URUMQI, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A growing number of farmers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, lured by handsome profits, are leaving their hometowns to work in neighboring Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan.

The Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang signed a contract with a county in Kazakhstan early this month to provide 100 experienced farmers and farm machinery drivers to help their counterparts in Kazakhstan level fields, repair water canals and do field management.

An estimated 7,000 hectares of farmland in this foreign county are expected to be developed in the next three years. The scheme requires 3,000 helping hands from Ili.

A farmer turned flour processing technician named Guo Zongying in Qitai County is going through all the necessary procedures for working in Afghanistan. He will be accompanied by four other villagers, who will dig wells there.

The Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture began to send organized farmers to pass on paddy rice and tomato growing expertise to farmers in Kyrgyzstan last year. As a result, the unit output of paddy rice and other crops has been doubled, winning praise of local farmers. In return, the income of each Xinjiang farmer surpassed 10,000 yuan in six months.

Source: www.chinaview.cn 2004-01-29