With much of 90,000 hectares of farmland alkalised, Cangxian's soil was considered inhospitable to most plants that would have given the county's people a good income. But then came the March 8 Green Project, a part of a nationwide environmental campaign launched by the All-China Women's Federation in 1990. Largely because of it, Cangxian today not only has orchards of jujube, it also makes sure that when new programmes for the county's economic development are up for discussion, representatives of the local women's federation are present. After all, Cangxian's women farmers were the ones who took the lead in planting land to jujube, a variety of date fruit that just happened to grow well on the county's plant-picky soil. These days, the women have even begun inter-cropping jujube trees with corn, wheat and other plants, making the land more productive.
Environmental conditions have also improved, say the women.
Before, says Cao Guangying, ''the soil was too bad even for alkali-resistant sorghum and weeds. As the land turns green, there are less sandstorms and more birds''. Similar changes have been taking place all over China because of women-spearheaded green projects. In Shangluo prefecture in the northwest province of Shaanxi, for example, the local women's federations have organised women to cover 160,000 hectares with chestnut, tung and orange trees. The women at Bapan village there have also increased local forest cover to 80 percent.