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BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has granted a 100 million-U.S. dollar loan to support farmer cooperatives and help reduce rural poverty in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.
The loan will help local cooperatives with major purchases and allow them to build partnerships with established businesses to give smallholders access to modern markets, according to a press release from the World Bank on Friday.
Cooperatives provide farmers with technical training, manage the collective purchase of seeds and fertilizers and help to sell products, but many cooperatives lack management vision and funds, said Yan Guangming, World Bank senior urban specialist and co-task leader for the project.
The government also provided 50 million U.S. dollars to the project, according to the World Bank.
It said the project will be carried out in 11 poor counties in Shaanxi from 2017 to 2022 and cover about 48,600 poor people.
