(Originally published on 09/13/2011)

In order to gain greater insight into how the work of the UNDP in China impacts upon poverty alleviation and agricultural development, UNDP Associate Administrator, Ms. Rebeca Grynspan visited a Chinese Agricultural Technical Task Force (TTF) project site in Ji County, Tianjin Municipality, on 13 September 2011. As part of her official visit to China, she met with Mme. Cao Xiaohong, Vice Chairperson of the Tianjin Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Mr. Jia Jingdun, Director-General of the Ministry of Science and Technology in Tianjin. She was accompanied by a UNDP delegation that included UNDP Deputy Chief for North East Asia and Mekong, Mr. Kyo Naka; Ms. Renata Dessallien, UNDP Resident Representative in China, and Mr. Christophe Bahuet, UNDP Country Director in China.

While at the project site, which focuses on helping farmers increase their technical capacities for year-round vegetable cultivation, Ms. Grynspan spoke with Mr. Guo Chengjin, Professor at Tianjin Normal University and TTF Practitioner, who has passed on his knowledge on to farmers for the past 5 years through formal classroom training, project site guidance, and a 24-hour hotline set up to provide farmers with greater access to technical knowledge and support. As an extension of public services that encourages highly-skilled personnel and professions with technical and entrepreneurial expertise to offer their consultancy to local farmers, she then had the opportunity to discuss progress and challenges facing the TTF with some of the projects beneficiaries.

Since the first few TTF project sites were launched in 2006, the TTF has expanded to include 31 provinces. To date, a total of 150,000 TTF personnel have been dispatched to work on project sites at the national level. And, since 2008 to 2009, 500,000 farmers have benefitted from the project annually, with an average income rise of 10 percent. With the extra income generation results of TTF project, many farmers are moving back to Ji County. ‘I can make 7 to 8 times more to plant mushroom with TTF support than working as a migrant worker,’ local farmer, Ms. Zhan Huiqin, told Ms. Grynspan.