IFAD IMPACT ASSESSMENT - Guangxi integrated agricultural development project (GIADP): China

Improving market access of smallholder farmers in the developing world is considered an important approach to moving them out of poverty and increasing their economic mobility. In China, rural poverty has declined at a phenomenal speed within just two decades, and much of this success story is attributable to rapid income growth in rural areas. Thus, having a good understanding of how development efforts in rural China may help alleviate poverty and improving economic mobility is of particular interest for policy, as they are instrumental in informing future project design and scaling-up of success stories to other regions in China as well as to other countries. The Guangxi Integrated Agricultural Development Project (GIADP) is an example of a development effort aimed at increasing rural household income in China through three project components: community infrastructure development, agricultural production and marketing support, and rural environmental improvement. The project was approved by the Executive Board of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in December 2011, entered into effect in January 2012, and ran until March 2017. Interventions delivered covered three main components: community infrastructure improvements, agricultural production and marketing support, and interventions aimed at preserving the rural environment.