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1. Project Summary and Relationship to China's Agenda 21

The aim of the project is to draw water from Nenjiang River into Daan Ancient River Bed, construct irrigation and drainage works, develop rice planting in damp area and to control and treat floods so as to turn Daan Ancient River Bed into the largest irrigation area in Northeast China. The project will help people to get rid of poverty and become rich, and at the same time, to realise agricultural sustainable development in the western part of Jilin province. This project is based on programme areas 11A, 11D, 11E and 11F of China's Agenda 21, and is related to programme areas 8A, 14C, 14D, 15A, 16A and 16B. 2. Background Daan Ancient River Bed is part of the Songnen Plain, which in turn is the major body of Northeast plain of China. It is located in the downstream of Nenjiang River and is one of the ancient river beds newly discovered by Changchun Geography Institute of CAS through remote sensing. It starts at Yueliangpao Lake in the north and goes south through Chagan Lake to join valley of modern Nenjiang River. The river bed has the length of 105 kilometres with average width of 5 kilometres. The major part of the Daan Ancient River Bed is in Daan city and pass through Qianan county and Qianguo county. Daan city is a poverty area of the country and Qianan county is a poverty county of the province. The economy here is underdeveloped, the people are poor and almost half of the 320,000 people of the Daan city live in Ancient River Bed with an annual average per capita income of 750 yuan. Because of degraded ecology, increased saline and alkaline land, floods and draught taking place by turn, some of the land has become desolated with alkali, and the saline and alkali has turned part of the good farmland changed into medium- or low-yield land. The project seeks to develop and manage the Daan Ancient River Bed, form the project into a demonstration project for other Ancient River Beds in Songnen Plain. In this project, water of Nenjiang River will be led to irrigate this area and paddy field will substitute for alkaline wetland. This will help solve the problem of floods, water-logging and soil degradation, restore and renew natural grasslands and reed marshes, thus form a symbiotic body integrating agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and side-line occupation, improve the structure of land utilisation and optimise agro-ecological environment. At the same time, it will also help people to root out poverty, promote sustainable agricultural development through economic development. This project plays an important strategic role in national sustainable agricultural development. Northeast plain is an important agricultural and animal husbandry base of the country, and Songnen Plain is the major body of Northeast plain. About 1 million hectares desolated land suitable for farming are located in a number of ancient river beds in Songnen Plain, and these can be developed into more than ten agricultural development zones with 66.7 thousands ha. each. If these areas can be developed comprehensively, they will produce 5 million tons of grain per year and the benefit will be RMB 5 billion yuan. Besides it will give impetus to the transformation of medium- and low-yield land, thus pushing agricultural economy of Songnen Plain to a new stage. The project has been incorporated into the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" of Jilin province and the "Development Plan of 133.3 thousands ha. of Paddy Field in Western Jilin". Chinese Academy of Sciences has decided to take the research and development of ancient river bed as a key project in its Ninth Five-Year Plan. During 1989-91, entrusted by Jilin Provincial Government, Changchun Geography Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences completed with the project "Applying Remote Sensing to Identity Ancient Riverbed in Western Jilin province and the Countermeasures for Agricultural Development". They also compiled the "Preliminary Plan of Comprehensive Development of Daan Ancient River Bed " and "Distribution Maps of Drainage Works in Daan Ancient River Bed (1:25,000)". In 1993, Jilin Provincial Government organised Changchun Geography Institute and Daan Municipal Government to conduct the experiment of "Comprehensive Development of 666.7 ha. of Good Farmland in Daan Ancient River Bed", and now this has achieved preliminary success. In the experimental areas, 400 ha. of paddy field and 100 ha. good dry land have been developed and one fish pond has been brought into existence. Net yield in 1995 was 2.3 million yuan, which shows good prospect for the project. At present, organised by the Jilin Science and Technology Commission and implemented by Daan Municipal Government and Changchun Geography Institute, the project "The Feasibility Study on the Comprehensive Development of Daan Ancient River Bed" is now carried out smoothly, and the field survey of comprehensive development of resources- environment-ecology-society in 66.7 thousands ha. experimental zone and the tentative design of part of water conservation projects have been finished, which laid the good foundation for future far-reaching development. Jilin Provincial Government has taken the project as a core project of the province and will give it great priority in terms of matching capital, human resources, materials and technical force.

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3. Objectives

3.1 Long-term Objective By the year 2000, make the people in Daan area become affluent and provide a comprehensive development and complete development and management experience for about 1 million hectares low-lying saline-alkaline land of the Songnen plan (lying in more than ten ancient river beds).

3.2 Immediate Objectives * By the year 2000, to complete the construction of the comprehensive development demonstration project of Daan Ancient River Bed (abbreviated as Daan Irrigation Area). The total area to be developed is 68,000 ha. with annual grain output of 335 million kilograms and the comprehensive benefit of 350 million yuan, which will help people of Daan city finally get rid off poverty. * To build an alkaline wetland agro-ecological experiment station in Daan Ancient River Bed to serve for the all-round development of the Songnen Plain by providing personnel training and experiences in development and management.

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4. Outputs and Activities

4.1 Formulation of the Integrated Development Plan and Project Plan for Daan Ancient River Bed * To survey in detail on regional resources and environment and maps sketching of the region; * To outline the blueprint of the drainage and irrigation backbone project in Daan area; * To design the irrigation area of Daan; * To design alkaline wetland ecological experiment station of Daan Ancient River Bed. Monitoring Indicators: the Development Plan of Daan Ancient River Bed Implementing Agencies: Jilin Provincial Planning Commission and Daan Municipal Government as well as related project agencies.

Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 1998

4.2 Construction of comprehensive development and control demonstration project and Alkaline wetland ecological experiment station of Daan Ancient River Bed * To build water drainage and irrigation backbone works, including a pumping station, an aqueduct pipe with the length of 4 kilometres, an 80 kilometres irrigation trunk canal, and a 40 kilometres drain canal; * To construct 3 road bridges, 50 sluices and culverts, 30 pavement bridges for farm roads; * To develop 67,000 hectares farmland of which 52,000 hectares paddy field, 15,000 hectares high-output dry land, 17,000 hectares reed land, 15,000 hectares pasture, 2,000 hectares ecological fish pond and 1,000 hectares eco-economic forest; * To construct alkaline wetland ecological experiment station of ancient river-beds. Monitoring Indicators: constructions above-mentioned reach the design standards Implementing Agencies: Jilin Provincial Government, Daan Municipal Government and related project authorities.

Time Schedule: January 1997 - December 2000

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5. Inputs

5.1 Chinese Inputs Chinese inputs will be used for the construction of water conservancy works, land requisition, pre-project preparation as well as contingency.

5.2 International Inputs International inputs will be used for the recruitment of international experts, preliminary study, personnel training as well as procurement of instruments for the experiment station.

5.3 Budget The total capital needed for this project is US$ 51.85 million. The Chinese side will raise US$ 26.25 million while foreign aid will cover the other US$ 25.60 million.

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Table 1. Budget by Item (in million US dollars)

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Table 2. Budget by Output (in million US dollars)

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6. Benefits Upon the completion of the project, it is anticipated that the Northeast of China will have one more large-scale irrigated area, which will annually provide commodity grain 720,000 tons, commodity meat 13,000 tons, commodity fish 350,000 tons for the country and the total commercial income will be 40,000,000 US dollars. The direct beneficiaries are the local government and the local people in the developed area. The experimental results in Daan Ancient River Bed show that if one household plants 0.7 hectares paddy field, the grain income will be 10,000 yuan per year. The household can get rid of poverty within 3 years and reach comfortable income level within 5 years. Besides, the local people can enjoy the good ecological benefits brought about by the development of the Ancient River bed.

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7. Risks The key factors affecting the completion of the project are how to co-ordinate the relationships between central government allocation, local government allocation and self raising funds by each unit and how to harmonise the relationships between water conservation department and local government. In addition, it is important to attract international investment.

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