beijing india has finally step into actual funding of a poverty alleviation project in china an area that usually attracts funds from western countries keen on understanding the grassroots situation in this giant country and establishing contacts with chinese leaders in the provinces it is a farmers training and information centre established in the relatively backward province of ningxiathe firstever india funded project which is really a diplomatic initiative to connect with a provincial government was inaugurated by nirupama rao indian ambassador in china and wang zhengwei chairman of the ningxia hui autonomous region in liangtian township on saturday the nhar is jointly funding the project with the indian governmentanother initiative involved funding an indian style buddhist temple close to the historic while horse temple in luoyang in henan province but this is the first opportunity for both chinese and indian officials to share experiences on poverty eradicationrao said as much at the opening ceremony when she highlighted the similarity of developmental imperatives in india and china she called for greater understanding and awareness about each other at the frontline of developmental activitiesthe opening ceremony was attended li rui vice chairman of the nhar peoples government and its secretarygeneral zuo jun besides representatives from the municipal government of the provincial capital of yinchuan and hundreds of local people an press release from the indian embassy saidthe centre will provide farmer with access to information about latest farming techniques cropping and marketing trends besides impacting training on technical and managerial techniques farmers have been made available 15 computer terminals for this purpose india will also provide support from agriculture scientists and experts at the centrethe centre will be used by members of the liangtian vegetable growers association and other local residents the association is a communitybased initiative involved in relocating people trapped in geographically hostile areas to them to more hospitable climes in the north besides facilitating their access to improved varieties of seeds technology and creditthe association has nearly 100 households as core members benefiting another over 900 households it has helped more than double the farmers average income since 2003 when the project was launched the press release said