CRI听力:Experts Provide Tibetan People with Technical Aid

Han Junwen, an Aid-Tibet program agricultural expert from northwest China's Shaanxi province, brought forage seeds to the remote area in 2005.

When he first came to the county, he was shocked by what he saw – large plots of barren land.

Since the county is short of rainfall, Han persuaded villagers of Gar New Village to plant alfalfa, a cold-and-dry-resistant plant.

"The seed of alfalfa is as small as sesame. A single seed is too small to break through the soil, so we decided to sow between 30 and 40 seeds in one pit."

However, in spite of government subsidies, some villagers at first declined to plant alfalfa as they had doubts about the new plant.

A villager named Migmar was finally persuaded and decided to give it try. Within two to three years, he harvested 2,500 kilograms of fresh grass which brought him a big fortune.

"At first, we had no trust in alfalfa. Later, in the following two years, we found that alfalfa is high-valued and popular among livestock."

The successful example pushed other villagers to plant alfalfa, and since 2010 both the planting area of alfalfa and the number of dairy cattle have increased rapidly.

At present, nearly 2,000 hectares of alfalfa is planted and almost 600 heads of milk cows are being raised for sale.

Gongbu, a village head in Gar County, says with the help of Han they have started to lead a stable life.

"We plant alfalfa and raise cattle. By selling the forage and dairy products, the whole village earns over one million yuan each year."

So far, the annual per capita income has reached 20,000 yuan in Gar County, extraordinarily higher than it was ten years ago.

However, Han Junwen says his team plans to further extend the alfalfa planting and ensure each person has two heads of cattle in three years.

"We plan to build a fodder-processing plant to store food for the animals in case of winter natural disasters. It will be a great relief for the local government."

China launched the national Aid-Tibet program in 1995 to improve people's livelihood in the autonomous region.

Over 6,000 experts and officials from the country's other provinces have so far been sent to different parts of Tibet to help develop the local economy.

For CRI, I'm Guo Yan.