Major achievements:

From its foundation in 1996, ARDY has developed form null a sound service system with more than CNY4,000,000.00 revolving credit fund and a technical service team popularizing the applied rural technologies, bearing in mind the association tenet to service the poor farmer households and the developmental spirits of self-dependence and industry. The achievements in organizational structure, management and effect of poverty alleviation have attracted many exchanges and cooperation with some noted NGOs, such as Trickle Up, IIE in America, Germany Caritas, Oxfam in Hong Kong, and Philippine rural reform institute.

Ⅰ recommendable innovations in the intramural management mechanism

1.1 Innovation in working method: By contrast with the traditional working method of up-bottom, ARDY's bottom-up and participatory working method has perfectly catered to the farmers' requirements and suited the local actuality, with an outstanding performance. It in fact empowers to poor farmers some rights in the resources assessment, the decision-making and the monitoring & evaluation in production, and activates their maximum initiative to move above the poverty line with the whole respect of farmers' dreams and actualities.

1.2 Innovation in service content:: In Yilong, the poverty comes from not only lack of money, but also lack of confidence and skills to develop family economy. So differing from the government traditional aid way of merely money, ARDY especially focuses on the capacity building for poor farmers through the organizational and technical services besides fund support. To eliminate poverty radically in Yilong, ARDY accordingly regards the activities as the most important one in fund aid, organization building and skill training.

1.3 Innovation in management mechanism:

1.3.1 Flexible personnel system: One high-quality and vigorous working team provides ARDY's activities the successful guarantee. How to build a united, sincere, vigorous and efficient working team is an important task in the organization building. From the beginning of ARDY's foundation, it has practiced the flexible "contract-member" instead of the traditional "life-member" personnel system, and all stuff members must passed the openly competitive recruitment, examination and probation. The transparent and open selection procedures had embodied "open, right and impartial" recruiting principles, and completely avoided nepotism, which had laid a steady personnel foundation for ARDY's healthy development.

1.3.2 Democratization in management: The top administrative organ is the membership congress, which occurs once one year and audits or exams ARDY's finance works and management and discusses or revises the working plan in the coming year or related systems, and its representatives come from the democratic selections at the farmer centers. Board of directors generated at the membership congress compulsorily supervise the daily works of executive director through an assembly every season to exam her or his working reports and ARDY's finance. At the grassroots level, farmer members at same center select the center director jointly and s democratically discus the administrative system and farmers' needs and how to monitor staff's works.

1.3.3 Vitrifaction in expense: From its foundation, ARDY has regarded the self-support in fund as the key for its sustainable development, successively launched a series of salary reforms: from the initial fixed salary to definite base salary plus benefit reward to absolute benefit reward system. Through four-year arduous exploration and development, ARDY has become its sole responsibility for profits or losses and taken the sustainable development orbit. Whole transparent in expense has ensured the best effect from every expense. Membership congress had passed the detailed finance management system, which involving the expense scope and paths and the usage of the Microfinance administrative fee. After transactor, branch head and general secretary have signed on the expense account, it can be submitted to the treasurer's office. Annual expenses must be submitted to pass the examination of next membership congress.

Ⅱ Novel service programs and outstanding achievements

According to its intent of helping poor farmers, to get good results in poverty alleviation, ARDY has set construction of autonomous farmer organizations and improvement of farmers' capacity an important place as the finance support to them, which has received the outstanding achievements in poverty alleviation.

2.1 Build and perfect the autonomous farmer organizations to ensure timely and effective service activities. Sufficient exertion of poor farmers' positivity is the key to them to get rid of poverty, however how to employ that remains to be a exploring task. At this point ARDY's innovative work has provided a successful example with construction of autonomous farmer organizations by the bottom-to-up working way. Based on their autonomous organizations, let the poor realizes that they are depending on their labors and capacity instead receiving "alms" to move above the poverty line; and they are actively dedicating themselves in their planned alleviating poverty activities instead being have to implement the programs advised by others for themselves, in a word, let the poor realizes that they are responsible for and capable of poverty elimination. There are autonomous farmer organizations of five levels from headquarters to grassroots, namely ARDY --- Township sub-associations --- Farmer centers --- Farmer groups --- Farmers. Now ARDY has more than 40 staff members undertaking the administrative and the technical service tasks. In the eight project Townships, till end of 2000, there are more than 7000 farmer households as the formal members to share the multi-service activities such as credit, organizational and technical service ones.

2.2 Various people-centered technical services and capacity building Except the timely credit support, other help ways have been adopted.

2.2.1 Training, consultation, field guide and regular technical service activities have been performed by the following methods: (1) distribution to poor farmers especially women of applied rural technical materials written by the grassroots experienced technicians and regular learning them at center meetings. (2) The contracted technicians make seasonable rural technologies lectures at farmer centers. (3) ARDY regularly organizes and encourages the exchange and the mutual-help activities among farmers, and ARDY's contracted technicians settle the difficulties in production and living. (4) Propagandas and helps on epidemic prevention of poultry and livestock make farmers' smooth development of moneymaking activities.

2.2.2 The technical service has been characterized by various special service methods for poor farmers. (1) Organized some farmers with relative intelligence and experiences to go out to learn and visit the new applied technologies, then their success in applying new technologies setting a influential examples. (2) Farmer Libraries equipped with many books, video tapes or CDs of applied rural technologies have settled pertinently farmers' difficulties in productions and other moneymaking activities. (3) ARDY has attracted kind international NGOs as Trickle Up, Oxfam to provide the grant to those poorest farmers who are hopeful that they will be able to eliminate poverty and unqualified for access to microfinance to help their family economical development, with outstanding results. (4) ARDY has regularly performed a series of propaganda and training activities to farmer women on procreation health and healthcare for children & mother, receiving the warmly welcomes from participatory women.

Ⅲ Normative and recommendable microfinance project providing the developmental credit to farmers

Under the help from UNDP, since 1996 ARDY has practiced firstly small-sum and divided repayment microfinance activity without mortgage and hypothecation, the beneficiaries mainly being the poor farmers in project townships. This trial, integrated and exemplary method of poverty alleviation that the credit developmental funds have been directly lent to poor farmers has exhibited a powerful vitality through four-year's persistent innovation and development by serious organization and normative operation performed by ARDY's staff.

3.1 Larger sum has won more beneficiaries. ARDY is composed of eight township sub-associations with poorly beneficial farmer households of 6933 families from 52 villages or 261 teams and forming 291 farmer activity centers or 1390 farmer credit groups with the accumulative credit funds of RMB12,000,000yuan. Till August of 2000, new lent funds had exceeded RMB3,100,000yuan in 2000.

3.2 High repayment rate and good results of poverty alleviation. Till August of 2000, the repayment funds had exceeded RMB9,500,000yuan, and the mature repayment rate more than 98% has provided a benefic reference for Chinese traditional poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, more than 95% beneficial households had invested the credit funds in their familiar monkey-making programs and good results with statistical net profit equal to investment. Since 1996, under the help from microfinance, more than 2000 farmer households covering 8000 had moved above the poverty line, of whom approximately eighty percent had stepped into the richness circle.

3.3 Extensive influence and typical demonstration. As the pilot of new method of poverty alleviation, ARDY's successful operation and good results have attracted more attentions from domestic or international organizations, and its self-governed organization, normative operation and the striving direction to realize sustainable development have received many recognitions and admirations made by internal and international experts, so it has been honored as the propagable successful example. Because of better results in poverty alleviation, ARDY had been invited four times to share its operational experiences at international microfinace meetings, and introduce that in similar microfinance projects in Beijing, Guizhou Province, Yunnan province and Guangxi province, Xiamen city and other districts. Six operators had been invited to guide the microfinance operations in Guizhou Province, Beijing, northwest of Sichuan Province. Many international organizations such as Ford Foundation, Canada Bank, International Foundation for Rural Development, FAO*1 and others had visited ARDY and given it highly appraisements. During January to June in 1998, under the support from CICETE*2, ARDY had successfully held four training activities of micorfinance at state level, and now more than 140 participators from over 20 county level organizations of poverty alleviation in 12 provinces or cities are contributing their labors and wisdom to respective poverty alleviation career in Qinghai, Hubei, Hunan, Hainan, Fujian, Guizhou Chongqing and state science & technology sector, using for reference ARDY's microfinance operational regulations and finance management system and invigorative personnel mechanism.

*1 FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization, UN

*2 CICETE: China International Center for Economy & Technology Exchange