From January 17 to 20, a training class started in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province. Under the Project of China-Canada Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets (SFAGM), it is coordinated by the Training Center of Yunnan Poverty Reduction Office with focus on the marketing, finance management and risk control of farm produces. The trainees consist of the poverty reduction officials from the remote and minority areas, the representatives from small-scale agri-businesses and the people who are responsible for the farmers' professional cooperatives. There are altogether 40 participants, 40 percent of which are females. In response to a call of China Poverty Reduction Association and Yunnan Poverty Reduction Office, the training session is to improve the farmers' market competitiveness and their competence of decision-making in the remote and poverty-stricken areas. By popularizing the achievements of the Project training in this field, it would enhance the competence of the small farmers and the farming and husbandry producers in business operation and management so as to make them more adaptable to the new market situation after China's accession to the World Trade Organization. The training has achieved satisfying effects.

Mr. Wang Zhaodong, Director of Yunnan Poverty Reduction Office Training Center, presided over the opening ceremony, and Mr. Zheng Qingkuan, the inspector of Yunnan Poverty Reduction Office, delivered an important speech. He elaborated the agricultural characteristics of Yunnan Province and difficulties facing the current poverty relief work while reiterating consistently the importance and the necessity of holding the training in Yunnan. Dr. Kevin Chen, project manager of SFAGM, made an introduction of the background and development of the Project.

The participants have learned a lot in classes with diversified ways of teaching. Professor Huang Zuhui of Center for Rural Development Research of Zhejiang University talked about the experience that Zhejiang has in assisting small farmers in market competition in his speech "Small Farmers and Markets". Professor Jiang Yongning, President of Economy and Trade College of Yunnan Agricultural University, made an analysis on the marketing tendency of small-scale enterprises in Yunnan in his lecture "Public Management and Marketing. The tendency, he confirmed, is to educate agriculture agents and develop farmers' professional cooperatives. Ms. Yang Pengling, the project official, combined participatory approach with cartoons and story-telling to make explanation on operation and management of small-scale enterprises. During the course of heated discussions, many practical problems which hindered the businesses were solved. For the first time did the trainees got the results and comfort from the participatory method. The participatory approach was again used when Mr. Wang Lizhong, World Bank Poverty Relief project official based in Inner Mongolia Poverty Reduction Office Planning and Finance Division, gave a lecture of "Finance Management of Small-Scale Enterprises and Microfinance".

The participants went on a field study in ZiDi Food Co., Ltd., a Kunming-based company. In its nine-year development, the potato processor has put a great premium on quality and has won its products a good reputation in the market. The company has been awarded "Leading Enterprise in Industrialization of Agriculture" in consecutive years by all levels of administrative authority and has been among the first enterprises of China which are honored with "Demonstration Producers of Agriculture Products". After visiting the processing workshop of the company, the trainees were impressed with its stringent food safety control.

The training has been smooth and successful. Both participants and Yunnan Province Poverty Reduction Office hope that more such training sessions could be held by SFAGM in Yunnan. "It has brought us the new approaches of training, the alternative ideas of poverty reduction and the golden key to becoming rich," said Director Wang Zhaodong.