Baseline Information
Gucheng Village, Shuangwan Township of Jinchang city, is located in the middle of Hexi Corridor, a typical arid and semi-arid area. Jinchang is one of the 108 key water shortage cities in China. Shuangwan Township is a typical area of oasis agriculture with large scope of bare land, desert and saline and alkaline land, where soil fertility is rather poor. There is no surface runoff at Gucheng village, so the water for agricultural and domestic use mainly comes from underground water. There are totally 643 households at the village with a per capita annual income of 8569 Yuan. The village is one of the 13 demonstration bases of modern eco-agriculture of Ministry of Agriculture, which promotes the village?s initial development in eco-agriculture.

Main Problems
(1) A serious shortage of local water resources. With mean annual precipitation of 100mm and annual evaporation of 2400mm, surface water used per capita is far lower than the national and provincial average. The water use efficiency is low under current cultivation pattern.
(2) The local long-term large-scale contiguous planting of single crops results in serious soil pathogen accumulation and causes soil degradation.
(3) The general aging of farmers in the project area and the lack of young workforce lead to an urgent need to promote modern large-scale operation.

Proposed Activities
(1) Carrying out baseline information survey and supplementation; conducting an appropriate research on interplanting technique, which will focus on corns interplanted with watermelon, grapes interplanted with hot pepper and watermelon interplanted with sunflower;
(2) Carrying out technical training to improve the level of cultivation techniques of local farmers and agricultural workers;
(3) Assisting in the establishment of professional farmers? cultivation cooperatives, to set up a shared platform between farmers and technicians.

Anticipated Results
(1) Light and heat resources, space resources, water resources are fully utilized. Water-saving rate is expected to reach more than 41.6% per Mu.
(2) The utilization efficiency of nutrients is to be raised. Fertilizer and pesticide inputs and external inputs costs will be reduced. Fertilizer-saving rate is expected to reach 17% or more per Mu and the pesticide-saving rate is expected to reach more than 9%. Greenhouse gas emission per Mu will be decreased by 10-15%.
(3) Conducting demonstrations on technologies of watermelon interplanted with corns for over 1000 Mu, hot pepper interplanted with grapes for over 600 Mu and watermelon interplanted sunflower for over 700 Mu, so as to expand vegetation coverage and soil root distribution, reduce the soil erosion and protect farmland biodiversity.
(4) Local farmers? awareness of soil and agricultural biodiversity protection will be raised.
(5) More than 50 skilled new farmers will be trained to improve labor efficiency, which will not only increase farmers? income but also enhance farmers? adaptability to the climate change
(6) A professional planting farmer cooperative, consisting of at least 50 households, is to be established where women's participation rate will reach 30%.
(7) ?Northwestern Oasis Agriculture Cultivation Techniques Guidelines? will be drafted, spreading the applied technologies in the northwestern region.
(8) Real-time tracking and monitoring of the project will be conducted for a final project summary report.