Program Timeline

Abstract

This chapter discusses program timeline, looking at the ways in which the program was expanded nationwide in 2000 after being tested in three provinces-Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu-in 1999. In particular, the Grain for Green was slowed down after 2003 because of fear (later found to be unfounded) over the impact that the Grain for Green had had on food supply, and because more land had been converted over the previous 2-3 years than originally planned: often local civil servants converted more land than that allocated by the central government for a particular area, because of the very generous funds they would receive for their impoverished farmers. The chapter also gives some examples of the expansion of the program in particular counties and cities.