This project was begun by the Ministry of Agriculture and is mainly aimed at spreading maize mulching skills in cold mountainous areas. It is an important measurement for realizing the strategy of helping most people in poor areas get enough food and clothing through the implementation of science and technology.

The government provides funds, technology, mulch film, fertilizer and improved seeds to spread hybrid maize mulching techniques in suitable areas so as to increase the yield per unit area and to allow local people to get sufficient grain.

The Food and Clothing Project was co-organized in 1989 by the State Council's Leading Group for Economic Development in Poor Areas and by departments of agriculture, planning, commerce, finance, light industry and the agricultural bank. Departments for spreading farm technology at all levels are in charge of its implementation. Impoverished farmers vividly describe this technology as a "food and clothing project," which causes early maturity and output increase. By June 1994 the country had carried out the project in 483 poor counties in 15 provinces including Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shanxi, Gansu, Shaanxi and Ningxia. About 135 million people and 33.47 million households have benefited. Throughout the country, maize mulching had been used on 3,792,666 hectares of land and grain output has increased to 7.85 billion kilograms. Income rose by 2.688 billion yuan, 16 yuan per capita. On average, it helps 11.99 million poor people get enough grain.

During the Eighth Five-Year Plan, the government planned to carry out the project on 2,352,666 hectares of land in poor areas of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Ningxia and other provinces and regions, 16 in total. It applied mulching to 2.96 million hectares, which was 54 percent over the original plan. The project brought a striking output growth and economic result. On average the output of maize mulching land increased more than 11 kilograms per hectare over those not mulched, with an income increase of 5.9 yuan. As a result, one-fifteenth hectare of mulching land could provide one person with enough grain for an entire year. In that period, the cumulative grain growth reached 9.1 billion kilograms and solved the current year's grain shortage problem for 64.6 billion people, realizing the shift from relief aid to helping the poor help themselves.

The project has promoted the spreading of science and technology in poor areas. Scientists and technicians passed on new technologies and new products such as improved seeds, mulch, fertilizer applied according to a set prescription and inter-planting, thus helping them change the traditional problem of low harvests by expanding the sown area and uplifting the level of farming in a scientific way. China's poor areas are mainly grouped in the cold mountain areas in the south and arid or semi-arid areas in the north where farming conditions are harsh and where grain output was low and unstable. Therefore, the introduction of mulch technology and improved seeds has enabled local grain output to increase by large margin and has strengthened the ability to resist natural disasters.

During the Ninth Five Year-Plan period, the project will be implemented in all nationally selected counties and villages and priority aid will be given to counties and villages where grain is less than 300 kilograms per head.