in China, Douglas Broderick. "Having fed 30 million people over a quarter of a century, the WFP now looks to Beijing to share its expertise and commitment."

China has risen to the role of a global aid donor from a receiver after two decades of development, said Broderick in an interview.

To stop food donations to China is "neither an abrupt nor unilateral decision." Instead, it is a consensus the two sides reached in 2000, he said.

The Chinese Government has adopted many effective measures to help millions of people shake off poverty, especially those living in western areas, said Broderick.

In addition to promising more financial contributions, China is now working with the WFP on the terms of an agreement to make its considerable expertise available to strengthen the agency's capacity to respond to sudden food crises.

"China's leaders acknowledge that hunger and poverty are root causes of conflict and instability around the world, and are committed to advancing the development of poor countries," Broderick said.

Since 1979, the WFP has provided China with aid valued at almost US$1 billion, helping millions of vulnerable people in remote central and western regions meet their immediate food needs and create community assets. These include roads, irrigation networks and drinking water systems.

"To some degree, the WFP's decision shows that the nation has to fulfill the task of feeding (its people) by itself, also heralds China's gradual emergence from decades of poverty and hunger," said Li Xiaoyun, a professor with the China Agriculture University.

The major problem poor populations face in China is how to improve their incomes instead of finding enough food to feed themselves, he said.

All-round wealth not yet attained

On the other hand, international organizations should not be misled by the prosperity of some big cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and coastal cities, said Li.

"China's development between its eastern and western regions is unbalanced," Li said. "The incomes and living conditions in much of the country lag far behind those of the wealthy coastal cities."

China attained national food self-sufficiency in the mid-1990s, feeding 20 per cent of the world's population from just 7 per cent of its arable farmland, said the WFP.

By 2000, the average per capita calorie intake of its rural population had reached 2,600 kilocalories, exceeding the internationally recommended minimum, the organization said.

The Chinese Government has been an increasingly strong supporter of the WFP's work in the country.

Since 2001, the Chinese Government has been committing twice the value of resources the agency mobilizes from external donors to feed people in the country's poverty-stricken areas. Last year, China's contributions amounted to more than 290 million yuan (US$35 million), up from 165 million yuan (US$20 million) in 2003, the WFP said.

China has also provided funds to help the WFP feed the hungry elsewhere in Asia, and in Africa. Earlier this year it pledged 8.3 million yuan (US$1 million) to support the provision of emergency food assistance to needy survivors of the tsunami that devastated large areas bordering the Indian Ocean last December.

Globally, the number of hungry people is rising, with some 852 million people undernourished worldwide, the WFP said. Yet the availability of food aid declined from 15 million tons in 1999 to 10 million tons last year.

The United Nations said in a recent report that large middle-income countries such as China, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico and South Africa can afford to eliminate pockets of extreme poverty themselves.

The report said such nations should assist poorer countries with their expertise in climbing out of poverty.

(China Daily 04/08/2005 page5)