Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project with World Bank Loan (The Third Batch of Subprojects) Social Assessment Report March 14, 2021 1 Presiding unit of the project: College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Project director: Chen Chengwen, Professor of College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Presider of the project: Chen Chengwen, Professor of College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Compilation staff: Chen Chengwen, Professor of Sociology, College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Chen Yunfan, Deputy Professor of Sociology, College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Guo Qing, Deputy Professor of Sociology, College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University Chen Haiping, Deputy Professor of Sociology, College of Public Administration, Hunan Normal University 2 CONTENTS Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Brief introduction to the project ...................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Project background ................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Project overview ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project social assessment .................................................................................................. 3 1.2.1 Purpose and contents of social assessment ............................................................... 3 1.2.2 Main methods for social assessment ........................................................................ 4 1.2.2 Scheduling of social assessment ............................................................................... 8 2.Basic Social-Economic Analysisof Project Counties ............................................................. 8 2.1 Social-economic analysisof Hunan Province ................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Socioeconomic status ............................................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Heavy metal pollution status .................................................................................. 10 2.2 Social-economic analysisof project counties ................................................................. 13 2.2.1 Social-economic analysis of Anhua County ........................................................... 13 2.2.2 Social-economic analysis of Cili County ............................................................... 15 2.2.3 Social-economic analysis of Yongshun County ..................................................... 18 2.2.4 Social-economic analysis of Huayuan County ....................................................... 20 2.2.5 Social-economic analysis of Jishou City ................................................................ 21 2.2.6 Social-economic analysis of Qiyang County.......................................................... 23 2.2.7 Social-economic analysis of Linwu County ........................................................... 24 2.2.8 Social-economic analysis of Lengshuitan District ................................................. 26 2.2.9 Social-economic analysis of Hengnan County ....................................................... 28 2.2.10 Social-economic analysis in Hengyang County ................................................... 30 2.2.11 Social-economic analysis of Yongding District ................................................... 31 3. Analysis of the main stakeholders and requirements of the project .................................... 34 3.1 The definition of stakeholders of the project ................................................................ 34 3.2 Analysis of stakeholdersproject awareness ................................................................. 35 3 3.2.1 Awareness and project awareness situations of stakeholders .............................. 35 3.2.2 Analysis of stakeholders’ participation willingness ............................................... 38 3.3 Analysis of the needs of stakeholders............................................................................. 40 4. Analysis of Low-Income people ......................................................................................... 45 4.1 Analysis of low-income people in demonstration areas................................................ 45 4.1.1 General status of low-income people in demonstration areas ................................ 45 4.1.2 Living model of low-income people ...................................................................... 46 4.1.3 Analysis of causes for poverty of low-income people............................................ 48 4.2 Analysis of project awareness and needs of low-income people ............................... 49 4.2.1 Analysis of project awareness .............................................................................. 49 4.2.2 Analysis of needs .................................................................................................... 51 5. Analysis of Social Gender ................................................................................................... 54 5.1 Analysis of women’s development status in demonstration area ................................ 54 5.2 Analysis of participation methods of agricultural activities in women ...................... 54 5.3 Analysis of project project awareness and need of women group............................ 56 5.3.1 Analysis of project awareness .............................................................................. 56 5.3.2 Analysis of needs .................................................................................................... 57 5.4 Social gender action plan in various construction phases ........................................... 58 5.4.1 Promotion of women’s participation in the project ................................................ 58 5.4.2 Improving women’s project awareness of rural cooperative and project ............ 58 6. Analysis of Ethnic Minority ................................................................................................ 60 6.1 Overview .......................................................................................................................... 60 6.1.1 Status of ethnic minority population in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture.............. 60 6.1.2 Status of ethnic minority population in Zhangjiajie ............................................... 60 6.2 Customs and culture of ethnic minority dominated in the demonstration area ........ 61 6.3 Identification of ethnic minority in demonstration areas ............................................ 70 6.3.1 Identification basis.................................................................................................. 70 6.3.2 Identification methods ............................................................................................ 70 6.3.3 Screening of ethnic minority .................................................................................. 70 6.4 Implementation plans of the project villages of ethnic minorities .............................. 71 4 7. Social Impact and Risk Analysis ......................................................................................... 73 7.1 Analysis of social impact ................................................................................................. 73 7.1.1 Positive impact ....................................................................................................... 73 7.1.2 Negative Impacts .................................................................................................... 77 7.2 Analysis of social risks .................................................................................................... 77 7.2.1 Involuntary resettlement ......................................................................................... 77 7.2.2 Livelihood Risk of Farmer Households.................................................................. 78 7.2.3 Risk of Public Opinion ........................................................................................... 80 7.2.4 Vulnerability risks of disadvantaged groups such as minorities and low-income groups .............................................................................................................................. 81 7.2.5 Risk of land transfer ............................................................................................... 82 8. Public Participation and Information Disclosure................................................................. 83 8.1 Principle of public participation and information disclosure ..................................... 83 8.2 Participation of stakeholders in the project preparation stage ................................... 85 8.2.1 Basic participation methods.................................................................................... 85 8.2.2 Participation contents and activities of information disclosure .............................. 86 8.3 Public participation in project execution stage ............................................................ 87 8.4 Information Disclosure ................................................................................................... 89 9. Conclusions and Suggestions .............................................................................................. 92 9.1 Basic conclusions ............................................................................................................. 92 9.2 Suggestions..................................................................................................................... 102 10. Social Action Plan of the Project..................................................................................... 105 10.1 Logical Framework ..................................................................................................... 105 10.2 Consultation Framework............................................................................................ 107 10.2.1 Organization Structure........................................................................................ 107 10.2.2 Rules and Regulations & Rules of Procedure .................................................... 109 10.2.3 Actual Operation ................................................................................................ 110 10.2.4 Supervision and Administration ......................................................................... 111 10.3Specific actions for social development ...................................................................... 112 10.4 Complaints Mechanism .............................................................................................. 113 5 10.5 Prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic ....................................................... 115 Appendix 1: Social Assessment Questionnaire of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project with World Bank Loan ......................................... 117 Appendix 2: Questionnaires of ethnic minorities ............................................................. 124 Appendix 3: (Village) Cadre Interview (Symposium) Outline of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project ...................................................... 127 Appendix 4: (Village) Cadre Interview (Symposium) Outline of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project ...................................................... 129 6 Executive Summary Project Overview The main contents of “Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project with World Bank LoanHunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project with World Bank Loan (The Third Batch of Subprojects)� cover four aspects: agricultural polluted soil management, sustainable soil management practice, environmental management and agricultural environment monitoring, and project monitoring, evaluation and management. The Project includes 14 counties: Hengyang County, Yongding District, Jishou City, Baojing County, Huayuan County, Yongshun County, Cili County, Zhongfang County, Anhua County, Hengnan County, Linwu County, Yizhang County, Lengshuitan District and Qiyang County. So far more than two years have passed since the Project was officially launched for implementation. During the implementation, 11 project counties (namely Anhua County, Cili County, Yongshun County, Huayuan County, Jishou City, Qiyang County, Linwu County, Lengshuitan District, Hengnan County, Hengyang County and Yongding District) plan to include more demonstration areas or enlarge the coverage of the previous demonstration areas based on the agricultural land pollution inspection data and project need, which will involve 2270.5 hectares farmland, 29 townships (towns), 60 administrative villages and 113,917 beneficiaries including 7,336 people with disabilities and 9,341 left-behind women. Purpose and Process of Social Assessment Social assessment aims to identify main stakeholders of newly-added demonstration areas and their needs as well as opportunities, impacts and risks brought by project construction and operation to stakeholders, and to prepare action plan to address social impacts, evade or relieve social risks, assist in perfecting project design and implementation, and get individuals & groups under direct impact of the project activities to effectively participate in project activities. To help with the project design and implementation, the Social Assessment Team, supported and cooperated by the relevant authorities, conducted social assessment 7 survey from December 16, 2020 to December 25, 2020 on the 11 project counties planning for more demonstration areas. Participatory social assessment method is adopted during the whole social assessment process. Information disclosure and public consultation are used for information collection. Social assessment is conducted in the 11 project counties through structural interviews, group interviews, participatory scoring and ranking, matrix analysis of project impact, social resource surveys and resource mapping. A total of 8 directors of farmers’ cooperatives and main planting farmers have received in-depth interview. A total of 8 directors of the government at the town and township level and leaders of the Village Committees in the Project Villages have received in-depth interview. A total of 10 administrators and implementers of the Project Counties have received in-depth interview. A total of 60 villagers have received in-depth interview including 20 women (33.3%), 20 people from minorities (33.3%) and 20 low income people (33.3%). In addition, two types of questionnaire surveys are performed in 11 project counties according to a certain sampling proportion; 1100 social assessment questionnaires are distributed in 11 project counties, 949 of which are effectively completed and returned, and the questionnaire response rate is 86.3%; 500 ethnic identification questionnaires are distributed in 5 project districts and counties inhabited by ethnic minorities, 365 of which are effectively completed and returned, and the questionnaire response rate is 73.0%. Needs of Main Stakeholders Total scale of management of contaminated farmland in 11 newly-added project counties is 2270.5 hectares. Based on the field survey, social assessment team have identified main stakeholders of the project and carried out participation and consultation with main stakeholders. Needs of those stakeholders are as follows: Common needs: Develop agricultural production, increase opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, enhance risk resistance, govern heavy metal pollution of farmland and improve farmers’ production and living standards. Needs of farmer households in demonstration areas: Total population involved in demonstration areas is 114,000. The Needs of farmer households in demonstration area include: (1) Improve agricultural production infrastructures, e.g. the repair or new construction of irrigation canals, tractor roads, and other relevant facilities: (2) Improve 8 local ecological environment and the quality of agricultural products and develop ecological agriculture; (3) Participate in farmers’ cooperatives and lower production risks and cost; (4) Adjust industrial structure, increase the ratio of cash crops in a proper manner and improve the income level; (5) Lower the risk of an increase cost brought to farmers during the governance process of heavy metal of farmland. There is a total of 47 specialized farmers’ cooperatives in demonstration areas. Needs of cooperatives: (1) Acquire capital support, lower financing cost and lighten the capital stress for development of ecological agriculture; (2) Improve organization management level of cooperatives and facilitate local agriculture to adopt scaled development path; (3) Establish the heavy metal monitoring stations for soil and agricultural product, improve quality management level of agricultural products and promote the local agriculture to adopt the development path of ecological agriculture; (4) Lower risks of sales of agricultural products and increase of costs. Needs of project village committees: (1) Establish and perfect specialized farmers’ cooperatives and promote the local industrial upgrading; (2) Strengthen local farmers’ environment awareness and planting technology training as well as their environmental protection awareness and technological level; (3) Formulate a reasonable compensation mechanism and lower the risk of residents’ income. Needs of agricultural departments: (1) Smoothly and successfully complete the project through cooperation with stakeholders; (2) Help farmer households in the demonstration areas govern the heavy metal pollution of farmland, develop agricultural production and improve the quality of agricultural products; (3) Explore technologies and management models of local farmland pollution control through improvements of the World Bank project. Needs of other relevant departments of the government: (1) Improve soil quality and local ecological environment and improve administration and monitoring level of local environment: (2) Promote the economic development of project counties and demonstration areas; drive the ecological development path of agriculture and promote the rural revitalization; (3) Drive economic and social development, realize political stability and improve government image; (4) Improve production and living conditions of low income people, enhance the living standards of low income people, safeguard 9 social stability and promote harmonious development. Analysis of Poor and Low-Income People Of 11 project counties planning to include more areas, three counties once were nationally designated poverty counties and five were provincially designated, all of which have been lifted out of poverty but are still relative poor with low income people. The previously poor people turned into low income people, mainly referring to low income people of poor households just out of poverty in 2020. A total of 2650 low income households or 11391 low income people live in the demonstration areas of 11 counties and cities planning for farmland governance, with a relative poverty incidence of 10%. There are 7336 people with disabilities. The low-income residents mainly obtain their income from traditional agriculture. According to survey, 60.0% of low-income individuals mainly obtain their income from planting industry and breeding industry. Income from farmlands of low-income individuals accounts for 63.5% of household income on average. Low-income individuals have already had some knowledge of the project but some of them are still not clearly aware of the project, which indicates a need of further advocacy campaigns among low income people. In addition, low income households have relatively consistent supporting attitude towards the Project. According to the survey, 95.2% of low-income individuals believe that ‘Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products’ is in favor of the local economic and social development. All low-income households support the project. Low quality of agricultural products, high medical expenditure and low degree of agricultural industrialization are the main reasons causing poverty. Diseases and lacking of technology are the main factor causing poverty. 28.5% low income people fall into poverty due to diseases; 26.4% low income people fall into poverty due to lacking of technology. The low-income individuals have proposed the needs for improvement of quality of agricultural products, strengthening of planting technical training, increase of employment opportunities, enhancement of development capacity and provision of cost compensation. Gender Analysis 10 The educational level of women in villages is mainly junior high school level. According to survey data: 37.4% of them have primary school and below primary school diploma; 50.1% of them have junior high school diploma; 12.5% of them have senior high school/technical secondary school/vocational school and higher diploma. Farming women are mainly middle and old aged women. According to survey data: Average age of farming women in demonstration areas is 48 years old, and the maximum age is 87 years old while the minimum age is 17 years old. The farming workers in villages are mainly women and middle and old aged people. The women take up about 48% of total employees in the rural cooperatives. The proportion of women participating in the decision-making and management of rural cooperatives is low. There is a total of 189 management personnels in rural cooperatives, including 47 women, accounting for 25.0%. There is no woman in the management of 8 rural cooperatives. Percentage of left-behind women in the areas to be included is as high as 8.2% of total population in the demonstration areas, namely 9341 women. Needs of women for the Project: Increase job opportunities (Left-behind women require more job opportunities near their communities), provide labor protection measures against high temperature, sunstroke, weeds and mosquitoes and preventing inhalation of lime to lungs, and provide training of production skills such as operation of agricultural machines. Classroom lecturing and site demonstration shall be combined for relevant training to enhance the participation capability of women. Analysis of Ethnic Minorities The project counties within the demonstration area where ethnic minorities inhabit include Jishou City, Huayuan County, Yongshun County, Cili County and Yongding District. Total population of project villages is 49441, including a total ethnic minority population of 38423, accounting for 77.7%. Among ethnic minorities, total population of Tujia is 28277, accounting for 73.6%; total population of Miao is 10146, accounting for 26.4%. Analysis on the difference of Tujia nationality in the demonstration area: In project villages, total population of Tujia nationality is 28277, accounting for 57.2% of the total population. According to the proportion of Tujia nationality in the population of demonstration areas, 31 villages inhabited by Tujia are divided into three categories: 11 project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for less than 30% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for 30% - 50% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for 50% and above of population of demonstration areas. According to the definition of minorities of the World Bank, various categories of project villages are identified through interview and other methods. It is concluded: local residents do not identify themselves as a unique cultural group. Their customs and habits are substantially consistent with Han nationality. In addition to Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Dragon Boat Festival and other traditional festivals as Han nationality, there are “going to the last fair before spring festival�, “the 3rd day of the Third Lunar Month�, “the 8th day of the Fourth Lunar Month�, “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month� and “the 7th day of the Seventh Lunar Month� and other local ethnic festivals. Local residents see no difference with Han in terms of language, planting habit, customs and habits. Language: Since the Tujia nationality lives together with Han nationality in demonstration area for a long time, people with Tujia nationality have begun to use Chinese quite early; Religious belief: In the demonstration area, Tujia nationality believes in Taoism and pays tribute to the ancestors. Tujia nationality in the demonstration area mainly believe in Taoism and worship their ancestors. Tujia nationality believe in many gods, and their religious beliefs include natural worship. Land, rocks, mountains, rivers, and water are all objects of worship. Almost every household in Tujia nationality worships the ancestral shrine in the hall house. The festivals of the Tujia nationality in demonstration area mainly include dragon-boat racing and “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month�. The Tujia nationality pays great attention to traditional festivals especially the Spring Festival which is the most ceremonious. Local customs: Before marriage of women of Tujia nationality in the demonstration area, there is a custom of “crying wedding�. Before wedding, if a girl cannot practice this custom, she will be discriminated and ridiculed. However, currently, this custom has already been gradually faded. Mode of production: Mainly planting rice. During the busy farming season, wheat is cut and seedlings are planted, and grain is sown and fields are raised. For families with a shortage of labor force, everyone will take the initiative to help each other. The host family only needs to provide food. This custom of helping each other has become a custom through long time usage for thousands of years. 12 In project villages, total population of Miao nationality is 10146, accounting for 20.5%. According to the proportion of Miao nationality in the population of demonstration areas, 24 villages inhabited by Miao nationality are divided into two categories: project villages where population of Miao nationality accounts for less than 50% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Miao nationality accounts for 50% and above of population of demonstration areas. According to the definition of minorities of the World Bank, various categories of project villages are identified through interview and other methods. Local residents do not identify themselves as a unique cultural group. Their customs and habits are substantially consistent with Han nationality. In addition to Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Dragon Boat Festival and other traditional festivals as Han nationality, there are “going to the last fair before spring festival�, “the 3rd day of the Third Lunar Month�, “the 8th day of the Fourth Lunar Month�, “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month� and “the 7th day of the Seventh Lunar Month� and other local ethnic festivals. Local residents see no difference with Han in terms of language, planting habit, customs and habits. Miao in Demonstration Areas does not have its unique or other recognized cultural features, living customs or local customs; the social, economic, cultural and political organization has no difference from that of mainstream races; the religious, sacrificing and totem worship activities do not have obvious difference from the mainstream society. Management mode of villages inhabited by Miao in demonstration areas is substantially consistent with that of most rural areas in China, i.e. the combination of township government and village governance. Language used in daily communication of Miao in demonstration areas is local dialect, and characters used in daily life are Chinese characters. Lands of Miao in demonstration areas are owned by the collective; the management mode of contract responsibility system based on the household with remuneration linked to output is adopted. Therefore, through in-depth investigation and analysis on Miao and Tujia people in demonstration areas, considering that Miao and Tujia people in demonstration areas have a high degree of integration, which does not conform to the World Bank’s definition of minority, the World Bank’s minority policy is not applicable and there is no need to prepare the minority development plan. Social Impact and Risks 13 The assessment team considers that positive influence of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project: Short-term positive influence is mainly reflected in: (1) Raise awareness of stakeholders in producing safety products by project promotion. (2) Through the training of the project, the farmer households’ skills in production safety products can be enhanced. (3) Through public participation, consensus on the agricultural land heavy metal pollution control will be achieved. (4) Improve infrastructure and create conditions for agricultural production. (5) The environmental management and the agricultural environment monitoring provide technical supports for agricultural product quality management. (6) The risk resistance capacity of the farmer households and the product competitiveness are improved by cultivating 47 farmer’s specialized cooperatives. Medium and long-term positive influence is mainly reflected in: (1) Significant ecological benefits: The heavy metal pollution of farmland has been administered in the project through adoption of measures including source control, dynamic monitoring and soil repair to a certain extent, thus benefiting improvement of ecological environment; (2) Considerable economic benefits: The heavy metal pollution control of farmland in the project can realize improvement of selling prices of agricultural products, lowering of agricultural production cost, improvement of land utilization efficiency and improvement of added value of agricultural products, which benefits the improvement of farmers’ production and living standards; (3) Obvious social benefits: The implementation of the Project benefits return of migrant workers. In particular, it creates more jobs for women. It is in favor of poverty alleviation of low-income households and formulation of farmland pollution administration model. The social assessment team thinks that the social risks of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project are mainly reflected in the followings: Social risks of cropping restructuring. The project does not involve land acquisition and demolition, and does not trigger the involuntary resettlement policy of the World Bank; therefore, there is no need to prepare the resettlement plan. But there will be a need for restructuring crops in 66.7 hectares of heavily contaminated farmland 14 according to plan, which includes 33.3 hectares in Jishou City and 33.4 hectares in Hengnan County respectively. Planting other alternative crops requires change of planting habits and techniques. Although the project management offices and the project team have already carried out in-depth investigation and analysis, there may still be some farmers who are not willing cooperate in the process. (2) The issue of distribution and management of subsidies for change of cropping system. Consensus has been reached on subsidy standards, but more farmers are worried about the transparency of the subsidy. (3) Labor supply problem. At present, many villages are “empty villages� because young and middle-aged laborers are all working outside. Planting of fruits and seedlings requires more laborers, which may face the problem of insufficient labor. Economic risks: Economic risks are mainly reflected in three aspects: (1) Social risks resulting from land rehabilitation due to preservation of original planting habits: The first category is risk of marketing. Rice is replanted to low-cadmium varieties, and thus quality of rice grain will be affected to some extent, which means that existing marketing channels and methods may be affected. The second category refers to risk of failure of food to reach standard. During the period of governance, some food may not completely reach the standard, which may influence food selling price. The third category is risk of output reduction. Replanting low-cadmium varieties will increase the risk of rice blast and may further lead to reduction of output. According to survey data: the top concern for farmer households is reduction of actual income of farmer households in short term (78.4%), followed by increase of agricultural production labor amount (33.3%) as well as marketing risk incurred by replanting varieties (31.2%). (2) Social risks from farmland restructuring: First, risk of cost benefit of replanted crops. Second, risk of marketing. It is required to establish new sales channels for replanted fruit trees, vegetables and cotton, so as to result in sales risk. Third, risk of management. Replanting will not only implement new requirements on technical management of replanted crops but also require project villages to establish fair, transparent and standardized management procedures. (3) Social risks from adjustment of cropping system: Changes in the planting pattern may increase the input of labor force. If the input cannot be reasonably subsidized, the net income will be reduced. According to survey data: in the process of restructuring, the top concern for farmer households is 15 reduction of actual income in the same year (51.4%), followed by unmarketable replanted crops (38.5%). Public opinion risks: Public opinion risks are mainly classified into four types: The first category is the risk of improper attribution. The existing pollution condition is resulted from multiple aspects. Administration of soil pollution of farmland before launch of administration of other pollution may cause the local residents to attribute all problems to heavy metal pollution so as to put forward relevant claims. The second category is the risk of exaggeration of heavy metal pollution. Government departments leading the launch of farmland heavy metal pollution control in demonstration area can easily attach the label of heavy metal standard-surpassing in all agricultural products in demonstration area. The third category is the risk of resident’s environmental protection awareness. The main stakeholder groups have different orientations in their roles played in environmental pollution and environmental protection. They neither think that they shall take responsibility for surrounding environmental pollution nor believe that they are one of subjects involved in environmental governance. Risk of vulnerability of disadvantaged groups such as minorities and low-income individuals. To-be-included project areas will involve 11391 people just out of poverty including 46594 left-behind seniors, 7336 people with disabilities and 9341 left-behind women and 31 project villages in the five project counties and cities at Zhangjiajie and Xiangxi Prefecture where Tujia and Miao dominate, among which 11 project villages have more Miao people and 20 project villages have more Tujia people. Miao people in the eleven project villages of three project counties namely Huayuan County, Yongshun County and Jishou City amount to above 30%. To reduce the vulnerability of these disadvantaged groups, this Project will take powerful measures to make them participate in and benefit from the project on an equal basis. Risk of land transfer. There are mainly three types: Firstly, is a blind pursuit of high transfer rate without consideration of the local natural conditions and realities in development and without any respect to the intentions and autonomous rights of farmers; Secondly is a lack of an exit mechanism in contractual rights of land, which can hardly protect the farmer’s benefits and will affect the grain production safety. For example, non-standard transfer contracts prevent the farmers’ benefits from being guaranteed. Third is transfer without title affirmation due to the delay in granting a 16 certificate for land title affirmation and registration, which can easily cause disputes over land. Project proposals and action plans To ensure a smooth implementation of ‘Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products’ in the to-be-included project area, it is necessary to follow the supporting policies as below: (1) to strengthen farmer’s participation in trainings, form a farmland governance association and establish a full participation and complaint mechanism; (2) to work out a basic compensation package and a subsidy scheme to ensure farmers’ income increase and avoid or reduce to the maximum extent the negative effects on farmers caused by the governance of polluted farmlands; (3) to enhance the publicity and training and the guidance of public opinions and mitigate the risks of public opinions during the governance; (4) to observe the original RPF and incorporate the measures and plans for helping the disadvantaged groups. In addition, the Social Assessment Team found problems when monitoring the original project including incomplete pre-project work, slow implementation and inconspicuous effects of project driven employment. To better give play to the positive effects of the project and avoid repeated problems in the to-be-included project areas, the Social Assessment Team also proposes to optimize the pre-project implementation scheme, enhance the implementation and monitoring of agronomic measures, speed up the construction and management of field works and push forward and promote the guidance of the project for farmland cooperative economy. In the meantime, to have an effective control over the COVID-19 epidemic, the PMO will also have to set up a leading group for COVID-19 epidemic for planning epidemic prevention work and handling with any emergency. 17 1. Introduction 1.1 Brief introduction to the project 1.1.1 Project background Hunan is known for its nonferrous metals; of 160 mineral reserves found in the world, 140 varieties are found in Hunan. And tungsten, antimony, bismuth, zinc, lead and tin reserves range top in the country. The exploitation history is as long as 2,700 years. This brings abundant mineral resources to Hunan, but simultaneously it also brings severe heavy metal pollution in local regions. The serious land heavy metal pollution of Hunan Province is an important cause resulting in standard surpassing of cadmium in rice. Under this background, in order to administer heavy metal pollution in producing places of agricultural products, improve quality and safety of agricultural products and safeguard people’s life health, Agriculture Commission of Hunan Province plans to utilize World Bank loan to implement “Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project�. 1.1.2 Project overview In consideration of Hunan Province as the main agricultural production area, pollution levels and types of heavy metals in the soil and other factors, 14 counties are selected by means of expert consultation as the Project Counties including, Hengyang County, Yongding District, Jishou City, Baojing County, Huayuan County, Yongshun County, Cili County, Zhongfang County, Anhua County, Hengnan County, Linwu County, Yizhang County, Lengshuitan District and Qiyang County. The main contents of the project cover four aspects: sustainable management of farmland pollution, agricultural environment monitoring and management, project capacity construction and project management and assessment. 1. Sustainable management of farmland pollution In the light of the effective data analysis of rice, agriculture endogenous and 1 exogenous sources, agricultural production management and so on in the Demonstration Area, specific risk management measures, mainly including engineering measures, agronomic measures, pest and disease integrated management and other measures, etc. should be taken. Different control measures will be taken according to the risk degrees, the risk control area in the demonstration area is estimated to be 8000 hectares. (2) Agricultural environment monitoring and management Measures agricultural environment monitoring and management including: Establish the agricultural environment monitoring and early warning system, investigate content of pollutants in agricultural products in the demonstration area; monitor input/output balance of farmland pollutants. Make related local rules and regulations and technical draft standard for control & prevention of farmland pollution and recovery. Provide technical support for control of pollution emission for enterprises discharging heavy metal which severely affects pollution sources. (3) Project capacity construction In this project, the government officials and technical personnel will be organized for study and training to improve project management capacity. Organize local benefited farmers and main planting farmers for training to enhance their reproject awareness of severity of pollution of farmland and agricultural products on health as well as their soil management skills capability for sustainable utilization. Organize implementation of a series of subject studies to support project implementation and optimization of technical measures. Moreover, formulate the soil environment protection action plan. (4) Project management and assessment The project management system is established to collect information and data of farmland environmental quality variation in project implementation process. Establish the integrated management evaluation system of farmland pollution; monitor and evaluate project implementation results. Refine the project achievements. Purchase office equipment needed by the project management organization as well as costs incurred by daily management, purchase, financial management and project 2 supervision. So far more than two years have passed since the Project was officially launched for implementation. During the implementation, 11 project counties (namely Anhua County, Cili County, Yongshun County, Huayuan County, Jishou City, Qiyang County, Linwu County, Lengshuitan District, Hengnan County, Hengyang County and Yongding District) plan to include more project areas or enlarge the coverage of the previous project areas based on the farmland pollution inspection data and project need, which will involve 2270.5 hectare farmland, 29 townships (towns), 60 administrative villages and 113917 beneficiaries including 7336 people with disabilities and 9341 left- behind women. 1.2 Project social assessment 1.2.1 Purpose and contents of social assessment The emphasis of social impact assessment in this project is to determine favorable and unfavorable influence on local social development goals by project construction so as to fully recognize potential benefits and risks of the project and take rational measures to avoid and remove social risks and social conflicts likely to cause failure of the project to the largest degree, and to increase social benefit of project investment. The social impact assessment in this project mainly covers: (1) Collect social and economic development information of project affected regions. Such information consists of community population, economic development, social culture and political system affected by this project as well as traditional occupancy of land resources of local residents and natural resources they reply on for survival. (2) Determine critical stakeholders of the project, including directly or indirectly benefited groups or organizations and directly and indirectly affected groups or organizations suffering losses. (3) Have a full consultation with stakeholders in this project. In each phase of project preparation and implementation, carry out free and full consultation with 3 affected population in advance; and establish the complaint channel and procedure for disadvantaged groups. (4) Social influence and risk analysis: Assess positive and negative influence of the project mainly from the macro-perspective. In project construction period, local farmland irrigation facilities and travel roads may be affected to some degree in project implementation period. The social impact assessment will focus on analysis of possible social risks brought by the project, in particular, pay close attention to potential unfavorable influence on ethnic minorities, old people, the disabled, low income people, single parent family and other disadvantaged groups as well as farmers with requisition of land. (5) Analyze and strive for attitude support of the local community for project construction. After diagnosing benefit conflicts likely to occur in project construction process, further understand the willingness and attitude of such stakeholders. Strive for enough support of local communities and residents for the project by participation and consultation of social assessment. (6) Collect suggestions of local communities to project planning and implementation. The World Bank loan project shall guarantee that ethnic minorities can benefit from the project fairly in planning. The project owner shall take measures to prevent unfavorable influence on ethnic minority communities. To realize the goals of social impact assessment, the social impact assessment team in the process collects opinions and suggestions of local affected population and communities. They also discuss with sample population in the demonstration area with the social impact assessment so that the conclusions and measures of social impact assessment will be proper. To prevent social conflicts and relieve negative impact on local residents and communities, the social impact assessment team also provides the proper countermeasures to the project planner. 1.2.2 Main methods for social assessment To involve the beneficiaries in the demonstration area in this social evaluation so that we could get real and abundant first-hand data, we used participatory evaluation method and tools for social evaluation including structured interview, participatory 4 rating and sorting, matrix analysis of project impacts, site survey of community resources, resource mapping, etc. Different methods were used for data collection and processing including document literatures, site surveys, questionnaires, social statistics, etc. These guaranteed voluntary, equal and positive participation of different beneficiary groups and farmer households of different types in the project villages in the Project. (I) Collection of literature and statistical data: To know the project background, project summary and social and economic information in the to-be-included project areas. First of all, we need to have a general understanding, during the site survey, of the to-be-included project counties by means of literatures and collection of statistic data. (1) Collect city annals, county annals and other literature stating local conditions and customs of the demonstration area, in particular, statistical data of social and economic conditions of ethnic minority regions in the demonstration area. (2) Collect statistical yearbook of social and economic conditions of the demonstration area, bulletin of national economy and social development of each county in each year as well as literature provided by the county PMO. (3) Collect social development regulations and policies of the demonstration area including important national level social development laws, policies as well as some important local regulations and policies made by Hunan Province. (II) Questionnaire survey: In the key surveying communities and project affected areas, the assessment team carries out questionnaire survey of main stakeholders. The sample of questionnaire survey consists of different main stakeholder groups; special attention has been paid to women, ethnic minorities, low income people and other disadvantaged groups. The cluster sampling mode is adopted in questionnaire survey. Distribution is made in the equal distribution principle. First of all, every project county planning for new areas intends to be distributed with 80-100 questionnaires. Secondly, two of the new project areas will be selected randomly and further one of the villages in each new project area selected. Each village will be distributed with 40-50 questionnaires. A total 5 percentage of women, minorities (if any) and low-income individuals is required to be 30% of total samples. At last, social evaluation questionnaire survey and ethnic group identification questionnaire survey are conducted respectively in the selected villages. In the end, 1100 social assessment questionnaires are distributed in 11 project counties, 949 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 86.3%; 500 ethnic identification questionnaires are distributed in 5 project districts and counties inhabited by ethnic minorities, 365 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 73.0%. The sample distribution is shown in Table 1-1. 6 Table 1-1 Sample Distribution Social assessment Ethnic minority Demonstration areas/ questionnaires questionnaires No. Project counties Released Effective Released Effective quantity quantity quantity quantity 1 Anhua County 100 94 2 Huayuan County 100 83 100 68 3 Yongding District 100 83 100 62 4 Cili County 100 88 100 73 5 Yongshun County 100 90 100 82 6 Jishou City 100 90 100 80 7 Hengyang County 100 83 8 Lengshuitan District 100 82 9 Qiyang County 100 89 10 Linwu County 100 83 11 Hengnan County 100 84 Total 1,100 949 500 365 (III) In-depth interview: In the key surveying project affected area, the assessment team carries out in-depth interview. The selected targets consist of some proportion of women, ethnic minorities and low-income households. In the end, the Evaluation Team selected different interest-related parties for interview. A total of 60 villagers received in-depth interview including 20 women (33.3%), 20 people from minorities (33.3%) and 20 low income people (33.3%). A total of 8 directors of farmers’ cooperatives and main planting farmers have received in-depth interview. A total of 8 directors of the government at the town and township level and leaders of the Village Committees in the Project Villages have received in-depth interview. A total of 10 administrators and implementers of the Project Counties have received in-depth interview. (4) Site survey: Surveys are conducted on site. Observational survey is used to get direct and emotional social information including village appearance, human settlement, farmland crop growing environment, etc. 7 (5) Social statistics: Results of questionnaire surveys are input into Epidata for various statistic analysis by the software SPSS22.2 including frequency analysis, mean value analysis, etc. 1.2.2 Scheduling of social assessment The Social Assessment Team was divided into two survey teams from December 16, 2020 to December 25, 2020 for site survey one after another in all project counties and social assessment on new and enlarged project counties. Details are as below: (I) Research schedule of the first group (8 counties and districts in total) Anhua County (16th), Cili county (17th), Yongding District (18th), Yongshun County (21st), Baojing County (22nd), Huayuan County (23rd), Jishou City (24th), Zhongfang County (25th) (I) Research schedule of the second group (6 counties and districts in total) Hengnan County (16th), Hengyang County (17th), Yizhang County (18th), Linwu County (21st), Qiyang County (22nd), Lengshuitan (23rd) 2.Basic Social-Economic Analysisof Project Counties 2.1 Social-economic analysisof Hunan Province 2.1.1 Socioeconomic status The socioeconomic status of Hunan Province is characteristic of: First, the economic aggregate ranks at national top level. Gross production value in Hunan Province in 2019 reached RMB 3975.212 billion, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year. GDP among 31 provinces, cities and regions ranked the ninth. The added value in the primary industry was 364.69 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.2%; in the secondary industry 1.4947 trillion Yuan, growth of 7.8%; in the tertiary industry 2.11582 trillion Yuan, growth of 8.1%. The total regional output value per 8 capita was 57,540 Yuan with the growth of 7.1% calculated based on permanent resident population. The contribution rate of primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry to economic growth is 4.0%, 40.9% and 55.1%. Second, rice output ranks top national wide. The grain planting area in Hunan Province was 4.6164 million hectares in 2019 with the reduction of 0.1315 million hectares compared with last year. Among them, summer grain crops cover 102,500 ha., a decrease of 21,200 ha.; early season rice covers 1,094,600 ha., a decrease of 143,600 ha.; autumn grain crops cover 3,419,300 ha., an increase of 33,300 ha. In terms of autumn grain crops, middle season rice and single-season late rice cover 1,602,100 ha., an increase of 129,600 ha.; double-season rice covers 1,158,500 ha., a decrease of 139,800 ha. Annual cereal yield was 29.748 million tons with the reduction of 1.6%. Among which the summer grain output was 413,000 tons with the reduction of 19.6%; that of early rice was 6.614 million tons with the reduction of 12.5%; the autumn grain was 22.721 million tons with the growth of 2.5%. The newly-added effective irrigation area of agricultural land was 30,200 hectares in the whole year and newly-added water conservation irrigation area was 38,700 hectares; 75,000 various types of hydraulic projects started construction with investment fund of 26.7 billion Yuan; 1.02 billion m3 earthwork of hydraulic project has been completed; 5445.8km rural road has been improved and renovated. In 2019, Hunan with its 3.1% cultivated land provides 4.5% grain. It ranks the 10th among main grain producing provinces. The rice output accounts for 12.8% of the national output, ranking the 1st, and making special important contribution to national food security. Thirdly, the population reaches nearly 70 million. Hunan is one of the most populous provinces. Permanent residents across the Province in 2019 reached 69,183,800, an increase of 196,100 over the previous year at a growth rate of 2.84%. Among them, the population of age 0-15 amounted to 14,823,800 (21.43%), age 16-59 amounted to 41,472,100 (59.94%) and age 60 and above 12,887,900 (18.63%). Fourthly, the population of minorities reaches 6.8 million. Hunan is a multiethnic province, where there are 55 nationalities including Han nationality, Tujia, Miao, Yao, Dong, Bai and Hui. Among them, nine permanently reside including Han nationality, Miao, Tujia, Dong, Yao, Hui, Zhuang and Bai. Most of these ethnic groups reside in the mountainous areas in Xiangxi, Xiangnan and Xiangdong. The population 9 of the ethnic groups amounts to 6.8 million, about 10% of total population in Hunan Province, most of whom reside in the mountainous areas in Xiangxi and Xiangnan and a few of whom reside across Hunan Province. Miao and Tujia dominate the ethnic groups mainly in the northwest of Hunan Province where Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is located. Fifth, farmland is severely polluted by heavy metal. According to the Report on the National General Survey of Soil Contamination in 2014, the soil contamination nationwide was 16.1%, which was beyond the limit. Arable areas were especially most serious, which was up to 19.4%. Grain security faces severe challenges. Seen from pollution distribution, soil pollution in South China is more severe than that in North China. Soil pollution problem in Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Northeast China old industrial base is prominent. The overproof heavy metal of soil in Southwest and Mid-South Regions is severe. The distribution of 4 inorganic pollutants, including cadmium, mercury, arsenic and lead, increases gradually from the northwest to the southeast and from the northeast to the southwest. According to data, the mineral poisoned and heavy metal polluted land area in Hunan Province is up to 28000 hectares, accounting for 13% of total area of the whole province. Of 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan, 8 are in Xiangjiang River Basin. The production and living water of more than 40 million people is polluted. 2.1.2 Situation of heavy metal pollution 1) Compositions of heavy metal industries: enterprises involving heavy metal in Hunan are as many as 1450. The industries involving heavy metal pollution (as per the number of enterprise) are: non-ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry, non- ferrous metal mining and separation industry, chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry, ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry, metal product industry, coal mining and separation by washing industry, leather, fur, feather (down feather) and their products industry, general equipment manufacturing industry, electric machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, transport equipment manufacturing industry, non-metal ores mining and separation industry, non-metal ores product manufacturing industry, communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry, ferrous metal mining and separation 10 industry, special equipment manufacturing industry, waste resources and materials recycling and processing industry, wood processing and wood, bamboo, vine, palm and straw product industry, pharmaceutical industry, rubber product industry, instrument meter and culture, office machinery manufacturing industry, power and thermal power production and supply industry, printing industry and recording media duplication, artware and other manufacturing industries. 2) Distribution of industries involving heavy metal: industries involving heavy metal in Hunan Province are mainly distributed in non-ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry, non-ferrous metal mining and separation industry, chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry (sulfuric acid production mainly), ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry (electrolytic manganese, iron and steel industry mainly) and metal product industry (electroplate industry mainly). See their proportion in Fig.2-1. The total enterprise quantity of the five industries above accounts for 86.43% of total enterprises involved in heavy metal in the whole province. Non-ferrous metal mining and separation industry Leather, fur, feather (down feather) and their products industry Chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry Non-ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry Other industries Figure 2-1 Distribution Map of Industries involved in Heavy Metal Pollution in Hunan 3) Regional distribution of industries involving heavy metal: the non-ferrous metal metallurgy and rolling industry is mainly distributed in Chenzhou, Loudi and Hengyang, accounting for 33%, 17% and 12% respectively in the whole province. The metal mining and separation industry is mainly distributed in Chenzhou and Xiangxi autonomous prefecture, accounting for 47% and 20% respectively of the whole 11 province. The chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry is mainly distributed in Hengyang, Changsha and Xiangtan, accounting for 20%, 17% and 13% respectively of the whole province. Seen from Fig.2-2, heavy metal pollution enterprises and heavy metal pollution in Hunan province mainly concentrate in Xiangjiang River Basin, South Hunan and West Hunan. Non-ferrous metal mining, separation and metallurgy are concentrating in other regions such as Anhua County and Taojiang County in Yiyang City, Hanshou County and Shimen County in Changde City, which lead to severe heavy metal pollution. Figure 2-2 Distribution Map of Industries involved in Heavy Metal Pollution and Key Districts/Counties in Hunan 12 2.2 Social-economic analysis of project counties 2.2.1 Social-economic analysis of Anhua County (1) County overview The population urbanization rate is close to 40%. There were 1.0088 million registered population in Anhua County at the end of 2019, the permanent resident population was 0.861 million, including 0.3339 million permanent population in urban and its urbanization rate was 38.78%. The birth rate was 8.96‰; the mortality rate was 6.63‰ and natural growth rate was 2.32‰. There are 26 nationalities in Anhua County, including Han Nationality, Tujia Nationality, Miao Nationality, Mongolian Nationality, etc. The total economic aggregate remains stable. In 2019, the total output value reached 23.218 billion Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 6.7%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 4.461 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.1%; added value in the secondary industry was 7.689 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.8%; added value in the tertiary industry was 11.068 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.2%. The ratio of three industries was 19.2: 33.1: 47.7; the proportion of primary industries increased by 2.9 percentage points; the proportion of secondary industries decreased by 0.7 percentage points, and the proportion of tertiary industries decreased by 2.2 percentage points. Contribution rate of three industries on economic growth was 8.6%, 42.9% and 48.5% respectively; GDP growth driven by three industries was 0.6%, 2.9% and 3.3% respectively. The per capita GDP of the county was 26,986 Yuan calculated based on permanent resident population. Adjustment and optimization of agricultural structure. In 2019, it realized a total output value of RMB 8.124 billion in the agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing industries in the whole year with a growth rate of 3.3% compared with same period last year. The grain sown area was 656,000 mu with total grain output of 229,000t. Sowing areas of grains and oil reach 1,044,500 mu and the comprehensive agricultural mechanization rate reaches 63.3% The main grain crop in the county is rice. The planting type is divided into double cropping and single cropping with main forms of rice-oilseed rape, rice-corn, rice-cabbage and rice-watermelon, etc. Main rice 13 varieties include Longliangyouhuazhan Rice, Y Liangyou 488, Y Liangyou 2108, Huanghuazhan Rice, etc. Planting area is 27,700 hectares. It is shown by the result of soil agricultural product monitoring data that among five risk factors of cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead and chromium, heavy metal pollution risk exists in partial rice in Anhua County and the risk factor is cadmium. (2) Demonstration area overview Anhua County plans to add two demonstration areas (Le’an Town Demonstration Area and Dafu Town Demonstration Area) and expand one demonstration area (Qingtangpu Town Demonstration Area), including: The newly-added, Le’an Town Demonstration Area is located in the Southwest of Anhua County. Le’an Town Demonstration Area covers 4 villages, Gurong Village, Wenshi Village, Hengshi Village, Yizhong Village, with an area of 2300 mu, and the beneficiaries are 8402. The Demonstration Area focuses on paddy rice growing in one season and oilseed rapes or paddy rice growing in double seasons. Farmlands might be possibly polluted by heavy metals left from history or by the ceramics plant. Cadmium pollution is a dominant type in farmland soil pollution, which is mainly of slightly local pollution. The newly-added, Dafu Town Demonstration Area is located in the Southeast mountainous area of Anhua County. Dafu Town Demonstration Area covers 2 villages, Mengjia Village, Muxi Village, with an area of 1100 mu, and the beneficiaries are 5444. The demonstration area mainly plants rice and adopts the paddy rice growing in one season and oilseed rape. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals in the Three Wastes discharged by the antimony ore businesses once existing in the past. Farmlands might also be polluted by the soil background value or agricultural inputs, etc. Cadmium pollution is a dominant type in farmland soil pollution, which is mainly of light degree. Qingtangpu Town is expanded on the basis of the original demonstration area, it covers 2 villages, Dongtian Village and Shaping Village, with an area of 1600 mu, and the beneficiaries are 5313. The demonstration area mainly plants rice, corn and peanut and adopts the rice growing in one-season cropping system. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals caused by coal mining. Farmlands might also be polluted by the soil 14 background value or excessive agricultural inputs, etc. Cadmium pollution is a dominant type in farmland soil pollution, which is mainly of light degree. It is shown by the result of soil agricultural product monitoring data that among five risk factors of cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead and chromium, heavy metal pollution risk exists in partial rice in Anhua County and the risk factor is cadmium. 2.2.2 Social-economic analysis of Cili County (1) County overview The population urbanization rate is close to 50%. At the end of 2019, there were 240,637 households in Cili County with total registered population of 690,390. The permanent resident population was 619,600 at the end of year, including 293,100 permanent population in urban and its urbanization rate was 47.3%. Cili County is the multiple-nationality county and 17 nationalities, including Han Nationality, Tujia Nationality, Bai Nationality, Hui Nationality and Miao Nationality, live here; among them, the minority population with Tujia Nationality as focus accounts for 61% of total population. The total economic aggregate grws steadily. In 2019, the total output value of Cili County reached 17.82853 billion Yuan with the growth of 7.4% compared with the last year. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 3.1683 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.4%; the added value in the secondary industry was 3.11078 billion Yuan, with the growth of 6.8%; among them, the added value of industry was 1.46113 billion Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 7.5%; the added value of the construction industry was 1.65161 billion Yuan, with the growth of 6.1%; the added value in the tertiary industry was 11.54945 billion Yuan, with the growth of 8.7%. The total regional output value per capita was 28,834 Yuan (calculated based on permanent resident population), equaling to USD4,174 based on average exchange rate in 2019. The structural adjustment was constantly optimized that the ratio of added value of three industries on total county production output was 17.8: 17.4: 64.8. In 2019, the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects was achieved 93.5%. Quality and efficiency improved in agricultural production. In 2019, the arable land area across the County reached 806,500 Chinese mu, among which 653,800 15 Chinese mu was cultivated land area and 875,200 Chinese mu was used for grains. The total grain yield reached 316,600 tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. A soil erosion area of 2.0 square kilometers was controlled, an effective farmland irrigation area of 300 hectares newly added and a water-saving irrigation area of 140 hectares newly added. The main grain crop in the county was rice, the main planting type is single cropping and double cropping with main form of rice-vegetable, rice-fertilizer, rice- rape and rice-idle, etc. It is shown as monitoring data analysis on agricultural products that among five risk factors of cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead and chromium, heavy metal pollution risk exists in partial rice in Cili County, and the risk factors are cadmium, arsenic and mercury. (2) Demonstration area overview Cili County plans to add one demonstration area (Xiangshi Town Demonstration Area) and expand four demonstration areas (Tongjinpu Town Demonstration Area, Dongyueguan Town Demonstration Area, Yangliupu Township Demonstration Area and Sanhe Town Demonstration Area), including: The newly-added, Xiangshi Town Demonstration Area is located in the Northwest of Cili County. The demonstration area covers 2 villages, Xurita Village and Baiyang Village with an area of 415 Chinese mu and a population of 2990. Rice and corn are staple crops in the demonstration area, and adopts the one-season cropping system. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals due to Xiangjiaxi coal mining business. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high and the risk of rice is low. There are different levels of heavy metal pollution in farmland soil, and the main risk factor is cadmium. Sanhe Town is located in the northwest of Cili County. The demonstration area covers Zhuangta Village, with an area of 60 Chinese mu and a population of 1687. The planting systems in the demonstration area are rice-rape and rice-vegetables. Cadmium and arsenic pollution are the main types of farmland soil pollution, cadmium pollution risk is mainly low or none and arsenic pollution risk is high and extremely high. The rice varieties commonly used by farmers have a high enrichment coefficient and such rice exceeds the standard, which is of light pollution. 16 Dongyueguan Town is located in the northeast of Cili County. The demonstration area covers Liudong Village and Xinhua Village, and has an area of 1180 Chinese mu and a population of 4705. Rice, corn and oilseed rape are staple crops in the demonstration area with planting systems of rice-oilseed rape and rice-vegetables. The heavy metal pollution of farmland was caused due to the sewage irrigation from Zhuangta Reservoir. The source of pollution, Zhuangta Coal Mine, has been shut down, and after testing, the water quality of Zhuangta Reservoir has reached the standard. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high and the risk of rice is low. There are different levels of heavy metal pollution in farmland soil, and the main risk factor is cadmium. Yangliupu Township is located in the northeast of Cili County. The demonstration area covers 3 administrative villages (neighborhood committees), Yangliu Neighborhood Committee, Fuxing Village and Xinpu Village with an area of 1650 Chinese mu and a population of 7602. Rice and oilseed rape are staple crops in the demonstration area with planting systems of rice-oilseed rape and rice-vegetables. Farmland is affected by sewage irrigation in Zhuangta Coal Mine, as well as heavy metal pollution caused by white garbage and domestic garbage. Zhuangta Coal Mine as the source of pollution has been shut down and the water quality of the Zhuangta Reservoir has been tested to reach the standard. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high and the risk of rice is low. There are different levels of heavy metal pollution in farmland soil, and the main risk factor is cadmium. Tongjinpu Town is located in the north-central part of Cili County. The demonstration area covers Sihuping Village and Yanzi Neighborhood Committee, with a population of 2596 and an area of 1060 Chinese mu. Planting systems in the demonstration area is rice-rape and rice-vegitable. The heavy metal pollution of farmland was caused due to the sewage irrigation from Zhuangta Reservoir. Zhuangta Coal Mine as the source of pollution has been shut down and the water quality of the Zhuangta Reservoir has been tested to reach the standard. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high and the risk of rice is low. There are different levels of heavy metal pollution in farmland soil, and the main risk factor is cadmium. 17 2.2.3 Social-economic analysis of Yongshun County (1) County overview The minority population accounts for 93.2%, and the urbanization rate reaches 42.8%. At the end of 2019, there were 164,300 households in the county with total population of 536,100. Among them, minority population is 499,700. The permanent resident population was 444,900, including urban population of 190,500 and rural population of 244,400. Urbanization rate of the whole county was 42.8%. The economy in the County is not well developed, the aggregate economic output remains low and financeremains vulnerable. In 2019, the total output value of Yongshun County reached 8.64 billion Yuan with the growth of 6.7% compared with the last year. Among them, the primary industry was 1.923 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.0%; the secondary industry was 1.536 billion Yuan, with the reduction of 1.2%; the tertiary industry was 5.181 billion Yuan, with the growth of 10.8%. The output value per capita was 19,372 Yuan calculated based on permanent resident population. The three industries structure of the County turned from 23.7: 21.9: 54.4 in the previous year to 22.3: 17.8: 59.9. The per capita disposable income of county residents is 14,167 Yuan, with the growth of 10.1% and that of urban residents is 23,499 Yuan, with the growth of 8.3%. The per capita disposable income of rural residents is 8823.01 Yuan, with the growth of 9.7%. Agricultural and rural development moves forward at a steady pace. In 2019, the total cultivated land area across the County reached 39,830 hectares and the crop sowing area in the County reached 980,700 Chinese mu (an increase of 0.15%), with total grain yield reaching 218,000 tons (an increase of 2.97%), total rice yield 142,014 tons (an increase of 0.34%), total corn yield 36,987 tons (an increase of 13.36%), sweet potato yield 7,948 tons (an increase of 0.91%) and potato yield 27,680 tons (an increase of 5.58%). Single-season rice grows widely in Yongshun County since it is a mountainous area. The cropping system is dominantly rice-rape and rice-idle. It is shown in the inspection result of soil heavy metal pollution inspection of agricultural land in Yongshun County that heavy metal pollution exists in partial agricultural land soil in Yongshun County to different degrees with main pollution risk 18 factor of cadmium. (2) Demonstration area overview Yongshun County plans to add two demonstration areas (Xiqi Town Demonstration Area and Shaba Town Demonstration Area) and expand one demonstration area (Wanping Town Demonstration Area). Including: The newly-added, Xiqi Town Demonstration Area is located in the West of Yongshun County. The demonstration area covers four villages, Liulangxi Village, Xiqi Village, Hexin Village and Wachang Village, with an area of 1000 Chinese mu and a population of 7827. Each village has a farmers’ specialized cooperative. The demonstration area mainly plants rice and adopts the one-season cropping system. Since the farmland is polluted by the heavy metal caused by “three wastes� of enterprises involving heavy metal pollution, the rice and sediment test samples exceed the standards, and the pollution sources have been effectively controlled. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland pollution and it is mainly slightly polluted. The newly-added, Shaba Town Demonstration Area is located in the Northeast of Yongshun County. The demonstration area covers two villages, Taozixi Village and Xishaba Village, with an area of 1800 Chinese mu and a population of 5992. Rice, oilseed rape, corn, soybean and peanut are staple crops in the demonstration area, and adopts the one-season cropping system. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals caused by iron ore business. Farmlands might also be possibly polluted by excessive agricultural inputs or the higher soil background value. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland pollution and it is mainly slightly or moderately polluted. Wanping Demonstration Area is located in the north of Yongshun County. The Demonstration Area covers 3 administrative villages, Beiliping Village, Heping Village and Shangping Village, with an area of 800 Chinese mu, main crops in the village include rice, oilseed rapes, corns and potatoes; the population of the demonstration area is 6120. Since the farmland is polluted by the heavy metal caused by “three wastes� of enterprises involving heavy metal pollution, the rice and sediment test samples exceed the standards, and the pollution sources have been effectively controlled. The main farmland pollution type is cadmium pollution, and there is still a small amount of unpolluted farmland. 19 2.2.4 Social-economic analysisof Huayuan County (1) County overview Population Overview. Huayuan County is located in central Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture with total land area of 1109.35km2. Huayuan County is the typical “old, minor, lateral, poor, reservoir and mountain� area, which is the key county of national poverty alleviation and development and regional development of Wuling Mountain. There were 312,473 registered population in Huayuan County at the end of 2019, among them, 160,464 were men, 152,009 were women, the permanent resident population was 283,609. The per capita disposable income of county residents is 160,64 Yuan, the per capita disposable income of urban residents is 26,516 Yuan, and that of rural residents is 9,510 Yuan. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the total output value reached 7.21215 billion Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 6.1%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 810.08 million Yuan, with the year-on-year growth of 3.0%; added value in the secondary industry was 2.29671 billion Yuan, with the year- on-year growth of 8.7%; added value in the tertiary industry was 4.10536 billion Yuan, with the growth of 5.2%. The three industries structure turned from 10.2: 31.4: 58.4 in the previous year to 11.2: 31.8: 56.9. The output value per capita was 25,016 Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 8.7% calculated based on annual average permanent resident population. Agriculture Overview. In 2019, except producing grain crop, the county also produces one-year cash crops and fruits; among them, grain crops mainly include rice, corn, sweet potato, and soybean, etc.; the one-year cash crops mainly include rape, peanut, vegetables, flue-cured tobacco and artemisia apiacea, etc.; fruits mainly include orange, pear and kiwifruit, etc. Rice, oilseed rape, vegetables and other crops are staple crops. Main planting systems are rice, rape-rice, rice-fertilizer, rice-vegetable and so on. The sown area of agricultural crops in the year was 464,406 Chinese mu, the output was 177,077 tons. Grain crops cover a sowing area of 269,697 Chinese mu, among which cereals cover 219,483 Chinese mu, corns 63,523 Chinese mu, beans 27,446 Chinese mu, tubers 22,768 Chinese mu and oil-bearing crops, tobacco, Chinese herbs, vegetables and fruits respectively 61,171 Chinese mu, 21,800 Chinese mu, 12,937 20 Chinese mu, 71,563 Chinese mu and 4,898 Chinese mu. The total grain output for across the year was 91,578 tons, with 81,745 tons of cereals. (2) Demonstration area overview Huayuan County plans to add one demonstration area (Biancheng Town Demonstration Area): The newly-added, Biancheng Town Demonstration Area is located in the West of Huayuan County. The demonstration area includes Gaohe Village, the total area of farmland in the demonstration area is 916 Chinese mu, and the main crop planted is rice. The total population of the demonstration area is 1018. Farmland is polluted by heavy metals caused by smelting, lead zinc ore and “three wastes� from other enterprises involving in heavy metal pollution. The heavy metal content of rice and soil test samples exceeds the standard but pollution sources have been effectively controlled. A compound pollution of cadmium, arsenic and mercury is a dominant type in farmland soil pollution, which reaches a medium level. 2.2.5 Social-economic analysisof Jishou City (1) County overview Population Overview. The total population with household registration of the city was 312,400 in the end of 2019 with the growth of 0.26% compared with the last year; the permanent resident population was 361,800 with the growth of 1.01%. The urban population of the city was 268,400 and its urbanization rate was 74.18% with the growth of 0.12%. The per capita disposable income of city residents was 27,357 Yuan, with the year-on-year growth of 9.1%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents is 32,762 Yuan, increased 2,483 Yuan compared with the last year with the growth of 8.2%. The per capita disposable income of rural residents is 11,761, increased 1,001Yuan with the growth of 9.3%. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the city total output value reached 19.3556 billion Yuan with the growth of 7.2% compared with last year. The added value in the primary industry was 837.73 million Yuan, with the growth of 3.6%; in the secondary industry 6.80896 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.2%; in the tertiary 21 industry 11.70891 billion Yuan, with the growth of 9.9%. The total regional output value per capita was 53,766 Yuan with the growth of 5.1% calculated based on permanent resident population. The structure of three industries was 4.3: 35.2: 60.5 in total production output. Agricultural Development Overview. In 2019, the grain crops covered a sowing area of 8,754 hectares all year round, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%, among which rice covered a sowing area of 5,607 hectares. The total grain yield across the city reached 48,171 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 0.4%, among which rice yield reached 36,050 tons. The planting type is double cropping and single cropping. Double cropping with main forms of rice-oilseed rape and rice-vegetable; single cropping with main form of rice-idle. The rice planting variety includes Xiangmi 5431, Y Liangyou 1998, Liangyou 584 and Chaoyou 2000. The monitoring data results of soil agricultural products show that, in 5 risk factors such as cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead and chromium, the rice in Jishou City has the risk of heavy metal pollution, and its main risk factor is cadmium. (2) Demonstration area overview Jishou City plans to add two demonstration areas (Qianzhou Demonstration Area and Aizhai Demonstration Area) and reduce one demonstration area (Shuangtang Demonstration Area. The Project can not be implemented in the Shuangtang Demonstration Area due to the construction of a High-speed Rail New Town). Including: Qianzhou Demonstration Area located in Jishou downtown area. The demonstration area was newly-added Gongqianghu Village and Sanchaping Village, and has an area of 280 Chinese mu and a population of 4428. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals caused by businesses involving in heavy metal pollution including chemical and mining businesses. Farmlands might also be possibly polluted by excessive agricultural inputs or the higher soil background value. Rice was sample tested to show a result of exceeding the standard. The source of pollution has been effectively treated. A compound pollution of cadmium and arsenic is a dominant type in rice pollution, which is of light degree. Aizhai Demonstration Area is situated in the west entrance of Jishou City, the 22 municipality of Xiangxi Prefecture. The demonstration area was newly-added Liantuan Village, Pinglang Village, Shu’er Village, Jiating Village, Hangtuo Village, Hongping Village and Jilue Village. The Demonstration area covers 510 Chinese mu and a population of 5,973. Crops include rice, rape, tea, vegetables, etc. The cropping system is rice-rape. The farmland is polluted by the heavy metal caused by “three wastes� of historical enterprises involving heavy metal pollution, the rice and sediment test samples exceed the standards, and the municipal environmental protection bureau will further take countermeasures for pollution sources in the area. A compound pollution of cadmium and arsenic is a dominant type in farmland pollution, which is of light degree. 2.2.6 Social-economic analysisof Qiyang County (1) County overview Population Overview. The permanent resident population was 856,700 at the end of 2019, including urban population of 433,500 and rural population of 423,200, and the urbanization rate was 50.6%, 1.34 percentage points higher than last year. It was not the area inhabited by ethnic minorities. The per capita disposable income of rural residents is 15,339 Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 9.5%, and that of urban residents is 34,015 Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 9.7%. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the total output value of the county reached 33.206 billion Yuan with the growth of 7.2% compared with the last year. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 5.092 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.1%; added value in the secondary industry was 9.717 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.9%; added value in the tertiary industry was 18.343 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.9%. The total regional output value per capita of the county was 38,769.7 Yuan calculated based on annual average permanent resident population. The three industries structures of the county are 15.34: 29.42: 55.24. Agriculture Overview. The grain planting area was 89,400 hectares in 2019 with the reduction of 0.39% compared with the last year. The total grain output was 572,000 tons, with the reduction of 0.23% compared with the last year. There are 1,103 farmers’ specialized cooperatives, 1,743 family farms and a land remediation project (high-level 23 farmland development) achieving a development of 60,000 Chinese mu of high-level farmland. The planting type is divided into triple cropping, double cropping and single cropping. Triple cropping with main forms of rice-rice-rape and rice-rice-vegetable; double cropping with main forms of rice-rice; single cropping with main form of rice- idle and rice-vegetable. According to the monitoring sampling and encrypted monitoring data of agricultural land soil, heavy metal pollution exists in partial agricultural land soil in Qiyang County to different degrees, and the main pollution risk factors are cadmium, arsenic and mercury; in addition, it exists in the form of compound pollution. (2) Demonstration Area Overview Qiyang County plans to expanded on the basis of the original demonstration area (Xiaojia Demonstration Area); Xiaojia Demonstration Area is located in the central and southern hinterland of Qiyang County in Hunan Province, 35 kilometers away from the county town. The demonstration area covers Tongzi Village and Jiuniuba Village, and has an area of 1100 Chinese mu and a population of 5010. Xiaojia Demonstration Area mainly plants rice and adopts the cropping system of single cropping rice + ratoon rice. In addition to ensuring the basic ration of farmers, most of the rice is sold to local grain processing enterprises. Farmland is affected by historical nickel-molybdenum mining in the past, which leads to heavy metal pollution in farmland. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution, mainly with low risk or medium risk. 2.2.7 Social-economic analysisof Linwu County (1) County overview Population Overview. The permanent resident population was 347,200 at the end of 2019, including rural population of 161,900 and urban population of 185,300. The urbanization rate was 53.4%, 4.7 percentage points higher than at the beginning of the year. The annual per capita disposable income of urban residents is 30,058 Yuan, with the growth of 8.4% compared with the last year. The annual per capita disposable income of rural residents is 14,239 Yuan, with the growth of 9.7%. The annual per capita 24 disposable income of all residents is 20,529 Yuan, with the growth of 9.9%. Economic Development Overview. The total regional output value per capita was 14,218.72 million Yuan with the growth of 7.9% in 2019 compared with the last year calculated by comparable price. The output value per capita was 40,953 Yuan with the growth of 9.1% (3423 Yuan) calculated based on permanent resident population. The added value in the primary industry was 1.44425 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.6%; in the secondary industry 6.04887 billion Yuan, with the growth of 8.0%; in the tertiary industry 6.7256 billion Yuan, with the growth of 8.9%. Agriculture Overview. The total agricultural output value was 2491.11 million Yuan with the growth of 3.6% compared with the last year calculated by comparable price. Grain planting area of the county was 21,500 ha, with the growth of 0.6% compared with the last year; The total grain output was 120,400 tons with the growth of 0.4%. The main grain crop in the county is rice. The planting type is divided into double cropping and single cropping; double cropping with main forms of rape-rice, vegetable-rice, watermelon-rice and corn-rice, single cropping with main form of rice- idle. (2) Demonstration area overview Linwu County plans to add two demonstration areas (Jinjiang Town Demonstration Area and Shuidong Town Demonstration Area) and expand two demonstration areas (Wushui Town Demonstration Area and Nanqiang Town Demonstration Area). Including: Jinjiang Town Demonstration Area is located in the Northeast of Linwu County. Jinjiang Town Demonstration Area covers Xinhua Village, with an area of 374 Chinese mu, 703 households and a population of 2468. The Demonstration Area mainly plants rice and adopts the single-season cropping system. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution and it is mainly low-risk. Shuidong Town Demonstration Area is located in the East of Linwu County, 28 kilometers away from the city downtown. Shuidong Town Demonstration Area covers Dongjiang Village, with an area of 248 Chinese mu, 260 households and a population of 1164. The Demonstration Area mainly plants rice, rape and adopts the single-season 25 cropping system. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution and it is mainly low-risk. Wushui Town Demonstration Area is located in the Southeast area of Linwu County. Wushui Town Demonstration Area covers 2 villages, Zhenshang Village and Yaofeng Village, with an area of 580 Chinese mu, 530 households and a population of 1900. The demonstration area mainly plants rice and adopts the one-season cropping system. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution, mainly with low risk or medium risk. Nanqiang Town Demonstration Area is located in the Southeast area of Linwu County. The demonstration area covers four villages, Zhaijiang Village, Liantang Village, Xiangtang Village and Tiantou Village, with an area of 1459.9 Chinese mu, 1938 households and a population of 6483. The Demonstration Area mainly plants rice and adopts the single-season cropping system. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution, mainly with low risk or medium risk. 2.2.8 Social-economic analysisof Lengshuitan District (1) Regional Overview Population Overview. The total population with household registration in the public security system in the district was 561,600 at the end of 2019 in 196,000 households. The permanent resident population was 553,700 at the end of the year in 192,200 households, including urban population of 384,600 and rural population of 169,100, the urbanization rate was 69.46%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents in the district reached 35,705 Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 9.6%. The per capita consumption expenditure of urban residents reached 23,183 Yuan and the per capita disposable income of rural residents reached 22,519 Yuan. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the total GDP in the district reached 33.511 billion Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 7.3%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 3.474 billion Yuan, with the year-on-year growth of 3.5%; added value in the secondary industry was 8.928 billion Yuan, with the year-on- year growth of 7.1%; added value in the tertiary industry was 21.109 billion Yuan, with the year-on-year growth of 8.0%. The per capita GDP was 61,425 Yuan with the year- 26 on-year growth of 7.5% calculated based on permanent resident population. The three industries structure turned from 15.4: 38.6: 46.0 in 2015 to 10.4: 26.6: 63.0 in 2019. Agriculture Overview. In 2019, the gross output of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries products (current price) in the District reached RMB6.523 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. Crops had a sowing area of 1.321 million Chinese mu, a year-on-year decrease of 1.3%. Among them, the sowing area of grain crops is 804,144 Chinese mu which produces 340,459 tons of grain. The main grain crop in Lengshuitan District is rice. The planting type is double cropping and single cropping, the main forms of double cropping are rice-rice and oilseed rape-rice, etc., the main form of single cropping is rice-idle. Rice planting varieties include Xiangzaoxian 45, Xiangwanxian 13, Huanghuazhan, and the like. According to the data of farmland soil monitoring samples and dense monitoring samples were collected in Lengshuitan District. Some farmland soil in the district existed different degrees of heavy metal pollution, and the main pollution risk element was cadmium, followed by arsenic and mercury. (2) Demonstration area overview Lengshuitan District plans to add one demonstration area (Niujiaoba Town Demonstration Area) and expand one demonstration area (Xianghuaba Village Demonstration Area). Including: Niujiaoba Town is located in the North of Lengshuitan District, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. Niujiaba Town Demonstration Area covers Xiangshanjie Village, with an area of 1800 Chinese mu, 1029 households and a population of 4362. The Demonstration Area mainly plants rice and adopts the double-season cropping system. Cadmium pollution is the main type of farmland soil pollution and it is mainly low-risk. Xianghuaba Village Demonstration Area is located in the east of Lengshuitan District and the main planting system in the demonstration area is rice-green manure. The demonstration area has an area of 1960 Chinese mu, 640 households and a population of 2232. The Demonstration Area mainly plants rice and adopts the double- season cropping system. The farmland is polluted by irrigation water sources due to heavy metal pollution caused by “three wastes� of historical enterprises involving 27 heavy metal pollution. Cadmium pollution is a dominant type in rice pollution, which is of a high risk. 2.2.9 Social-economic analysisof Hengnan County (1) County overview Population Overview. The permanent resident population was 915,900 at the end of 2019, including urban population of 380,100. The urbanization rate was 41.5%. The birth rate was ‰, death rate was 2.87‰, natural growth rate was 6.44‰ and sex ratio at birth were 113.06. The annual per capita disposable income of urban residents is 35,266 Yuan, with the growth of 8.6%. The annual per capita disposable income of rural residents is 22,457 Yuan, with the growth of 8.9%. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 34.109 billion Yuan with the year-on-year growth of 8.0%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 6.421 billion Yuan, with the growth of 2.6%; added value in the secondary industry was 11.473 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.9%; added value in the tertiary industry was 16.215 billion Yuan, with the growth of 10.4%. The per capita GDP (GDP current price) was 37,241 Yuan with the growth of 5.6% calculated based on permanent resident population. The ratio of three industrial structures of are 18.8: 33.6: 47.6. The proportion of the tertiary industry increased by 0.1 percentage point over the previous year. Agriculture Overview. By the end of 2019, the actual cultivated area in Hengnan County had reached 71,140 hectares and the gross output of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries products RMB11.374 billion, an increase of 2.8%. Hengnan County ranks first in the province in comprehensive production capacity of grain, oil, cotton, tobacco and live pigs. The annual grain sown area was 1.3627 million mu with total grain output of 625,400 tons. The planting type is divided into triple cropping, double cropping and single cropping. Triple cropping with main forms of rice-rice- fertilizer, rice-rice-oilseed rape and rice-rice-vegetable; double cropping with main forms of rice-rice, oilseed rape-rice, vegetable-rice, tobacco-rice, watermelon-rice and corn-rice, etc.; single cropping with main form of rice-idle. The rice varieties mainly include Xiangzaoxian Rice 45, Xiangwanxian Rice 13, Huanghuazhan and other 28 varieties. According to the monitoring sampling and encrypted monitoring Sampling data of agricultural land soil of Hengnan County, heavy metal pollution exists in partial agricultural land soil in the county to different degrees, and the main pollution risk factor is cadmium and arsenic ranks the second; in addition, some exist in the form of compound pollution. (2) Demonstration area overview Hengnan County plans to expanded on the basis of the two original demonstration areas (Quanxi Town Demonstration Area and Xiangyang Town Demonstration Area): Quanxi Town Demonstration Area is located in the west of Hengnan County. The demonstration area covers Changcun Village with an area of 1200 Chinese mu and a population of 3097. The demonstration area adopts rice-idle, rice-rape and rice- vegetable planting systems. The risk of arsenic pollution in Quanxi Demonstration Area comes from production management. Besides agricultural management and soil remediation measures, it is necessary to further clarify the influence of dry and wet sedimentation, varieties and production management. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high, and there is a low risk of arsenic pollution in rice. Cadmium pollution is the main type of pollution in farmland soil, and its risk is mainly medium or high. Farmland is polluted by heavy metals caused by “three wastes� from other enterprises involving in heavy metal pollution. At the same time, there may be the problem of over application of agricultural fertilizers. Xiangyang Town Demonstration Area is located in the east of Hengnan County. The demonstration area covers Huanghe Village and Chaoyang Village with an area of 2100 Chinese mu and a population of 5567. The demonstration area adopts rice-idle, rice-rape and rice-vegetable planting systems. In the upper reaches of the river, the main pollution source is heavy metal pollution caused by the “three wastes� from enterprises involved in heavy metal pollution in past but it has been effectively controlled. Cadmium pollution is the main type of pollution in farmland soil, and its risk is mainly medium or high. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high, and there is a low risk of cadmium and arsenic pollution in rice. 29 2.2.10 Social-economic analysisin Hengyang County (1) County overview Population Overview. The total population with household registration of the county was 1.24 million in the end of 2019 with the reduction of 5700 compared with the last year. There were 12,282 births throughout the year. The birth rate was 9.62‰, up 0.62‰; the death population is 7374, death rate was 5.78‰, an increase of 2.08‰; the natural growth rate was 3.85‰, a decrease of 0.48‰. Sex ratio at birth was 109.02 (take women as 100). At the end of year, the permanent population is 1.0374 million, decreasing by 11,400 people. Of them, the urban population is 0.4579 million and the rural population is 0.5795 million. The urbanization rate is 44.14%, increasing by 0.94%. The per capita disposable income of urban residents is 35,612 Yuan with the growth of 8.3%, and that of rural residents is 19,112 Yuan with the growth of 8.9%. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 34.894 billion Yuan with the growth of 7.8%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 6.371 billion Yuan, with the growth of 2.8%; added value in the secondary industry was 12.519 billion Yuan, with the growth of 7.9%; added value in the tertiary industry was 16.004 billion Yuan, with the growth of 10.0%. GDP growth driven by three industries on economic growth were 0.5%, 3.2% and 4.1% respectively. Contribution rates of three industries was 6.1%, 41.1% and 52.8% respectively. The per capita GDP of the 33,452 Yuan calculated based on permanent resident population. The structure of the three industries was adjusted to 18.3: 35.9: 45.8. The total GDP accounts for 10.3% of the whole city. Agriculture Overview. The annual grain planting area was 90,910 hectares at the end of 2019 and the total grain output was 618,000 tons. The planting type is divided into triple cropping, double cropping and single cropping. Triple cropping with main forms of rice-rice-fertilizer, rice-rice-oilseed rape and rice-rice-vegetable; double cropping with main forms of rice-rice, oilseed rape-rice, vegetable-rice, tobacco-rice, watermelon-rice and corn-rice, etc.; single cropping with main form of rice-idle. By the end of 2019, the effective irrigation area of farmland had reached 763,000 Chinese mu and the water-saving irrigation area 5,000 Chinese mu. By the end of the year, the total power of agricultural machinery had reached 827,100 kilowatts. 30 (2) Demonstration area overview Hengyang County plans to add one demonstration area (Sanhu Town Demonstration Area), which covers 2 Villages, Fuxing Village and Yanglin Village, with an area of 4477 Chinese mu, 1145 households and a population of 4021. Sanhu Town is located in the central part of Hengyang County. According to related soil monitoring data, most land of the village is moderately polluted, mainly by cadmium. 2.2.11 Analysis of Social-economic Status of Yongding District (1) County overview Population Overview. At the end of 2019, there were 193,948 households registration with total registered population of 481,342 in the district. Among them, urban population was 199,928 and rural population was 281,414. By the end of the year, there were 477,800 permanent residents and a total of 179,800 households. In 2019, the per capita disposable income of residents in the District was RMB30,405, an increase of 9%. Per capita owned home housing area of residents reached 57 square meters. The annual per capita disposable income of rural residents is 11,211 Yuan, with the growth of 11%. Economic Development Overview. In 2019, the regional gross production value all year round reached RMB22.957 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.8% which was respectively higher than the average levels of the State, the Province and the City by 1.7%, 0.2% and 0.2%. Among them, the added value in the primary industry was 2.194 billion Yuan; added value in the secondary industry was 3.416 billion Yuan; added value in the tertiary industry was 17.347 billion Yuan, with the growth of 3.2%, 6.7%, 8.5% respectively. Contribution rates of three industries on GDP were 3.46%, 13.27% and 83.27% respectively. GDP growth driven by three industries was 0.3%, 1.0% and 6.5% respectively. The three industries structure turned from 8.8: 15.5: 75.7 last year to 9.5: 14.9: 75.6. The total regional output value per capita was 48,474 Yuan with the growth of 6.4% calculated based on permanent resident population. Agriculture Overview. By the end of 2019, the gross output of farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries products and services all year round had reached RMB3,607.18 million, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%. Grain crops all year round had 31 reached a sowing area of 415,000 Chinese mu with total grain yield reaching 145,534 tons. Conditions of agricultural production had been steadily improved. A total of RMB55,950,500 was invested in water projects in the District all year round. Eight water projects of various types or 109 places had started construction. 1230,000m 3 of earthwork had been accomplished. 1,320 hectares of effective irrigation area and 390 hectares of highly-efficient water-saving irrigation area had been added. (2) Demonstration area overview Yongding District plans to add three demonstration areas (Yuanguping Town Demonstration Area, Wangjiaping Town Demonstration Area and Xinqiao Town Demonstration Area) and expand one demonstration area (Yinjiaxi Town Demonstration Area). Including: The newly-added, Yuanguping Town Demonstration Area is located in the East area of Yongding District. The demonstration area covers 4 villages, Hongtuping Village, Hongxing Village, Changtan Village and Matouxi Village, with an area of 3000 mu, and the population is 5950. Rice and corn are staple crops in the demonstration area, and adopts the one-season cropping system. Farmlands were polluted by heavy metals due to Xiangjiaxi coal mining business. The enrichment coefficient of common rice varieties used by farmers is not high and the risk of rice is low. There are different levels of heavy metal pollution in farmland soil, and the main risk factor is cadmium. The newly-added, Wangjiaping Town Demonstration Area is located in the Southeast mountainous area of Yongding District. The demonstration area covers 1 village, Shiyanping Village, with an area of 328 mu and a population of 648. The newly- added, Xinqiao Town is located at the north gate of Yongding District. The demonstration area covers 1 village, Yuanda Village, with an area of 1100 mu and a population of 1990. According to related soil monitoring data, most land of this two villages are slightly polluted, mainly by cadmium and nickel. Yinjiaxi Town Demonstration Area is located in the northwest of Yongding District. Demonstration Area covers the Mojiagang Village, with an area of 760 mu, main crops in the village include rice, oilseed rapes, corns and potatoes; the population of the demonstration area is 1811. Since the farmland is polluted by the heavy metal caused by “three wastes� of enterprises involving heavy metal pollution, the rice and sediment 32 test samples exceed the standards, and the pollution sources have been effectively controlled. The main farmland pollution type is cadmium pollution, and there is still a small amount of unpolluted farmland. 33 3. Analysis of the main stakeholder groups and requirements of the project 3.1 The definition of stakeholder groups of the project According to the World Bank aid targets, all directly or indirectly benefited or damaged individuals and organizations in the affected area of the project are both stakeholder groups of the project. According to the feasibility study report, the farmland pollution in the demonstration area is controlled through agrotechnology improvement, land restoration, establishing monitoring stations, supporting rural cooperative organizations and other measures. The main stakeholders involved include five categories: (1) Farmer households in the demonstration areas. Farmer households in the demonstration area are the main groups directly benefited or damaged of the project, the farmland heavy metal pollution control will have an impact on the land use, agrotechnology measures and so on. (2) Farmer cooperatives and related enterprises. Farmer cooperatives in the demonstration area are also the main groups directly benefited or damaged, the farmland heavy metal pollution control will have different degrees of impact on the management and farming modes. (3) Village committees of the project villages. The village committees of the project villages are the main groups of the farmland pollution control. (4) Relevant government departments. The farmland pollution control involves Agriculture, Environmental Protection, Rural Revitalization Bureau, National Religious Affairs Administration and other relevant departments. (5) Disadvantaged group. Mainly refer to ethnic minorities, women and low- income households. This part focuses on analyzing the appeals and expectations of the farmer 34 households, farmer cooperatives, village committees in the demonstration area and relevant government departments for the project. The analysis of disadvantaged groups will be divided into the ethnic minority analysis, gender analysis and low-income individuals analysis in the following chapters. 3.2 Analysis of stakeholder groups’ project awareness 3.2.1 Awareness and project awareness situations of stakeholders First, most farmers have realized the pollution of heavy metal to farmland. Although farmers’ educational level is not high, through the publicity and explanation of government staffs and the perception from farmers’ own experience, quite a number of farmers have realized that farmland has suffered from heavy metal pollution. The survey data shows that 33.3% of the residents believe that the farmland heavy metal pollution in the demonstration area is very serious; 41.0% of the residents believe the pollution is relatively serious; 13.5% believe the pollution is general; 13.1% believe the pollution is not very serious; only 4.1% think there is no pollution; as shown in Table 3-1. In the interview, some farmers said that government staff and experts from the county or the township had come to check the degree of soil pollution, and village committees often held meetings to publicize the relevant knowledge, so that they could know the situation of farmland pollution. On the other hand, with their years of farming experience, they can also find that there are fewer and fewer frogs and other creatures in rice fields, which also makes them realize that farmland may be polluted. Table 3-1 Pollution Conditions of Farmland Heavy Metals (such as Cadmium, Nickel, Arsenic, etc.) in the Demonstration Areas Accumulative Frequency Valid percentage percentage Very serious 316 33.3 33.3 Relatively serious 389 41.0 74.3 Valid General 128 13.5 87.8 Not very serious 76 8.0 95.8 No pollution 40 4.2 100.0 Total 949 100.0 35 Secondly, a fair proportion of residents have been aware of the adverse effect caused by heavy metal pollution. In terms of the impact and consequences of pollution, 82.5% of the residents think that farmland pollution has a “great� or “relatively great� impact on local people’s health, 72.9% of the residents think that farmland pollution has a “great� or “relatively great� impact on the output of local agricultural output, 80.1% think that farmland pollution has a “great� or “relatively great� impact on the quality of local agricultural products, and 82.5% think that farmland pollution has a “great� or “relatively great� impact on the selling price of local agricultural products (see Table 3- 2). This shows that a considerable number of farmers have clearly recognized the adverse effects and harms of farmland pollution on local grain output, agricultural product safety, product price and residents’ health. Table 3-2 Impact of heavy metal pollution in farmlands on local production Relatively Relatively No Great General Total great small impact Impact of farmland pollution 50.1% 32.4% 11.6% 4.3% 1.6% 100.0% on the health of local residents Impact of farmland pollution on the yield of local 43.6% 29.3% 18.6% 5.8% 2.7% 100.0% agricultural products Impact of farmland pollution on the quality of local 49.5% 30.6% 14.9% 2.9% 2.1% 100.0% agricultural products Impact of farmland pollution on the selling price of local 50.3% 32.2% 12.4% 3.8% 1.3% 100.0% agricultural products Third, the residents have a certain understanding of the “Hunan Agricultural Land Pollution Control Project� and they are also very supportive of the project. The survey data shows that the residents have a certain understanding of this project, 14.1% of farmers “know a lot�, 38.2% of farmers know more, 20.4% of farmers know a little, 13.7% of farmers do not know very well, and only 13.6% know nothing (see Table 3-3). Table 3-3 Farmers’ understanding of “Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project� Frequency Valid percentage Accumulative percentage Valid Know nothing 129 13.6 13.6 36 Not know very well 130 13.7 27.3 Know a little 193 20.4 47.7 Know more 363 38.2 85.9 Know a lot 134 14.1 100.0 Total 949 100.0 In addition, the farmers are supportive of this project. Among them, 69.8% of the farmers are “very supportive� and 22.3% are “relatively supportive�, only 1.5% are “not very supportive� or “strongly opposed� (see Table 3-4). This result further shows that most farmers are aware of this kind of farmland pollution and the harm, so they are supportive of the project and are quite willing to participate in soil remediation. 37 Table 3-4 Attitudes of farmers to “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� Frequency Valid percentage Accumulative percentage Very supportive 662 69.8 69.8 Relatively supportive 211 22.3 92.1 Valid General 61 6.4 98.5 Not too supportive 9 0.9 99.4 Strongly opposed 6 0.6 100.0 Total 949 100.0 3.2.2 Analysis of stakeholders’ participation willingness “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� which is implemented by the World Bank loan involves the farming technology, farmland use and the construction of public facilities. According to the local survey, the willingness of the residents participating in the survey is very high, mainly showing in: First, about ninety percent residents in demonstration areas are willing to change crop varieties and improve cultivation mode according to the project. Residents in demonstration areas mainly plant rice. In order to effectively control farmland pollution, however, 88.4% residents are willing to (including very willing and relatively willing) change farmland planting pattern according to governance demand of the project. 88% residents are willing to adjust planted rice varieties according to governance demand of the project. 90.1% residents are willing to spray lime and adopt leaf inhibitor and control agent (Si) according to governance demand of the project. 90.7% residents are willing to irrigate with clean water in farmland according to governance demand of the project. 90.8% residents are willing to apply organic fertilizer or plant green manure and not to apply chemical fertilizer any more according to governance demand of the project. Please refer to Table 3-5 for details. Second, after appropriate subsidies provided by government, about ninety percent residents in demonstration areas are willing to conduct land transfer. According to survey, 90.9% residents are willing to conduct land transfer and contiguous development in a systematic way. In the process of land transfer, residents are willing to adopt Shares + Cooperation or renting. Third, 38 more than ninety percent residents support the construction of public facilities in Demonstration Areas. According to survey, 91.1% residents are willing to make appropriate transformation and upgrading to the irrigation infrastructure of local farmland; 92.3% residents are willing to build the heavy metal pollution straw treatment new facilities in heavy metal contaminated area of farmland. Fourth, more than ninety residents are willing to participate in project construction and relevant technical training in demonstration areas. According to survey, 92.5% residents are willing to participate in project construction and 92.1% in agro-technical training in Demonstration Areas. Fifthly, eighty residents are willing to replant other crops. According to the survey, 86.8% residents are willing to replant other crops according to demand of the project. From the survey data, we can draw the following conclusions: (1) The local farmers give a higher reproject awareness degree to the ways of improving the agricultural product quality; (2) the local farmers are more willing to the large-scale construction through the land transfer; (3) local farmers have the higher willingness of participating in relevant technical training. Table 3-5 Participation Willingness of Residents (%) A little Very Very Relatively General unwillin unwillin Total willing willing g g As required by the project, adjust 70.1 18.3 7.4 2.2 2.0 100.00 farmland planting pattern As required by the project, adjust 69.5 18.5 10.8 0.6 0.6 100.00 planted rice varieties As required by the project, spray lime and adopt leaf inhibitor and control 71.3 18.8 8.6 0.8 0.5 100.00 agent (Si) in farmland As required by the project, irrigate with 72.4 18.3 7.4 1.1 0.8 100.00 clean water in farmland As required by the project, apply organic fertilizer or plant green manure 71.2 19.6 7.5 1.0 0.7 100.00 and notapply chemical fertilizer any more As required by the project, make appropriate transformation and 73.1 18.0 6.7 1.3 0.9 100.00 upgrading to the irrigation infrastructure of local farmland As required by the project, build the straw treatment facilities in heavy metal 72.7 19.6 5.8 1.4 0.5 100.00 pollution area of farmland 39 As required by the project, build new or reconstruct tractor roads and other 75.6 15.7 6.5 1.3 0.9 100.00 measures As required by the project, conduct land transfer and contiguous development in 72.3 18.6 6.3 1.8 1.0 100.00 a systematic way As required by the project, replant other 69.3 17.5 9.8 2.0 1.4 100.00 crops As required by the project, hire some farmers to participate in the 75.6 16.9 6.5 0.6 0.4 100.00 construction of local project As required by the project, offer the technical training for the farmers 74.8 17.3 6.1 1.1 0.7 100.00 participating 3.3 Needs analysis of the stakeholders The needs of main stakeholder groups in the demonstration area include: I. Control the farmland heavy metal pollution and improve the living standards of residents. Through the visit and survey of the project villages, we know that the farmland heavy metal pollution has caused different degrees of influence on the farmers’ income, the quality and quantity of agricultural products as well as the farmer’s health. The farmland heavy metal pollution has become a key factor that restricts the income of farmers and the upgrading of agricultural industry. Therefore, the major stakeholder groups of the project village require urgently controlling the farmland heavy metal pollution, to improve the levels of the residents’ life and income. II. Improve agricultural infrastructure and develop the production. Through the visit and survey of the project villages, the social assessment team knows that there exist generally the problems of irrigation canals which have been in disrepair for long years, and a lack of pollution monitoring facilities of farmland and agricultural products in the project villages. The lack of additional measures needed by agricultural development lead to the low level of industrial development. Therefore, the main stakeholder groups in the project village think it is urgently required to improve the agricultural infrastructure and develop agricultural production. III. Establish the farmers’ cooperatives and improve the ability of resisting 40 the market risk and self-development. Through the visit and survey of the project villages, the social assessment team knows there exist generally the conditions that the cooperatives’ development degree is low and the operation is poor, and some of the project villages have not yet established the cooperatives by far. When the farmer households develop related industries, they lack funds, technology and the guide of related organizations, the industrial development is dispersed and lack the scale, the yield of products is low, the market information is short, and the competitiveness of products is low in the demonstration area. The farmer households believe generally that the cooperatives play a special role in their industrial development, and they hope, through the development of cooperatives, to improve the degree of organization and develop regional advantages, leading them to promote their development and prosperity. IV. Create the opportunities of employment and entrepreneurship in the places of local and close to farmers’ homes, to promote the return of migrant workers. Through the visit and survey of the project villages, the social assessment team knows that there all exist a lot of migrant workers in the project villages. The main reasons why the farmers go out for offfarming work are that the traditional agricultural livelihood is difficult to support their families, which causes elderly and children left behind in the villages. Therefore, the left-behind elderly and children in the villages as well as migrant workers hope urgently that this project can promote the scales of the local agricultural development, to create opportunities of employment and entrepreneurship in the places of local and close to the farmers’ homes for migrant workers. Different stakeholders have different requirements for the project, analyzing specifically various types of main stakeholders’ requirements is conducive to identifying the major social issues of the project, to avoid the potential social risks of the project and promote the smooth implementation of the project. The social assessment team implements the project information publicity, propaganda, public participation and other activities for the stakeholder groups in the area affected by the project, and analyzes the requirements of the main stakeholders, mainly includes five aspects as follows: (1) Farmer households in the demonstration areas 41 The farmer households in the demonstration area are the groups affected directly by the project and also the main groups benefiting from the project. The attitudes and behaviors of the farmer households in the demonstration area have a direct effect on the progress of the project, so the satisfaction condition of the needs of the farmer households in the demonstration area is one of the criteria to achieve evaluating the project objectives. The farmer households in the demonstration area are eager to develop the local agricultural production, control the farmland heavy metal pollution and make the standards of their production and life improved generally. Because the agricultural development in the project villages is restricted by information, technology and fund, they hope, through establishing the cooperatives, to make the agricultural development develop in the direction of the ecological agriculture. Through the visit and survey of the farmers in the project villages, we know that the requirements of the farmers in the demonstration area include: (1) Improve the agricultural production infrastructure, such as repairing or constructing new irrigation channels, tractor roads and other facilities; (2) Improve the local ecological environment, improve the quality of agricultural products and develop the ecological agriculture; (3) Participate in farmer cooperatives and reduce the risk and cost of production; (4) Adjust the industrial structures, increase appropriately the proportion of economic crops and improve the income level; (5) Reduce the cost increase risk that the farmland heavy metal control process brings to the farmers. (2) Farmer cooperatives in the demonstration area As the important implementing subject of agronomic measures in demonstration areas, the farmers’ specialized cooperatives hope to reduce the risk of heavy metal exceeding criterion in the products, enhance the value of agricultural products and promote industrial upgrading through the farmland heavy metal pollution control. Through the visit and survey of the farmers in the project villages, we know that the requirements of farmers’ specialized cooperatives in the demonstration area include: (1) Obtain financial support, reduce financing costs and ease the capital pressure of developing the ecological agriculture. (2) Improve organization management level of cooperatives and facilitate local agriculture to adopt scaled development path; (3) Establish soil and agricultural product heavy metal monitoring stations, improve quality 42 management level of agricultural products and promote the local agriculture to adopt the development path of ecological agriculture; (4) Lower risks of sales of agricultural products and increase of costs. (5) Expand the planting scale and create brand products; (6) Establish soil monitoring stations and improve the management level of product quality; (7) Reduce the label effects that the heavy metal pollution control may bring the agricultural products. (3) Project village committee The project village committee is the grassroots and direct management, coordination and executive institution of the project; the organization and management ability of project village committee directly affect the project execution. The project village committee hopes to execute governance to the heavy metal pollution of farmland, improve the ecological environment and thus upgrade the residents’ production and living level. According to the interview with and investigation of project village residents, we can draw the following conclusion: the farmers’ specialized cooperatives of rice in the demonstration area has specific needs: (1) Establish and improve the farmers’ specialized cooperatives and promote upgrading of local industries; (2) Enhance the environmental consciousness of local farmers and training of planting technologies and thus upgrade the environmental protection consciousness and technical level; (3) Formulate reasonable compensation mechanism and thus entertain the residents’ negative mood. (4) Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau Due to numerous project types and large quantity, the project is involved in numerous institutions and staffs; the project suffers from arduous organization, management and coordination tasks. In order to execute the project smoothly, the project county(township) has established a project leadership team; the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau at county level has established a project execution, organization and management institution composed of numerous departments—it is responsible for executing the project. Besides, it has formulated specific management systems and measures, fulfilled the preliminary preparation in high quality and laid a solid organization and system assurance for formal execution of the project. The Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau at county level serves as the main 43 responsible body for the normal operation of whole project stage; it not only fulfills the contract rights and obligations in the identity of owner, but also coordinates and settles the technical, economic, financial and environmental matters related to the project. In the project execution and subsequent supervision and management, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau at county level is the closest stakeholder. Therefore, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau at county level hopes: (1) Cooperate with the stakeholders and fulfill the project in a smooth and successful manner; (2) Assist the farmer households in the demonstration area to control the heavy metal pollution in the farmland, develop the agricultural production and thus upgrade the quality of agricultural products; (3) Execute the project of World Bank and explore into the governance technologies and management model of local farmland pollution. (5) Other governmental departments Other governmental departments include the environmental protection bureau, animal husbandry bureau, rural revitalization bureau, women’s association, civil affairs bureau, national religious affairs administration, human resources and social security bureau, national land bureau and demolition office as well as town departments and offices of the demonstration area. On the one hand, it plays an instructive, supportive and service role to the development of rural cooperative and industry in the demonstration area; on the other hand, the development quality of rural cooperative and industry in the demonstration area directly affects the political performance of governmental and other related departments and increase in the farmers’ income and adjustment to agricultural structure. Therefore, the government and related departments hope: (1) Improve soil quality and local ecological environment and improve administration and monitoring level of local environment; (2) Promote the economic development of project counties and Demonstration Areas; drive the ecological development path of agriculture and promote rural revitalization; (3) Drive the economic and social development, realize the political stability and improve the government image; (4) Improve production and living conditions of low-income population, enhance the living standards of low income people, safeguard the social stability and promote the harmonious development. 44 4. Poverty analysis 4.1 Poverty analysis of project demonstration areas 4.1.1 General status of low-income people in demonstration areas After targeted poverty alleviation and the fight against poverty, 51 poverty- stricken counties in Hunan Province have all been lifted out of poverty in March 2020, and absolute poverty has been eliminated completely. However, this does not mean that this poverty problem does not exist, and poverty will still appear in many forms, such as relative poverty and low-income individuals. The poor population is equivalent to the low-income individuals, mainly referring to the low-income population that poor households have just lifted out of poverty in 2020. From the perspective of this project, in the newly added or expanded demonstration area, a total of 2,650 low-income households are involved, among which 11,391 people with low-income are involved and 7,336 people with disabilities are involved. According to the survey data, it can be seen that: first, the demonstration area involves a large number of low-income individuals; Second, farmland pollution has affected the low-income individuals to get rid of poverty and become rich to a certain extent. Table 4-1 Overall situation of low-income individuals who have just lifted out of poverty in 11 counties and cities Former Low Income Former National Total Low income people in The Disabled Provincial Households in poverty-stricken Project Demonstration Area Population poverty-striken Demonstration Area counties Population (unit: person) (unit: person) county (unit: household) Hengyang 4,021 89 402 259 County Anhua County √ √ 19,159 678 1,916 1,234 Cili County √ 19,580 427 1,958 1,261 Hengnan 5,567 110 557 359 County Huayuan √ √ 1,018 80 102 66 County Jishou City √ 10,401 179 1,040 670 Lengshuitan 8,664 68 866 558 District 45 Linwu County 10,159 125 1,015 654 Qiyang County 5,010 43 501 323 Yongshun √ √ 19,939 589 1,994 1,284 County Yongding 10,399 262 1,040 670 District Total 3 5 113,917 2,650 11,391 7,336 4.1.2 Living model of low-income individuals In the demonstration area, low income people are featured by self-sufficient agricultural economy, which is mainly demonstrated in the following aspects: I. The sources of income is limited, mainly the traditional agriculture. With the continuous advancement of industrialization and urbanization and the continuous improvement of social security system, farmers’ income channels are becoming more and more diversified, including both agricultural income and non-agricultural income, wage income and property income, and personal income and transfer income from the government. However, for the low-income individuals, their income sources and livelihood means are still very single and limited. According to the questionnaire result, 60.0% of low-income individuals mainly depend on the planting and animal husbandry industries; Income from farmlands of low-income individuals accounts for 63.5% of household income on average. This shows that the low-income individuals still take grain cultivation and other farmland cultivation as their main source of income, and their dependence on traditional agricultural income is very high. II. Single business model, it focuses on the traditional agriculture and agricultural business model. Through discussion and interview, it can be found that: on the one hand, the low-income individuals still mainly grow traditional agricultural products such as grain, and few cash crops are planted. According to survey data: 81.7% low income people plant rice in farmlands; 9.6% low income people plant corn in farmlands and only 7.2% low income people plant tea and other economic crops in farmlands. Please refer to Table 4-2. On the other hand, low-income population generally have low educational level and are relatively old (men over 50 years old and women over 45 years old). It is difficult for them to learn new things such as agricultural science and technology and information technology, and they lack the necessary skills 46 to improve their lives. Therefore, they still use traditional production methods mainly and use few modern mechanical technologies in farmland management, and the participation rate of cooperatives is not high. 47 Table 4-2 Crops planted by low income people Crops planted Times (unit: household) Percentage (unit: %) Rice 1,314 81.7% Corn 154 9.6% Oilseed rape 24 1.5% Tea and other economic crops 116 7.2% Total 1,608 100.00 4.1.3 Analysis of causes for poverty Through discussions and interviews with the low-income individuals, it is known that the causes of poverty among the low-income individuals in the demonstration area include low quality of agricultural products, low degree of agricultural industrialization, lack of technology, lack of funds, illness, disability, lack of labor force, etc. I. The agricultural products suffer from poor quality. The low quality of agricultural products leads to unstable prices of agricultural products, and planting is rarely profitable. There are two main reasons: first, the low-income individuals lack agricultural technology, which makes it difficult for them to keep up with the pace of modern agriculture, resulting in lower quality of agricultural products. Survey data show that 26.4% of the low-income individuals are poor due to lack of technology, as shown in Table 4-3; The second is land pollution. Questionnaire data show that farmland pollution not only affects the quantity and quality of agricultural products, but also affects the sales prices. II. The agricultural industrialization is not very high. The low-income individuals are restricted to the information, technology and fund and most of them focus on the traditional agricultural planting and business mode; they fail to participate in the rural cooperative or plant economic products. According to survey: 20.2% low income people fall into poverty due to lack of capital, and 8.6% low income people fall into poverty due to lack of labor. Shortage of capital and labor has also affected participation of low-income individuals in rural cooperatives. Due to non-participation in rural cooperatives, cost of planting per hectare of low-income individuals is generally 30% 48 higher than that of rural cooperatives. III. The poor households suffer from high medical expenditure. The survey shows that farmland pollution has also brought adverse effects on the health of low-income people, which increases the probability of illness and medical expenses of low-income individuals, thereby causing them to fall into poverty or return to poverty. According to survey data: 28.5% low income people fall into poverty due to diseases and 7.2% low income people fall into poverty due to disability. Long-term consumption of food with out-of-limit heavy metal content has inevitably increased the risks of poverty and return to poverty due to disease of low-income individuals. Table 4-3 Analysis of causes for poverty of low-income individuals Poverty Causes Times (unit: household) Valid Percentage (Unit: %) Lacking of technology 425 26.4% Lacking of labor 138 8.6% Lacking of capital 325 20.2% Poverty caused by diseases 458 28.5% Poverty caused by disability 116 7.2% Poverty caused by education 146 9.1% Total 1,608 100% 4.2 Analysis of project awareness and needs of low-income people 4.2.1 Analysis of project awareness Most low-income people don't know much about this Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project, but they are supportive of the project. First, some low-income individuals do not have a clear understanding of the “Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project�. According to the survey data, 14.9% of the low-income individuals don't know anything about the project at all, 11.9% don't know much about it, 37.1% know a little about it, 23.6% know something about it, and 12.5% know very well about it. The survey data show 49 that the low-income individuals already have a certain understanding of the project, but some low-income individuals still do not have a clear understanding of the project, indicating that the publicity work to the low-income population needs to be further deepened. 50 Table 4-4 The understanding of low-income individuals to “Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project� Frequency Valid percentage Cumulative percentage Valid Know nothing 55 14.9 14.9 Not know very 44 11.9 26.8 well Know a little 138 37.1 63.9 Know more 88 23.6 87.5 Know a lot 47 12.5 100.0 Total 372 100.0 Second, low income people generally support the project. According to the investigation, 95.2% low income people maintain that “Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project� is beneficial to the local social and economic development. Therefore, the low-income individuals support the project unanimously. The survey shows that 76.4% of the low-income individuals are very supportive, 12.6% are relatively supportive, and 11.0% hold a general attitude, there are no low-income individuals who "not too support" or "strongly opposed" the project, as shown in table 4-5. Table 4-5 Attitudes of low-income individuals to the local “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� Frequency Valid percentage Cumulative percentage Valid Very supportive 284 76.4 76.4 Relatively 47 12.6 89.0 supportive General 41 11.0 100.0 Not too supportive 0 0 100.0 Strongly opposed 0 0 100.0 Total 372 100.0 4.2.2 Analysis of needs The low-income individuals in the demonstration area is the focus group of the World Bank project. Low income residents in the demonstration area have the following 51 needs: 1. Enhancing the quality of agricultural products. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals in the demonstration area hope to execute governance to serious farmland pollution by heavy metal, to improve the quality of local agricultural products and to reduce the health risks. 2. Strengthening the training of planting technologies. The low-income individuals in the demonstration area generally has the problem of insufficient agricultural technology. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals hope to enhance the production skills, optimize farming technologies and adjust the industrial structure. Third, increasing the employment opportunities. The low-income individuals in the demonstration area can not work in non-local areas due to patients at home or their own disease. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals hope to have more employment opportunities through project execution and increase the income. 4. Enhancing the development capabilities. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals hope to have more employment opportunities through project execution and improve the lever of their family income. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals hope to (1) participate in the rural cooperative and enhance the risk resistance capability; (2) obtain the support of preferential loans; (3) participate in the decision making of project. 5. Providing cost compensation. The agricultural industry of demonstration area is the main income source of low-income individuals. The low-income individuals worry that project may increase the planting cost and reduce income for a short period of time. Therefore, according to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know about that low-income individuals hope to formulate reasonable cost compensation plan and thus avoid reduction of income. 52 53 5. Analysis of Social Gender 5.1 Analysis of women’s development status in demonstration area First, the education level is mainly junior high school. According to survey data: 37.4% of them have primary school and below primary school diploma; 50.1% of them have junior high school diploma; 12.5% of them have senior high school/technical secondary school/vocational school and higher diploma. 2. Most of permanent female resident are engaged in labor with income. The investigation data reveals: 71.5% of them are engaged in labor with income; 29.5% are engaged in labor without income. In the labor with income, 84.2% are engaged in agriculture, 7.7% are working to earn living, 5.1% are engaged in industrial and business industry and 3.0% of them are engaged in other fields. Third, farming women are mainly middle and old aged women. According to survey data: average age of farming women in demonstration areas is 48 years old, and the maximum age is 87 years old while the minimum age is 17 years old. Women engaging in farmland cultivation under 30 years old account for 8.3%, women at 31-40 years old account for 16.5%; women at 41-50 years old account for 36.2%; women at 51-60 years old account for 29.8%; women above 60 years old account for 9.2%. According to survey data: in Demonstration Areas, women in farmland cultivation are mainly middle and old aged women. Fourth, the women left behind accounts for a larger proportion. The number of left behind women in the newly-added demonstration area is 9341 people, accounting for 8.2% of the total population of demonstration areas. 5.2 Analysis of participation methods of agricultural activities in women According to the interview and symposium with local women, the women mainly participate in the agricultural activities in two methods: 54 First, for the participation of ordinary individual households, women are the main force in rural farming. The rural labor engaged in agriculture is mainly women and middle age and old aged people. In the project village, the labor is mainly distributed in two models: 1. Cultivation modes replying on left-behind women. In the case, the left-behind female has to do farming work since their household labor migrates out to make living. Please refer to Table 5-1 in detail. 2. Joint management model by men and women: The men and women in the household participate in the farming and management together. Please refer to Table 5-2 in detail. According to the feedback of investigation, the labor is mainly in the form of women and old men in the contemporary rural farming. It is compatible with the existing population feature: “993861 troops� (99-old men; 38-women; 61-children). Table 5-1 Agricultural Schedule and Work Distribution in Demonstration Areas Agricultural activities and work Agricultural activities and work Month Month distribution distribution 1�Plant vegetables (women) January Farming at home (women) February 2�Plant beans (women) 1�Plant seedling (women) 1� Harvest rape (women) March April 2�Manage farmland (women) 2� Prepare for farming (women) 1� Insert seedling (women) 1� Spray pesticide (women) May 2� Spray chemical fertilizer June 2� Manage farmland (women) (women) 1�Spray pesticide (women) July August Harvest sesame (women) 2�Remove grass (women) 1�Plant rape (women) September Harvest paddy (women) October 2�Manage farmland (women) 1�Remove grass (women) November December Manage farmland (women) 2�Spray pesticide (women) Remark: The month is defined according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Table 5-2 Agricultural Schedule and Work Distribution in Demonstration Areas Agricultural activities and work Agricultural activities and work Month Month distribution distribution January Manage farmland (men + women) February Plant rape (men+women) 1�Plant early season rice (men+ Seedling transplanting (men+ March April women) women) 55 2�Spray fertilizer (men+ women) 1�Seedling transplanting (men+ 1�Harvest (men + women) women) 2�Spray pesticide (men + women) May June 2�Spray pesticide (men + women) 3�Manage farmland (men + 3�Manage farmland (men + women) women) 1�Harvest early season rice (men + 1�Harvest (men + women) women) 2�Spray pesticide (men + women) July 2�Insert late rice (men+ women) August 3�Manage farmland (men + 3�Manage farmland (men+ women) women) 1�Plant rape (men+women) September October Harvest late rice (men + women) 2�Spray pesticide (men + women) November Harvest late rice (men + women) December Plant rape (men+women) Remark: The month is defined according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Second, working in cooperatives, the women constitute the main part of rural cooperative. According to survey data: among the full-time agricultural women, 137 women are employees in rural cooperatives for farmland cultivation, they account for 26.8% of the full-time agricultural women. There is a total of 47 rural cooperatives in demonstration areas and women take up about 48% of total employees in the rural cooperatives. From the perspective of participation in management, there are a total of 189 management personnel of rural cooperatives in demonstration areas, including 47 women, accounting for 25.0%. There is no woman in the management of 8 rural cooperatives. According to interview data, wage is RMB 50-100 per day. According to survey data, the overall proportion of women employed by rural cooperatives is low, and the proportion of women participating in the management decision-making and management of rural cooperatives is low. 5.3 Analysis of project project awareness and need of women group 5.3.1 Analysis of project awareness Firstly, some women do not have a high understanding to the project. According to the survey: 18.5% do not know much about the project; 16.6% even do 56 not know the project. Only 13.8% of the women know about the project well. Of course, 30.2% of women “know a little� about the project; 20.9% of women know more about the project. The survey data show that most women already have a certain understanding of the project, but there are still a small number of women whose understanding of the project is not very clear, indicating that the publicity work to women needs to be further deepened. 2. Most of women support the project. The investigation reveals: 96.4% of total women believe the project is beneficial to the local social and economic development. Therefore, the women support the project. The investigation reveals: 78.3% of total women support the project very much; 17.0% of total women support the project well; 3.8% of total women have an ordinary attitude to the project; only 0.9% of total women do not support it. 5.3.2 Analysis of needs 1. Creating employment opportunities. On one hand, the project is expected to increase the land use rate; on the other hand, it is expected to promote the development of agricultural product processing enterprises and create more employment opportunities for local farming households. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the Social Assessment Team has come to know that local women, especially left-behind women, hope to have more employment opportunities and boost the economic income. 2. Providing labor protection. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know that local women of project area hope to prevent sunstroke, grass removing and mosquito-proof measures and have anti- septic mask to prevent lime from inhaling into the lungs. 3. Improving production skills. According to the visit and investigation of project village, the social assessment team has come to know that above 90% of the women deem it necessary to receive professional technical training; the rural women are rather interested in the planting technologies, but also hope to receive production skill training such as agricultural machinery; the women like to receive technical 57 training in the form of classes and on-site demonstration. IV. Improving participatory capacity. According to the visit and investigation of project village, women constitute the main part of rural cooperatives, but their participation in management decision-making of farmlands is low. Women in demonstration areas hope to improve their participation ability, to promote farmland cultivation decisions to be beneficial to women protection. 5.4 Social gender action plan in various construction phases 5.4.1 Promotion of women’s participation in the project According to the on-site investigation and observation, the women in the demonstration area constitute the main force of household labor and agricultural production and have rather little participation in the village matters - it does not have much difference between different ethnic groups. In order to promote the development of women and safeguard fair benefits in the project, efforts are made to enhance the women’s participation in various project stages. Suggestions: In the governance of farmland pollution, establishment of farmers cooperative and selection of industrial development, special attention is paid to the demand and idea of women in the demonstration area; at least one woman is designated in the leadership team of farmland pollution governance. At least 30% of total women participate in the meeting of farmland pollution governance convened by the local residents. At least 30% of total women participate in the training programs organized in the project construction. 5.4.2 Improving women’s awareness of farmer’s cooperative and the project The survey result reveals that the men and women have rather poor knowledge of the farmland pollution project; in the farmland pollution governance and industrial development, the women fail to participate as actively as men. In order to enable women to participate in the industrial development of farmers cooperative, we put forward the 58 following suggestions: 1. In the course of project construction, maintain the information disclosure and organize propaganda and training; enable at least 30% of women to participate in the training with considering the convenience of women in the selection of training time and venue and use local language as much as possible. 2. Give full play to the strengths of women’s federation in the information propaganda and training; cooperate and coordinate with the women’s federation and launch the information propaganda and training. 59 6. Analysis of Ethnic Minority 6.1 Overview 6.1.1 Status of ethnic minority population in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture According to the data of China’s Ethnic Yearbook, at the end of 2018, the total population of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Xiangxi was 2,972,300, of which 2,386,800 were ethnic minorities, accounting for 80.30% of the total population. Among the ethnic minorities, there are 1,307,100 Tujia Ethnicity, 1,058,300 Miao Ethnicity, 9,700 Hui Ethnicity, 2,600 Yao Ethnicity and 9,100 other ethnic minorities, including 41 ethnic groups such as Tujia, Miao, Han, Hui and Yao. All ethnic groups are living together in a large area and among the large area, the same ethnic group is normally concentrated in a small area. Tujia Ethnicity is mainly concentrated in Yongshun County, Longshan County, Baojing County, Guzhang County and Jishou City, while Miao Ethnicity is mainly concentrated in Huayuan County, Fenghuang County, Jishou City, Luxi County, Baojing County and Guzhang County. Ethnic minority population Jishou City in demonstration areas is 225,200, accounting for 77.3% of the total population, including 121,000 Miao people and 101,200 Tujia people. Yongshun County in demonstration areas, has a total population of 536,100 by the end of 2019. In the total population, there are 499,700 minority people, including 436,600 Tujia people and 60,400 Miao people. Huayuan County in demonstration areas has a total population of 315,000 people, including the Miao population accounts for 77.3%, and is a Miao ethnic gathering county. 6.1.2 Status of ethnic minority population in Zhangjiajie Zhangjiajie City is an area inhabited by ethnic minorities. According to the 60 statistical yearbook of Zhangjiajie in 2019, among the 1,702,199 registered population in the city, there are 416,930 Han people, accounting for 24.5062% of the total population, and there are 1,284,392 ethnic minority people, accounting for 75.4938% of the total population. There are 43 ethnic minorities in the city. Among the ethnic minority people, the population of below ethnic minorities ranks relatively high: there are 1,127,746 Tujia people, accounting for 87.804% of the ethnic minority population; 119,385 Bai people, accounting for 9.295%; 30,881 Miao people, accounting for 2.401%; 1,557 Hui people, accounting for 0.121%; 37,261 other ethnic minorities, accounting for 2.901%. Cili County in demonstration areas is the multiple-nationality county, since ancient times, there have been 17 nationalities, including Han Nationality, Tujia Nationality, Bai Nationality, Hui Nationality and Miao Nationality, live here. By the end of 2018, total registered population was 699,600 in Cili County. Among them, ethnic minority population is 413,000. Tujia nationality is the main ethnic minority population, accounting for 60%. Yongding District in demonstration areas has a total permanent population of 446,000, 16 ethnic minority groups, including Tujia, Bai and Miao, etc., have a total population of 363,000 which accounts for 81.4% of the total population; the ethnic minorities mainly include Tujia with a population of 359,000, accounting for 80.5% of total population. 6.2 Customs and culture of ethnic minority dominated in the demonstration area Different ethnic minorities in the demonstration area apply the same language and characters and marry each other; they live harmoniously and no conflicts are witnessed. The cultures between various ethnic groups integrate with each other and no estrangement is discovered. In demonstration areas, five demonstration counties where ethnic minorities live, include Jishou City, Huayuan County, Yongding District, Yongshun County and Cili County. There are 31 demonstration areas in these project villages. Total population of 61 project villages is 49,441. including a total ethnic minority population of 38,423, accounting for 77.7%. Among ethnic minorities, total population of Tujia nationality is 28,277, accounting for 73.6%; total population of Miao nationality is 10,146, accounting for 26.4%. Distribution of minorities in each project village is as shown in Table 6-1. Ethnic minorities in project villages are mainly Tujia and Miao. Table 6-1 Distribution of ethnic minority population in project villages Han Miao Tujia Demonstration Project Proportion Proportion Proportion Population Households Qty Qty Qty Areas villages % % % Xinhua 1,346 412 543 40.3 1 0.01 802 59.6 Village Baiyang 1,324 437 752 56.8 0 0 572 43.2 Village Fuxin 854 306 584 68.4 0 0 270 31.6 Village Liudong 3,359 1,117 1,757 52.3 4 0 1,590 47.3 Village Cili County Sihuping 1,186 382 14 1.2 0 0 1,172 98.8 Xinpu 1,278 418 703 55.0 0 0 575 45.0 Village Xurita 1,666 548 910 54.6 0 0 756 45.4 Yanzi 1,410 483 332 23.5 4 0.3 1,035 73.4 Yangliupu 2,338 726 1,081 46.2 5 0.2 1,252 53.6 Zhuangta 1,687 590 203 12.0 0 0 1,484 88.0 Huayuan Gaohe 1,018 217 625 61.4 290 28.5 103 10.1 County Village Hangtuo 832 200 0 0 790 95.0 42 5.0 Village Hongping 997 237 0 0 897 90.0 100 10.0 Village Jilue 1,488 364 0 0 1,339 90.0 89 10.0 Village Jiating 381 85 0 0 323 84.8 62 15.2 Village Jishou City Liantuan 313 72 0 0 300 95.8 13 4.2 Village Pinglang 1,382 386 107 7.7 890 64.4 385 27.9 Village Shu’er 574 150 30 5.2 370 64.5 174 30.3 Village Qianghu 2,360 560 118 5.0 1,652 70.0 590 25.0 Village 62 Sanchaping 2,068 537 103 5.0 1,345 65.0 620 30.0 Liulangxi 2,185 505 89 4.1 95 4.3 2,000 91.6 Taozixi 2,469 623 550 22.3 1,100 44.6 749 34.1 Xishaba 3,523 901 1,600 45.4 700 19.9 1,215 34.5 Yongshun Hexin 1,946 418 26 1.3 11 0.6 1,909 98.1 County Village Wachang 1,670 460 45 2.7 16 1.0 1,584 94.9 Village Xiqi 2,026 458 33 1.6 8 0.4 1,985 98.0 Village Mojiagang 1,811 583 21 1.2 2 0.1 1,788 98.7 Hongxing 1,741 715 386 22.2 0 0 1,335 97.8 Village Yongding Changtan District 853 345 21 2.5 2 0.2 820 97.3 Village Hongtuping 1,113 360 75 6.7 2 0.2 1,036 93.1 Matouxi 2,243 722 73 3.3 0 0 2,170 96.7 Total 31 49,441 14,317 10,781 10,146 28,277 6.2.1 Basic conditions of the project villages of ethnic minorities In the five counties and cities of Zhangjiajie and Xiangxi where the project is carried out, there are some villages with concentrated minority population. Among the 31 villages, there are 23 villages in which the ethnic minority populations account for more than 50% of the villages’ total population, and among the 23 villages, there are 10 villages such as Sihuping, Hexin Village, Wachang Village and Xiqi Village in which the ethnic minority populations account for more than 90%. In addition, there are 11 villages with Miao people exceeding 30%, namely, Gaohe Village in Huayuan County, Taozixi Village in Yongshun County, Hangtuo Village, Hongping Village, Jilue Village, Jiating Village, Liantuan Village, Pinglang Village, Shu’er Village, Qianghu Village and Sanchaping Village in Jishou City. In these villages where the project carried out, the Miao people are not obviously different from the Han people in terms of language and livelihood. They can understand Chinese and communicate in Chinese they have their own language. The main livelihood means are also the same with Han people such as working as migrant workers, breeding and planting. They are highly integrated with the Han people and living in the same way, while the traditional minority policy is not violated. In terms of the income level, there are great differences in different villages, 63 with some villages having an annual per capita income of 13,000 CNY and some having 5,000 CNY. In addition, most of the people in the 31 ethnic minority villages are very supportive of the project, which is generally over 90%. Although there is a high degree of integration between minority people and Han people in the villages, the minority people have their own customs of living and production. Therefore, in these villages or villagers' groups where ethnic minorities are concentrated, the production and living habits of Miao people and Tujia people shall be considered in the design or implementation of the project, so that the implementation of the project can adapt to the cultural customs of the ethnic minorities and is conducive to the protection on the rights and interests and the development of ethnic minorities. 64 Table 6- 2 Overview of the project villages of ethnic minorities Percentage of Income level Degree of Main mode Demonstration Project ethnic Language (per person support for of areas villages population used annual the project livelihood (%) income) (%) Migrant work, Liulangxi 95.9 Chinese RMB 12,100 96.8 Planting Migrant work, Taozixi 77.7 Chinese RMB 12,020 96.1 Planting Migrant work, Xishaba 54.6 Chinese RMB 11,520 97.6 Planting Yongshun County Hexin Migrant work, 98.7 Chinese RMB 12,870 97.0 Village Planting Wachang Migrant work, 97.3 Chinese RMB 11,980 96.9 Village Planting Migrant work, Xiqi Village 98.4 Chinese RMB 13,002 97.2 Planting Chinese, Huayuan Gaohe Language of 38.6 Migrant work RMB 5,470 96.7 County Village the Miao People, Chinese, Planting, Mojiagang 98.8 Zhangjiajie RMB 9,652 96.8 Working dialect Planting, Hongxing Chinese, local 77.8 Breeding, RMB 8,920 97.4 Village dialects Working Yongding Changtan migrant work, 97.5 Chinese RMB 11,201 96.9 District Village Working Planting, Chinese, local Hongtuping 93.7 Breeding, RMB 9,520 96.6 dialects Working Planting, Matouxi 96.7 Chinese Breeding, RMB 12,218 97.8 Working Chinese, Working, Hangtuo Language of 100.0 Planting, RMB 5,000 98.0 Village the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Hongping Language of 100.0 Planting, RMB 5,500 97.8 Village the Miao Breeding People, Jishou City Chinese, Working, Language of Jilue Village 100.0 Planting, RMB 5,200 96.7 the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Jiating Language of 100.0 Planting, RMB 6,500 98.1 Village the Miao Breeding People, 65 Chinese, Working, Liantuan Language of 100.0 Planting, RMB 5,000 97.9 Village the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Pinglang Language of 92.3 Planting, RMB 8,000 97.6 Village the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Shu’er Language of 94.8 Planting, RMB 7,000 98.0 Village the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Qianghu Language of 95.0 Planting, RMB 6,000 97.9 Village the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Working, Language of Sanchaping 95.0 Planting, RMB 7,000 97.9 the Miao Breeding People, Chinese, Xinhua Language of Planting and 59.7 RMB 7,000 98.2 Village the Tujia Breeding People Chinese, Baiyang Language of Farming, 43.2 RMB 7,000 97.5 Village the Tujia Migrant work People, Chinese, Fuxing Language of Traditional 31.6 RMB 8,000 96.6 Village the Tujia Way People, Chinese, Guangdong Language of Farming, 47.7 RMB 6,800 97.3 Village the Tujia Migrant work People, Chinese, Cili County Sihuping Language of Farming, 98.8 RMB 6,500 97.2 Village the Tujia Migrant work People, Chinese, Xinpu Language of Farming, 45.0 RMB 7,530 97.6 Village the Tujia Migrant work People, Farming, Xurita 45.4 Chinese RMB 7,240 98.0 Migrant work Chinese, Language of Migrant work, Yanzi 76.5 RMB 9,000 95.8 the Tujia Farming People, Chinese, Language of Yangliupu 53.8 Farming RMB 6,500 95.9 the Tujia People, Zhuangta 88.0 Chinese Migrant work RMB 7,000 96.4 66 6.2.2 Customs and culture of Tujia Nationality in the demonstration area According to the research of a famous scholar - Mr. Pan Guangdan, Tujia is the offspring of ancient Ba people. At the end of Shang Dynasty, Ba people joined the war against Kingdom Zhou and was honored the title of Bazi Kingdom due to war merit. During the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods, Ba people mingled with people of Chu Kingdom in the east side; under the threatening of Chu Kingdom, Ba Kingdom retreated to the southwest area. Currently, Tujia is mainly distributed in Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing at the center of Wuling Mountain and Qingjiang River reaches. In October 1956, the State Council confirmed Tujia as a single nationality formally. Tujia people are not significantly different from Han people in language and livelihoods. They can communicate in Chinese while having their own oral language. The main livelihoods s are also the same with Han people such as working as migrant workers, breeding and planting. They are highly integrated with Han people and living in the same way. Language and character: Tujia in the demonstration area started to use Chinese and Chinese characters at a very early stage. Social governance: The village governance is similar to that of most rural areas in China: that is to say, it integrates with the county administration and village governance. The county administration refers to Level I county administration (including town administration) - it is known as the grassroot rural governance established according to law; the village governance refers to the village committee-it is the grassroot self- autonomous organization in the village. Villages are mainly constructed and governed by village committee under the guidance of township government. Religious belief: In the demonstration area, Tujia nationality believes in Taoism and pays tribute to the ancestors. Tujia people believe in many gods, and their religious beliefs include natural worship. Land, rocks, mountains, rivers, and water are all objects of worship. Until now, almost every household has a shrine in the lobby of their house to worship ancestral tablets. The festivals of the Tujia nationality in demonstration area mainly include dragon-boat racing and “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month�. They attach great importance to the traditional festivals, especially in the Spring Festival. Local social customs: Before marriage of women of Tujia nationality in the 67 demonstration area, there is a custom of “crying wedding�. Prior to the wedding ceremony, if a girl and her family don’t follow this custom, she will be ridiculed. However, currently, this custom has already been gradually faded. Modslity of production: Mainly planting rice. In the busy season, the local residents plant seedling; people help those households short of labor; the recipient households only need to provide food and drink for such free neighbourhood labour. The mutual assistance custom has been inherited over thousands of years. 6.2.3 Customs and culture of Miao nationality in demonstration areas Miao is an ancient ethnic nationality, scattered around the world. Miao people are mainly distributed in Guizhou Province, Hunan Province, Hubei Province, sichuang Province, Yunnan Province, Guangxi Province and Hainan Province and other provinces and districts in China as well as Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries and regions in Southeast Asia. According to historical documents and word of mouth materials, ancestors of the Miao first lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and their ancestor was Chiyou. “Sanmiao� era migrated to the Jianghan Plain and then mitigated to the south and the west in a large scale due to wars and other reasons, to mountainous areas of Southwest China and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. After the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, some Miao people migrated to countries in Southeast Asia and then mitigated all the way to Europe and America over in modern times. Miao had their own oral language. Language of the Miao People has been included in Miao Language Branch of Miao-Yao Group of Sino-Tibetan Family, consisting of three major dialects in western Hunan, eastern Guizhou and Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Due to long-term integration between Miao and Han, most Miao people are proficient in Mandarin Chinese and are able to use Mandarin Chinese. Language: the daily communication of Miao people in the project area is mainly in Miao language: 77.5% of the residents use Miao language and 22.5% use Chinese. But most of these Miao people can understand Chinese and communicate in Mandarin.Chinese characters are the main characters used in daily life, 88.1% of the people are used to using Chinese characters and 11.9% are used to using Miao characters. Religious belief: religious belief of Miao in Demonstration Areas is dominated by 68 Taoism and Ancestor Worship. Miao in Demonstration Areas mainly celebrates traditional Chinese festivals (Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Tomb-Sweeping Day). Social governance: The village governance is similar to that of most rural areas in China: that is, it integrates with the county administration and village governance. Township government refers to township level regime (including township regime), and is the most grass-roots level government set up by the nation in rural areas according to law; village governance refers to village committee, the most grass-roots level self- governing mass organization in rural areas. Villages are mainly constructed and governed by village committee under the guidance of township government. There is no difference with the governance of Han villages. Customs and habits: Miao in Demonstration Areas has various kinds of folk recreational activities, such as “going to the last fair before spring festival�, “the 3rd day of the Third Lunar Month�, “the 8th day of the Fourth Lunar Month�, “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month� and “the 7th day of the Seventh Lunar Month� and other local ethnic festivals. Main foods of Miao are mainly rice, corn, beans and potatoes, especially rice and corn. Production modality: dominated by rice cultivation, without unique production mode, there is no difference from Han people’s villages. 69 6.3 Identification of ethnic minority in demonstration areas 6.3.1 Identification basis “Ethnic minority� refers to the minority group in general term: unique and vulnerable social and culture group. The World Bank defines ethnic minorities as (1) self-identification as a member of a unique ethnic cultural group, and the identification is also recognized by others; (2) collectively living in residential areas or ancestral territories with unique geographical characteristics and living on the natural resources of these residential areas and territories; (3) having traditional cultural, economic, social or political systems different from dominated society and culture; (4) having a minority language that is different from the official language of the country or region. 6.3.2 Identification methods On-site investigation: It aims to know about the population structure, racial constitution, economic structure, ethnic minority village identification and living customs of ethnic minority in each project village through on-site investigation. Document review and documentary research. It include reviewing relevant data and information from the annual statistics yearbook, statement, municipal annal and county annal reports. This literature reflects population, ethnic group, culture and customs in the demonstration area and the features of ethnic minority in the demonstration area and production and living differences from Han people. Interview with well-informed sources. It aims to conduct interview with well- informed sources, such as responsible persons for the racial and religious belief bureau, know about the ethnic minority type, population, racial features and distribution in the demonstration area and know about the related projects under construction in the demonstration area (they can promote the development of ethnic minorities). 6.3.3 Screening of ethnic minority According to the identification basis, the social assessment team screened Tujia and Miao in 31 project villages and drew the following conclusion: 70 In project villages, total population of Tujia nationality is 28277, accounting for 57.2% of the total population. Tujia in the demonstration area does not have its unique or other recognized cultural features, living customs or local customs; the social, economic, cultural and political organization has no difference from that of mainstream races; the religious, sacrificing and totem worship activities do not have obvious difference from the mainstream society. The language and characters of Tujia nationality in the demonstration area are consistent with the mandarin language and characters in the demonstration area, and they all use Putonghua and Chinese characters. Therefore, it can integrate with the mainstream society. It does not fit the World Bank definition of indigenous people (IP) and not applicable to the IP policy of the World Bank. In project villages, total population of Miao nationality is 10146, accounting for 20.5%. Miao nationality in the demonstration area have its unique or other recognized cultural features, living customs or local customs; the cultural, economic, social and political organization has no difference from that of mainstream nationality; the religious, sacrificing and totem worship activities do not have obvious difference from the mainstream society. Miao people uses their local language for daily communication, but the Chinese characters is used for daily life, meanwhile they can understand and communicate in mandarin Chinese in demonstration area. The land of Miao is owned by the collective village; the contract responsibility system based on the household with remuneration linked to output is adopted. Therefore, the Miao people is well integrated with Han people in demonstration area, which does not fit the definition of indigenous people (IP) of the World Bank and is not applicable to the IP policy of the World Bank. 6.4 Implementation plans of the project villages of ethnic minorities The social assessment team obtained the support and coordination of related institutions of PMO and made careful investigation to local ethnic minorities, conducted comparative analysis on ethnic minority groups and come to the following conclusion: Whether ethnic minority was concentrated in the demonstration area; undertookcomparative sutdies with the mainstream group, and identified the difference and fragility of ethnic minority. The screening excercise shows that: Tujia and Miao people in the demonstration area have a high level of integration with the mainstream 71 society, and have no significant difference with the mainstream Han people. The Project will not bring negative impacts on them but positive impact will be induced as done for other groups of people. The World Bank IP policyis deemed not applicable to them. There is no need to prepare an ethnic minority development plan under this project. In order to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of ethnic groups as much as possible, it is recommended to work out an inclusive project implementation plan taking into consideration of the development needs and social as well as cultural characteristics of the ethnic groups and enhance inclusive development measures of the project in the project villages in Cili County, Huayuan County, Jishou City and Yongshun County where there are Tujia and Miao people. 72 7. Social Impact and Risk Analysis 7.1 Analysis of social impact 7.1.1 Positive impact Positive Impact of Project Implementation in a Short Term: 1. Launching the project information sharingto enhance stakeholders’ awareness of producing safe products. Through the survey, it is found that the understanding of partial stakeholders on the cause and the result of agricultural land heavy metal pollution is not sufficient. The project information sharing and training are organized to improve the stakeholder’s awareness of governance urgency of farmland heavy metal pollution control. 2. Organizing the project training to improve farmer households’ skills of producing safe products. Through the survey, it is discovered that the excess heavy metals in the agricultural product relate to the agronomic technology of the armer households. The optimization of the agronomic technology can reduce the heavy metal contamination to the agricultural product. Therefore, the project aims to organize training program for the farmer households and thus upgrade the safe product production skills. 3. Encouraging the public to participate in the project and reaching a common consensus in the governance of heavy metal pollution of farmland. Through the survey, it is found that the stakeholders still have many disputes over whether the treatment is needed and how to treat the pollution. Consensus on the agricultural land heavy metal contamination treatment will be achieved through public participation. 4. Improving the infrastructure construction to create favorable conditions for agricultural production. It is discovered by the social assessment team that farmer households’ desire to improve local out-dated irrigation infrastructure is quite strong. To the social assessment team, most villagers reflect that the local infrastructure is poor, 73 especially the road and the water; there are always problems in the demonstration area such as insufficient investment in the rural infrastructure as well as lacking effective investment and management, etc. These problems seriously prevent the sustainable development of agricultural production and rural areas. The project will create favorable conditions for agricultural production through the engineering, such as clean water irrigation, channel modification and machinery farming road maintenance projects, etc. 5. Executing environmental management and agricultural environment surveillance to provide technical support for agricultural product quality management. Through the survey, it is found that the demonstration area lacks the monitoring facilities of agricultural product and soil, which results in lack of clear understanding of the related government departments and the farmer households on the heavy metal pollution level of agricultural product. Through the environmental management and the agricultural environment monitoring, the project will provide technical supports for agricultural product quality management. 6. Establishing the farmers’ specialized cooperatives to improve farmer households’ risk resistance capability and product competitiveness. The long-time backwardness of the demonstration area enables many farmer households to realize that their scattered situation will make them live on repeated sell of primary agricultural products which have low added value and production efficiency as well as difficulties in market integration. Most farmer households have to go through the local or non-local vendors if they want to sell the agricultural products. Finally, the products will go to the company. What the farmer households get is only the price of the primary agricultural products and what they earn is the money from running around here and there. The real added value lies in the deep processing. Therefore, the farmer households gradually realize it and urgently desire to be led by the cooperatives and big peasant households to improve the market competitiveness of the product, extend the industrial chain and increase the product price. Cultivating farmers’ specialized cooperatives will help improve the risk resistance capacity of the farmer households and the agricultural product competitiveness. 7. Generating considerable economic benefits. Through the survey, it is found that the agricultural land heavy metal pollution control has already affected the 74 agricultural production and the farmers’ income to some extent. The project governance measures can yield considerable economic benefits mainly in the following four aspects: (1) Raise the sales price of agricultural products. Taking corresponding measures enables the agricultural land to produce qualified agricultural products, which can increase the agricultural product price. (2) Reduce the cost of agricultural production. The agricultural capital cost can be decreased by about 30% by supporting and cultivating the agricultural cooperatives. (3) Improve the land use efficiency. The land utilization efficiency of the farmers’ cooperatives is increased. By cultivating the farmers’ cooperatives, the land utilization efficiency can be increased. (4) Upgrade the added value of agricultural products. The project team cultivates the farmers’ specialized cooperatives and establishes the monitoring facilities, which provides organizational and technical supports for agriculture industrialization and is good for increasing the added value of agricultural products. 8. The project brings significant social benefits. In the investigation, we found that there were many migrant workers in the demonstration area, low income people were trapped in a poverty cycle dominated by traditional agricultural management and planting patterns, and there was a lack of useful experience in managing heavy metal pollution in agricultural land. The implementation of the project can effectively solve the above-mentioned problems and produce obvious social benefits. Firstly, it is conducive to the return of migrant workers. The project creates employment opportunities and working posts for migrant workers; in particular, it creates more employment opportunities for women. Secondly, it is conducive to poverty alleviation and wealth. Low income people are mainly restricted by information, technology and capital, which leads them to enter the poverty cycle. By providing support in aspects of information, technologies and funds to the low-income individuals, the project team is able to help them out of poverty. Thirdly, it's beneficial to forming the agricultural land pollution treatment pattern. Currently, the agricultural land pollution treatment is lacking the experience and the pattern for reference. Find out an effective technical and management pattern in demonstration areas by implementing the project, to set an example to other areas in the aspect of heavy metal pollution control. According to survey data: the highest positive impact assessment made by residents in project villages on the project is guaranteeing the quality safety of 75 agricultural products (92.3%), followed by improvement of rural infrastructure (86.5%), improvement of awareness of residents to control farmland pollution governance (76.2%), effective governance and reasonable utilization of polluted farmlands (72.6%), improvement of income of local farmer households (65.9%), facilitation of scale operation and creation of rural brands (53.3%) and increase of employment opportunities for local rural residents (46.9%). Please refer to Table 7-1 in detail. According to survey results: firstly, the purpose of the project is consistent with the expectation of rural residents, i.e. production of healthy and safe foods in polluted farmlands; secondly, the project has not only social benefits, such as effective governance of polluted farmlands, but also economic benefits, such as improving the income of local rural residents; thirdly, the operation mode of creating rural brands of the project with the basic carrier of rural cooperatives is also widely recognized. Table 7-1 Positive impact assessment of residents on “Farmland and Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� Response Percentage of N Percentage number of cases Guarantee to quality safety of 876 18.5% 92.3% agricultural products Improvement of awareness of residents 723 15.3% 76.2% to control farmland pollution Improvement of rural infrastructure 821 17.4% 86.5% Effective governance and reasonable 689 14.6% 72.6% utilization of polluted farmlands Facilitation of scale operation and 506 10.7% 53.3% creation of rural brands Increase of employment opportunities 445 9.4% 46.9% for local farmer households Improvement of income of local farmer 625 13.2% 65.9% households Others 35 0.7% 3.7% 4,723 100.00% 497.4% 76 7.1.2 Negative Impact (1) During the project implementation, the transformation of the agricultural production structure will be carried out and cropping may be restructured in some areas of heavily contaminated land, which will affect the income, farming skills and habits of some farmers in a short term. (2) Dust, noise, temporary stacking of garbage and sludge generated during the construction of the project will bring temporary adverse effects on the tidiness of the environment in the demonstration area and will cause short-term negative effects on the daily travel, production and life of residents in the demonstration area. 7.2 Analysis of social risks 7.2.1 Involuntary resettlement There is no need for land acquisition for the project activities and no need to change ownership nature of the land for civil works in project sites. All civil works will be carried out within the village, and the constructed facilities are also used by the villagers without a need for land acquisition or resettlement of people. The scale of crop restructuring involved is 66.7 hectares according to plan, 33.3 hectares in Jishou City and 33.4 hectares in Hengnan County respectively. The crops replanted will be corn, sorghum and other one-year crops instead of rice. The specific farmer households involved in the recropping land are still uncertain before the project evaluation. The measures taken in the demonstration area are mainly land restoration and rehabilitation. In some moderately or heavily polluted areas, crop replanting is adopted. In the demonstration area, the prohibited planting is not implemented and land requisition is not involved. Engineering measures in the project area can be divided into two categories: (1) renovation of irrigation channel or drainage ditches. Mainly, it is to carry out reinforcement and repair on the basis of the original channel. (2) The use of electric irrigation station for which the land is required will be all within the scope of project village and the nature of collective ownership of the village will not be changed. The implementation of the project will not involve land acquisition or house demolition in 77 the newly-added demonstration area, but farmers who need to replant a small number of new crops in the above mentioned heavily contaminated sites will face a reduction of income in the short term. The eco-compensation measures for crop restructuring of the project and the original resettlement policy framework shall be observed, and the resettlement framework shall be publicized and implemented in the newly-added demonstration area. In summary, there is no need for a new resettlement policy framework. 7.2.2 Livelihood Risk of Farmer Households The crops restructuring will bring certain risks such as short term income from crops, change to farm skills and habits. In the project execution, the farmland product changes include three types: reserve the original planting habits; change planting variety of farmland; adjust the farming system. There are mainly four categories of social risks brought by reserving existing planting habits and implementing land remediation: firstly, marketing risk. In the project, rice is replanted to low-cadmium varieties, and thus quality of rice grain will be affected, which means that existing marketing channels and methods may be affected. There is a certain marketing risk for new varieties. Secondly, the risk of substandard food products growing in project sites. During the control period, food crops that do not meet the standards cannot enter the food chain and can only be used as biological raw materials. And the price of grain crops used as industrial raw materials is 1/3 lower than that of normal grain crops. The third tyoe of risk is output reduction. Replanting low-cadmium varieties will increase the risk of rice blast and may further lead to reduction of output. According to survey data: the top concern for farmer households is reduction of actual income of rural residents in short term (78.4%), followed by increase of agricultural production labor amount (33.3%) as well as marketing risk incurred by replanting varieties (31.2%). Please refer to Table 7-2. Table 7-2 Negative impact potentially caused by Farmland Quality Improvement Project 78 No (%) Yes (%) Effective sample size Reduction of actual income of farmer households 21.6 78.4 949 in short term Increase of agricultural production labor 66.7 33.3 949 amount Unmarketable Replanted crop products 68.8 31.2 949 Construction will destroy the original vegetation, 76.3 23.7 949 resulting in water and soil loss Construction will cause the road dust, vehicle 74.2 25.8 949 exhaust, and other environmental pollution The noise of construction work will affect the rest 89.5 10.5 949 of farmer households There are also three categories of risks brought by farmland restructuring: the first is the risk of cost benefit of replanted crops. Input cost of replanted crops is restricted by seeds, technologies and labor and other factors, with some uncertainty; revenues of replanted crops are affected by the market and other factors. To this end, there is a certain risk of cost benefit for replanted crops. The second is the risk of marketing. There are risks in replanting fruit trees, vegetables and cotton, that is, the risk of establishing new sales channels. The procurement system of governmental protective price is not formulated for fruit trees and vegetables; lack of governmental support system will increase the farmer’s income risks. The third is the risk of management. Replanting will not only implement new requirements on technical management of replanted crops but also require project villages to establish fair, transparent and standardized management procedures. According to survey data: in the process of restructuring, the top concern for farmer households is the reduction of actual income in the same year (51.4%), followed by unmarketable replanted crops (38.5%). Please refer to Table 7-3. 79 Table 7-3 Negative impact potentially caused by restructuring Response Percentage of Sample Percentage number of cases (%) size (%) Reduction of farmer households’ actual 197 27.7% 51.4 income in the same year Increase of agricultural production labor 165 23.2% 22.3 Unmarketable replanted crop products 180 25.4% 38.5 Construction will destroy the original 95 13.4% 18.7 vegetation, resulting in water and soil loss Increased household debt in short term 68 9.6% 13.5 Others 5 0.7% 0.9 710 100.00% 145.3 The adjustment of farming system will bring the risk of reducing net income. Changes in the planting pattern may increase the input of labor force. If the input cannot be reasonably subsidized, the net income will be reduced. Table 7-4 Potential social risks of change in agricultural technologies Change in agricultural technology Potential social risks Maintain existing planting habits: Select and plant low-cadmium accumulative 1. Risk of market sales products based on the existing types (V), 2. Poor quality risk of agricultural products irrigate with clean water (I), spray lime (P), adopt leaf inhibitor and control agent (Si) 3. Risk of output reduction and spray soil adjustment agent (bacteria). Change farmland planting system: Change 1. Risk of cost benefit; to plant cotton, vegetable and fruit tree (grapefruit) 2. Risk of marketing; 3. Risk of management. Adjust farming system (planting model): Change to plant double-season rice in the “rice- rice-green fertilizer� model, change 1. Risk of reduction of net earnings to plant one-season rice in the “rice-bean� model and change to plant one-season paddy in the “rice-rape� model 7.2.3 Risk of Public Misunderstanding The environmental pollution in the demonstration area is relatively complicated. Except heavy metal pollution in soil, some areas are also polluted by industrial waste 80 water, waste gas and rural living pollution. Such pollution will bring harm to the health and life of local residents. There are four main types of public opinion risks brought about by the implementation of the project: the first one is the risk of improper attribution. In the process of investigation, local residents responded that the pollution caused crop failure and domestic water become inedible. These phenomena are caused by various kinds of pollution. When no other pollution control is started, the treatment of agricultural land soil pollution may lead local residents to attribute all problems to heavy metal pollution and then put forward corresponding claims. The second category is the risk of exaggeration of heavy metal pollution. Heavy metal pollution control in agricultural land dominated by government departments is easy to label all agricultural products in the demonstration area as excessive heavy metals. If it is not handled properly, it will easily cause mass incidents in the demonstration area. The third category is the risk of resident’s environmental protection awareness. The main stakeholder groups have different orientations in their roles played in environmental pollution and environmental protection. They neither think that they shall take responsibility for surrounding environmental pollution nor believe that they are one of subjects involved in environmental governance. Therefore, they believe that the responsibility for soil improvement should be mainly borne by the government or some organizations, and they are mainly implementer. 7.2.4 Vulnerability risks of disadvantaged groups such as minorities and low-income people To-be-included project areas will involve 11,391 people just out of poverty including 46,594 left-behind seniors, 7,336 people with disabilities and 9,341 left- behind women and 31 project villages in the five project counties and cities at Zhangjiajie and Xiangxi Prefecture where Tujia and Miao dominate, among which 11 project villages have more Miao people and 20 project villages have more Tujia people. Miao people in the eleven project villages of three project counties namely Huayuan, Yongshun and Jishou amount to above 30%. To reduce the vulnerability of these week people, this Project will take powerful measures to have them participate in and benefiting from the project on an equal basis. 81 The first is to enhance the intentions of the disadvantaged groups to participate in trainings, establish a mechanism of full participation by disadvantaged groups and ensure their in-depth participation and extensive consultation in all aspects including trainings, subsidies, and management; the second is to communicate well with disadvantaged groups as simple and easy as possible based on the language and cultural habits of local residents; the third is to establish a grievance mechanism to maintain the rights and interests of disadvantaged groups in an effective manner. 7.2.5 Risk of land transfer The Project does not involve large-scale land transfer, most of which, however, is a voluntary action. Risks still exist in project-related land transfer mainly including three categories: Firstly it is a blind pursuit of high circulation rate without consideration of the local natural conditions and realities in development and without any respect to the intentions and autonomous rights of farmers; Secondly there is a lack of an exit mechanism in contractual rights of land, which can hardly protect the farmer’s benefits and will affect the grain production safety. For example, non-standard circulation contracts prevent the farmers’ benefits from being guaranteed. Thirdly it is circulation without title affirmation due to the delay in granting a certificate for land title affirmation and registration, which can easily cause disputes over land. For example, after the transfer, "the small farmland merges with the large" and the field boundaries disappear and hence as time goes by, it is hard to make clear of ownership of a farmland. Besides, in case of no evidence in hand, the farmland becomes lost by land transfer. Therefore, in the project implementation stage, it is necessary to regulate the land transfer procedures according to law, respect the intentions of farmers who are allowed to make voluntary decisions on land transfer. For the farmers who have transferred their farmland, it is necessary to maintain the interests of the both parties of such transfer and develop a risk-prevention and exit mechanism. 82 8. Public Participation and Information Disclosure The domestic and international development practice reveals: The participation of beneficial group is the primary condition of project success. We can conclude that the real meaning of “participation� refers to positive and active participation; the participant has decision making right. Therefore, “enable the beneficial group to participate in the project� aims to enable the farmers to participate in various procedures of project activities in a positive and effective manner—In the respect of project design, execution, management, surveillance and evaluation, they have the right of speech; their opinions can be adopted by the project management department and can affect the decision making. 8.1 Principle of public participation and information disclosure 1. Keep the publicity of project information, and carry out the project publicity work throughout the project cycle. Establish the regular disclosure system for project information, and regularly disclose the project information closely related to major stakeholders on the notice-board in the community public places such as the village committee. In addition, inform the stakeholders of the preparation and implementation of the project through group meetings, representative meetings, slogans, television and radios, and the like. 2. Help the main stakeholders to establish the project subject consciousness. The assessment team suggests conducting the following types of training: (1) carry out the participatory training to the main stakeholders of the project, and guide them to actively think about the problems on community development, agricultural land heavy metal pollution, environmental protection and so on; (2) conduct the environmental knowledge training and guide the main stakeholders to think about the impact of their own production and life styles on the soil and how to conduct soil protection on their owns; (3) carry out the training on project technology, and eliminate the concerns of the main stakeholders to the project. 3. Attract the main stakeholders to participate in the project construction, give 83 priority to hiring them to provide paid labors for the project, and allow them to provide logistics services for the construction of the project. 4. Pay attention to the role of the village community cadres and local community strength in project implementation. The village community cadres shall participate in the project awareness raising for villagers, training, mobilization, villager need reflection, discovery of issues andproblems, coordination of contradictions and subsequent management at village level, especially setting up village monitoring group of the field project implementation . 5. Carry out the village-level participatory management of village soil governance and protection, and mobilize the masses to ensure the sustainability of the project effects. 6. Promote the participation of disadvantaged groups. In the project design, instructive stipulations are formulated for the disadvantaged groups such as women and minorities. For instance, no less than 50% of total women are required to participate in the training program (the standard can be properly graced in the minority group); various communities are required to prommote appropriate ratio of low-income farmer households and ethnic minorities to participate in the project and it is adopted as the project evaluation indicator. In order to listen to the voice of disadvantaged groups, the village project team includes the representatives of women, minority group and low- income populations. In view of rather low cultural level in the women and ethnic minority, various demonstration areas organize special training programs, select proper teaching contents, methods and language according to the actual demand and thus upgrade the training effect. As for the demonstration area distributed with scattered ethnic minority, easy and special training program is organized according to their features and demand. The assessment team has drawn up the outline of participation and conducting activities by the project beneficiary through project cycle such as agricultural land soil environmental management, which specifically includes the above suggestions of the assessment team in participation. 84 8.2 Participation of stakeholders in the project preparation stage 8.2.1 Basic participation methods The social assessment team has launched a series of Project publicity activities and mobilized main stakeholders to participate in Project decision-making activities within the areas affected by the project. The participation of each stakeholder in Project is launched in three levels: (1) Official Symposium The assessment team convenes symposium participated by PMO officials in each level and relevant governmental departments to learn and collect: ① Status quo of implementation of Projects approved locally and assessment of such Projects; ②Risk analysis of Project and discussion of countermeasures to lower risks; ③Suggestions on how to improve Project effect; ④Problems existing in each approved Project; ⑤ Estimation of influence from Project implementation; ⑥Collect all relevant literature data and statistical annual statement of three levels, province, county and township. (2) Project Farmer Households and Farmers’ Cooperatives meeting The assessment team shall convene consultative meetings with owner of each sub- project. Themes of meetings: ①Background and process of Project approval; get to know status quo of Project implementation and its assessment; ② Project design process; ③Problems existing in Project; ④Suggestions on improvement of Project effect and avoidance of risks; ⑤Collect filing data of the project owner concerning Project; ⑥Select investigation points. (3) Consultative participation of major stakeholders The assessment team launched out consultation and participation in the stakeholders. In the on-site work of each sub-project, the assessment team selected different survey points in order to cover the main stakeholder groups affected by the project. The assessment team launched out the unlimited preliminary participation among main stakeholder groups. Evaluation Team selected different stakeholders for 85 interview. A total of 60 villagers received in-depth interview including 20 women (33.3%), 20 minorities (33.3%) and 20 low income populations (33.3%). A total of 8 leaders of farmers’ cooperatives and main planting farmers have received in-depth interview. A total of 8 leaders of the government at the town and township level and leaders of the Village Committees in the Project Villages have received in-depth interview. A total of 10 administrators and implementers of the Project Counties have received in-depth interview. In addition, two types of questionnaire surveys are performed in 11 project counties according to a certain sampling proportion; Firstly, 1,100 social assessment questionnaires are distributed in 11 project counties, 949 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 86.3%; Secondly, 500 ethnic identification questionnaire are distributed in 5 project counties inhabited by ethnic minorities, 365 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 73.0%. 8.2.2 Participation contents and activities of information disclosure The participation in the project preparation stage mainly aims to reach consensus and design the appeal plan that can adequately reflect the demand of stakeholders. Please refer to Table 8-1 for the specific participation catalog. Table 8-1 Participation Model of Main Stakeholders Participation Contents of activity Methods of activity Participants activities ①Publicize the importance and necessity of project execution; request for their opinions and suggestions. ① All members of Posters, brochures, public village Project ②Timely deliver the information on the date meetings, slogans and publicity and place of project implementation, land ②Project owner propaganda lists. expropriation and demolition plans, ③PMO compensation and settlement schemes concerned by the main affected groups. Villager representative ① Village ①Confirm affected groups and basic living meeting Analysis of status representative affected Women symposium (including low groups ②Confirm the positive and negative impact income households, of various groups Symposium of low- ethnic minority and income households women) ① Analyze the current situations and Villager representative ② Villages /village existing problems of villages /village meeting committees Problem agricultural land pollution, and to what analysis Women symposium ③ Project owners extent these problems affect the development of villages. and PMO Symposium of low- 86 ②Help residents to analyze what aspects of income households agricultural land pollution are related to their lifestyles. Villager representative meeting Evaluation Analyze specific contents of indigenous of indigenous knowledge that can alleviate the agricultural Women symposium knowledge land soil pollution. Symposium of low- income households Villager representative meeting Identify the needs of various groups affected Demand by the project and analyze the gap between Women symposium analysis these needs and the project design. Symposium of low- income households Villager representative ① Evaluate the project design plan and meeting Problem project contents Women symposium feedback ② Expectations and suggestions from key stakeholders on the project. Symposium of low- income households ①Strengthen training on national and local environmental indicators and environmental ① All members of protection laws and regulations for the local village residents. ① Villager representative ②Project owner ②Launch out training on farmland pollution conference control. ③PMO Training ② Posters, brochures, ③ Propagate to the masses the lifestyle slogan and propaganda ④ Agriculture and which may have possible impact on the list. Rural Affairs Bureau surrounding environment, and help the residents in the demonstration area to realize ⑤ Village the impact of their lifestyles on the Committee surrounding environment. 8.3 Public participation in project execution stage All the members of village, village committee, project owner, PMO and village project management team shall participate in Project construction and monitoring in forms of village congress, villager representative congress and village project management team meeting. Please refer to Table 8-2 in detail. Table 8-2 Participation Outline of Main Stakeholders in Project Construction Stage Participation Contents of activity Methods of activity Participants activities Village project Determine members of the team, elect the ①Village congress ① All members of organization - team leaders, execute the organization village management training, select and manage personnels ② Village/villager team involved in Project construction, maintain representative congress ②Village committee social security in construction site, coordinate 87 the relationships with each party and reflect ③ Village project ③Project owner villagers’ opinions. management team meeting (including low ④PMO income households, resettled groups, ethnic ⑤ Village Project minority and women) management team ① Determine the establishment method of professional agricultural organization, ① The construction introduction method of social capital and staffs include the method of agricultural land soil remediation; resettled groups, ethnic minority, ② Determine jobs available for Project women and low construction; ① Village plenary income households meeting ②PMO ③ Confirm the selection standard of Project construction staffs and must include resettled ②Village representative ③Project owner construction groups, ethnic minority, low income congress households and women ④ Project ③ Participation in the construction ④ Determine remuneration of personnel project construction institution involved in Project construction; ⑤ Village project ⑤ Technical training and safety system management team training of personnel involved in construction; ⑥ Social capital representative ⑥Participation in Project construction ①Regular soil monitoring ①Village congress ① All members of village ② Make the surveillance to the recovery ② Village/villager situation of living standard for resettled representative congress ②Village committee Village/village project soil groups ③ Village project ③ Project owner monitoring ③ Monitor the recovery situation of natural surveillance team team environment upon the completion of project (including low income ④PMO households, resettled ④ Make regular surveillance of agricultural groups, ethnic minority, ⑤ Village Project products and women) monitoring team ① Village/village project monitoring Village/village project team Training Monitoring and evaluation skill training monitoring team training meeting ②PMO ③Project owner ① Print “Project Complaints Table� and give out it to each villager group to make it convenient for the ① Village/village villagers to timely project monitoring express their opinions; team Establish the opinion feedback system for ② Establish the Complaints ② All members of village members. complaint hotline in village PPMO; ③ PMO and Project ③ The village owner monitoring teams collect opinions and suggestions from the farmer households at any time. 88 8.4 Information Disclosure The participation right and consultation rights of migrants and affected personnel shall be paid more attention during the stages of migrant resettlement, policy-making, and plan preparation and implementation. The objects of public participation are classified into three types, i.e. related government departments at various levels, expert teams and affected village collective and population. Resettlement related planning and social assessment shall involve stakeholders consultation according to steps of public participation to ensure full participation of affected groups. Relevant projects documents shall be disclosed according to requirements and policies of the World Bank and relevant archives shall be filed or disseminated according to domestic requirements. Opportunities including social economic investigation and social impact assessment and investigation shall be utilized to extensively publicize and introduce resettlement policy of the project by various means and solicit opinions from various kinds of affected population. After extensive public participation, coordination and communication, local governments, affected village collectives and affected population have already fully understood the potential influence, settlement policy and income recovery plan of the project. The project resettlement office and the local resettlement organizations at all levels may adopt the following procedures and methods to encourage the affected population to participate in negotiation: (1) Publicize basic information of the project and attract the affected population to actively participate in the project. Through posting on notice boards, radio and television, network media, investigation and discussion, and the like, introduce the basic situations of this project to the affected groups and enable the affected population to have a more fully project awareness and understanding to this project. The project information mainly includes objectives of agricultural land pollution prevention and control; impacts of agricultural land pollution control projects; project compensation standards, compensation amounts and settlement policies; immigrants’ suggestions feedback and complaint channels, and the like. 89 (2) Convening of public consultative meeting The project resettlement office aperiodically organizes affected population to attend consulting meeting based on the actual conditions of Project land acquisition and demolition. At least 5 meetings shall be convened. The number of participants shall not be lower than 30% of the total affected population. During each meeting, representatives of disadvantaged groups especially women and ethnic minorities shall be invited to attend the meeting. The number of disadvantaged groups including women and ethnic minorities attending the meeting shall not be lower than 30% of total number of participants. Also, the meeting shall be monitored by relevant external independent monitoring organization. Furthermore, Project construction contents, progress and resettlement policy of the project shall be publicized through TV, broadcasting, newspaper and network. (3) Convening of public hearing As for issuing centering on resettlement including alternative crops and planting technologies, migrants’ compensation expectations and difficulties faced by migrants, the migrants may fully express their opinions first and then sorting of concentration ratios of needs, opinions and suggestions are formed through discussion, analysis and voting. Then, the community discussion results will be made public. (4) Disclosure of RPF PMO shall disclose the resettlement policy framework to affected people and the public in demonstration areas. The general places used to disclose resettlement policy framework can be public places, villager activity rooms in the affected village committees, government public information website, etc. The language used shall be easy to understand. The draft of resettlement frame shall be publicized one month before it is submitted to the World Bank for approval. After the draft is recognized by the World Bank, the final version can be publicized. The main contents of resettlement frame include all lost property, compensation standards, compensation amount, resettlement policy, migrants’ rights and interests, and opinion feedback and complaint channels, etc. (5) Disclosure of monitoring results of agricultural products during project 90 implementation period The villager monitoring group shall monitor the agricultural land products with the agricultural product monitoring equipment and announce the monitoring results. For monitoring of agricultural products, the single cropping rice is generally monitored once, and the double cropping rice is monitored twice. The monitoring results of agricultural products can be announced in the village information column, centralized activity places of villagers, activity rooms of affected village committees and villagers, government public information website, etc., and the language should be easy to understand and avoid the ambiguity. 91 9. Conclusions and Suggestions 9.1 Basic conclusions Project Overview The main contents of “Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project� cover four aspects: agricultural polluted soil management, sustainable soil management practice, environmental management and agricultural environment monitoring, and project monitoring, evaluation and management. Project counties include 14 counties: Hengyang County, Yongding District, Jishou City, Baojing County, Huayuan County, Yongshun County, Cili County, Zhongfang County, Anhua County, Hengnan County, Linwu County, Yizhang County, Lengshuitan District and Qiyang County. So far more than two years have passed since the Project was officially launched for implementation. During the implementation, 11 project counties (namely Anhua County, Cili County, Yongshun County, Huayuan County, Jishou City, Qiyang County, Linwu County, Lengshuitan District, Hengnan County, Hengyang County and Yongding District) plan to include more project areas or enlarge the coverage of the previous project areas based on the farmland pollution inspection data and project need, which will involve 2270.5 hectares farmland, 29 townships (towns), 60 administrative villages and 113,917 beneficiaries including 7336 people with disabilities and 9341 left-behind women. Purpose and Process of Social Assessment Social assessment aims to identify main stakeholders of newly-added demonstration areas and their needs as well as opportunities，impacts and risks brought by project construction and operation to stakeholders, and to deveop action plan to evade or relieve social risks, assist in perfecting project design and implementation, and get individuals & groups under direct impact of the project activities to effectively participate in project activities. To support design and implementation of the project by the project unit, the social assessment team carried out the social assessment and survey of 11 project counties 92 planning for newly-added demonstration areas from December 16 to December 25, 2020 with support and coordination of related departments. Participatory social assessment method is adopted during the whole social assessment process. Information disclosure and public consultation are used for information collection. Social assessment is made in the 11 project counties by structural interview, group interview, participatory scoring and ranking, matrix analysis of project impact, social resource survey and resource map drawing. A total of 8 leaders of farmers’ cooperatives and main planting farmers have received in-depth interview. A total of 8 leaders of the government at the town and township level and leaders of the Village Committees in the Project Villages have received in-depth interview. A total of 10 administrators and implementers of the Project Counties have received in-depth interview. A total of 60 villagers have received in-depth interview including 20 women (33.3%), 20 minorities (33.3%) and 20 low income people (33.3%). In addition, two types of questionnaire surveys are performed in 11 project counties according to a certain sampling proportion; 1100 social assessment questionnaires are distributed in 11 project counties, 949 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 86.3%; 500 ethnic identification questionnaire are distributed in 5 project districts and counties inhabited by ethnic minorities, 365 of which are effectively recovered, and the questionnaire recovery rate is 73.0%. Needs of Main Stakeholders Total farmland governance scale in 11 project counties is 2270.5 hectares. Based on the field survey, social assessment team have identified main stakeholders of the project and carried out participation and consultation with main stakeholders. Needs of those main stakeholders are as follows: Common needs: Develop agricultural production, increase opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, enhance risk resistance, administer heavy metal pollution of farmland and improve farmers’ production and living standards. Needs of farmer households in demonstration areas: Total population involved in demonstration areas is 114,000. The needs of farmer households in demonstration area include: (1) Improve agricultural production infrastructure, e.g. repair or new construction of irrigation channels, farm tracks, and other relevant facilities: (2) Better 93 local ecological environment, improve quality of agricultural products and develop ecological agriculture; (3) Participate in farmers’ cooperatives and lower production risks and cost; (4) Adjust the agricultural structure, increase the ratio of cash crops in a proper manner and improve income level; (5) Lower the risk of increase of cost brought to farmers during administration process of heavy metal of farmland. There is a total of 47 specialized farmers’ cooperatives in demonstration areas. Needs of cooperatives: (1) Acquire the capital support, lower the financing cost and lighten the capital stress for development of ecological agriculture; (2) Improve organization management level of cooperatives and facilitate local agriculture to adopt scaled development path; (3) Establish heavy metal monitoring stations for soil and agricultural products , improve quality management level of agricultural products and promote the local agriculture to adopt the development path of ecological agriculture; (4) Lower risks of sales of agricultural products and increase of costs. Needs of project village committees: (1) Establish and perfect farmers’ specialized cooperatives and promote local industrial upgrading; (2) Strengthen local farmers’ environment awareness and planting technology training as well as their environmental protection awareness and technological level; (3) Formulate the reasonable compensation mechanism and reduce the income risk of rural residents. Needs of agricultural departments: (1) Smoothly and successfully complete the Project through cooperation with stakeholders; (2) Help farmer households in the demonstration area control heavy metal pollution of farmland, develop agricultural production and improve the quality of agricultural products; (3) Explore local farmland pollution control technologies and management models through improvements of the World Bank project. Needs of other relevant departments of the government: (1) Improve soil quality and local ecological environment and improve administration and monitoring level of local environment: (2)Promote the economic development of project counties and Demonstration Areas; drive the ecological development path of agriculture and promote rural revitalization; (3) Drive economic and social development, realize political stability and improve government image; (4) Improve production and living conditions of low income people, enhance the living standards of low income population, 94 safeguard social stability and promote harmonious development. Analysis of Low-Income people 11 project counties planning to include more areas, three counties once were nationally designated poverty counties and five were provincially designated, all of which have taken off the hats of poverty but are still in poverty such as relative poverty, low income population, etc. Poor people amount to low income population, mainly referring to low income people of poor households just out of poverty in 2020. A total of 2,650 low income households (11,391 low income people) are included in the demonstration areas of 11 counties and cities planning for farmland governance, with a relative poverty incidence of 10%. The low-income residents mainly obtain their income from traditional agriculture. According to survey, 60.0% of low-income individuals mainly obtain their income from planting industry and breeding industry. Income from farmlands of poverty-stricken households’ accounts for 63.5% of household income on average. Low income people have already had some knowledge of the project but some of them are still not clearly aware of the project, which indicates a need of further advocacy campaigns among low income people. In addition, low income households have relatively consistent supporting attitude towards the Project. According to the investigation result, 95.2% of low-income households maintain that “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� is beneficial to the local social and economic development. All low-income households support the project. Low quality of agricultural products, high medical expenditure and low degree of agricultural industrialization are the main reasons causing poverty. Poverty caused by diseases and lacking of technology is the main factor causing poverty. 28.5% low income population fall into poverty due to diseases; 26.4% low income population fall into poverty due to lacking of technology. The low-income individuals have proposed the needs for improvement of quality of agricultural products, strengthening of planting technical training, increase of employment opportunities, enhancement of development capacity and provision of cost compensation. 95 Analysis of Social Gender The educational level of women in villages all the year round is mainly junior high school level. According to survey data: 37.4% of them have primary school and below primary school diploma; 50.1% of them have junior high school diploma; 12.5% of them have senior high school/technical secondary school/vocational school and higher diploma. Farming women are mainly middle and old aged women. According to survey data: Average age of farming women in demonstration areas is 48 years old, and the maximum age is 87 years old while the minimum age is 17 years old. The farming workers in villages are mainly women and middle and old aged people. The women take up about 48% of total employees in the rural cooperatives. The proportion of women participating in the decision-making and management of rural cooperatives is low. There is a total of 189 management personnel, including 47 women, accounting for 25.0%. There is no woman in the management of 8 rural cooperatives. Needs of women for the Project: Increase job opportunities, provide labor protection measures against high temperature, sunstroke, weeds and mosquitoes and preventing inhalation of lime to lungs, and provide training of production skills such as operation of agricultural machines. Classroom lecturing and site demonstration shall be combined for relevant training. Enhancing participation capability of women. Analysis of Ethnic Minorities The project counties within the demonstration area where ethnic minorities live include Jishou City, Huayuan County, Yongshun County, Cili County and Yongding District. Total population of project villages is 49,441. including a total ethnic minority population of 38,423, accounting for 77.7%. Among ethnic minorities, total population of Tujia nationality is 28,277, accounting for 73.6%; total population of Miao nationality is 10,146, accounting for 26.4%. Analysis on the difference of Tujia nationality in the demonstration area. In project villages, total population of Tujia nationality is 28,277, accounting for 57.2% of the total population. According to the proportion of Tujia nationality in the population of demonstration areas, 31 villages inhabited by Tujia people are divided into three categories: project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for less than 96 30% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for 30% - 50% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Tujia nationality accounts for 50% and above of population of demonstration areas. According to the definition of minorities of the World Bank, various categories of project villages are identified through interview and other methods. It is concluded: Local Tujia people’s customs and habits are substantially consistent with Han nationality. In addition to Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Dragon Boat Festival and other traditional festivals as Han nationality, there are “going to the last fair before spring festival�, “the 3rd day of the Third Lunar Month�, “the 8th day of the Fourth Lunar Month�, “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month� and “the 7th day of the Seventh Lunar Month� and other local ethnic festivals. Local residents see no difference with Han in terms of language, planting habit, customs and habits. Language: Since the Tujia nationality lives together with Han nationality in demonstration area for a long time, people with Tujia nationality have begun to use Chinese quite early; Religious belief: In the demonstration area, Tujia nationality believes in Taoism and pays tribute to the ancestors. Tujia nationality believe in many gods, and their religious beliefs include natural worship. Land, rocks, mountains, rivers, and water are all objects of worship. Almost every household in Tujia nationality worships the ancestral shrine in the hall house. The festivals of the Tujia nationality in demonstration area mainly include dragon-boat racing and “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month�. The Tujia nationality pays great attention to traditional festivals especially the Spring Festival which is the most ceremonious. Local customs: Before marriage of women of Tujia nationality in the demonstration area, there is a custom of “crying marriage�. Before marriage, if a girl cannot practice this custom, she will be discriminated and ridiculed. Currently, this custom has already been gradually faded. Mode of production: Mainly planting rice. During the busy farming season, wheat is cut and seedlings are planted, and grain is sown and fields are raised. For families with a shortage of labor force, everyone will take the initiative to help each other. The host family only needs to provide food. This custom of helping each other has become a custom through long time usage for thousands of years. In project villages, total population of Miao nationality is 10,146, accounting for 20.5%. According to the proportion of Miao nationality in the population of 97 demonstration areas, 24 villages inhabited by Miao people are divided into two categories: project villages where population of Miao people accounts for less than 50% of population of demonstration areas; project villages where population of Miao people accounts for 50% and above of population of demonstration areas. According to the definition of minorities of the World Bank, various categories of project villages are identified through interview and other methods. Local Miao people’s customs and habits are substantially consistent with Han nationality. In addition to Spring Festival, Lantern Festival and Dragon Boat Festival and other traditional festivals as Han nationality, there are “going to the last fair before spring festival�, “the 3rd day of the Third Lunar Month�, “the 8th day of the Fourth Lunar Month�, “the 6th day of the Sixth Lunar Month� and “the 7th day of the Seventh Lunar Month� and other local ethnic festivals. Local residents see no difference with Han in terms of language, planting habit, customs and habits. Miao people in Demonstration Areas does not have its unique or other recognized cultural features, living customs or local customs; the cultural, economic, social and political organization has no difference from that of mainstream races; the religious, sacrificing and totem worship activities do not have obvious difference from the mainstream society. Management mode of villages inhabited by Miao people in demonstration areas is substantially consistent with that of most rural areas in China, i.e. the combination of township government and village governance. Language used in daily communication of Miao people in demonstration areas is local dialect, and characters used in daily life are Chinese characters. Lands of Miao people in demonstration areas are owned by the collective; the management mode of contract responsibility system based on the household with remuneration linked to output is adopted. Therefore, through in-depth investigation and analysis on Miao people and Tujia people in demonstration areas, considering that Miao people and Tujia people in demonstration areas have a high degree of integration, which does not conform to the World Bank’s definition of IP, the World Bank’s IP policy is not applicable and there is no need to prepare ethnic minority development plan. Social Impact and Risks The assessment team considers that positive influence of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project is: 98 Short-term positive influence is mainly reflected in: (1) Raise awareness of stakeholders in producing safety products by project promotion. (2) Through the training of the project, the farmer households’ skills in production safety products can be enhanced. (3) Through public participation, consensus on the agricultural land heavy metal pollution control will be achieved. (4) Improve infrastructure and create conditions for agricultural production. (5) The environmental management and the agricultural environment monitoring provide technical supports for agricultural product quality management. (6) The risk resistance capacity of the farmer households and the product competitiveness are improved by cultivating farmers’ specialized cooperatives. Medium and long-term positive influence is mainly reflected in: (1) Significant ecological benefits. The heavy metal pollution of farmland has been administered in the Project through some measures including source control, dynamic monitoring and soil repair to a certain extent, thus benefiting improvement of ecological environment; (2) Considerable economic benefits: The heavy metal pollution administration of farmland in the Project can realize improvement of selling prices of agricultural products, lowering of agricultural production cost, improvement of land utilization efficiency and improvement of added value of agricultural products, which benefits the improvement of farmers’ production and living standards; (3) Obvious social benefits: The implementation of the Project benefits return of migrant workers. In particular, it creates more jobs for women. It benefits poverty alleviation of low income people and formulation of farmland pollution administration model. The social assessment team thinks that the social risks of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project are mainly reflected in the followings: Social risks of crop restructuring. The project does not involve land acquisition and demolition, and does not trigger the involuntary resettlement policy of the World Bank; therefore, there is no need to prepare the resettlement plan. Replanting crops in heavily polluted areas of demonstration areas may bring the following social risks (1) Some farmers do not cooperate. Planting other crops requires change of planting habits and techniques. Although the project management offices and the project team have already carried out in-depth investigation and analysis, there may still be some farmers who are not willing cooperate in the process. (2) The issue of distribution and 99 management of subsidies for change of cropping system. Consensus has been reached on subsidy standards, but more farmers are worried about the transparency of the subsidy. (3) Labor supply problem. At present, many villages are “empty villages� because young and middle-aged laborers are all working outside. Planting of fruits and seedlings requires more laborers, which may face the problem of insufficient labor. Economic risks: Economic risks are mainly reflected in three aspects: (1) Social risks resulting from land remediation due to preservation of original planting habits. The first category is risk of marketing. Rice is replanted to low-cadmium varieties, and thus quality of rice grain will be affected to some extent, which means that existing marketing channels and methods may be affected. The second category refers to risk of failure of food to reach standard. During the period of administration, some food may not completely reach the standard, which may influence food selling price. The third category is the risk of output reduction. Replanting low-cadmium varieties will increase the risk of rice blast and may further lead to reduction of output. According to survey data: the top concern for farmer households is the reduction of actual income of farmer households in short term (78.4%), followed by increase of agricultural production labor amount (33.3%) as well as marketing risk incurred by replanting varieties (31.2%). (2) Social risks from farmland restructuring: First, the risk of cost benefit of replanted crops. Second, the risk of marketing. It is required to establish new sales channels for replanted fruit trees, vegetables and cotton, so as to result in sales risk. Third, the risk of management. Crop replanting will not only implement new requirements on technical management of replanted crops but also require project villages to establish fair, transparent and standardized management procedures. (3) Social risks from adjustment of cropping system. Changes in the planting pattern may increase the input of labor force. If the input cannot be reasonably subsidized, the net income will be reduced. According to survey data: in the process of restructuring, the top concern for farmer households is the reduction of actual income in the same year (51.4%), followed by unmarketable replanted crops (38.5%). Public misunderstanding risks: Public misunderstanding risks are mainly classified into four types: The first category is the risk of improper attribution. The existing pollution condition is resulted from multiple aspects. Administration of soil pollution of farmland before the launch of administration of other pollution may cause 100 the local residents to attribute all problems to heavy metal pollution so as to put forward relevant claims. The second category is the risk of exaggeration of heavy metal pollution. Government departments leading the launch of farmland heavy metal pollution administration in demonstration area can easily attach the label of heavy metal standard-surpassing in all agricultural products in demonstration area. The third category is the risk of resident’s environmental protection awareness. The main stakeholder groups have different orientations in their roles played in environmental pollution and environmental protection. They neither think that they shall take responsibility for surrounding environmental pollution nor believe that they are one of subjects involved in environmental governance. Risk of vulnerability of disadvantaged groups such as ethnic minorities and low income people To-be-included project areas will involve 11,391 people just out of poverty including 46,594 left-behind elderly people, 7,336 people with disabilities and 9,341 left-behind women and 31 project villages in the five project counties and cities at Zhangjiajie and Xiangxi Prefecture where Tujia and Miao dominate, among which 11 project villages have more Miao people and 20 project villages have more Tujia people. Miao people in the eleven project villages of three project counties namely Huayuan County, Yongshun County and Jishou City amount to above 30%. To reduce the vulnerability of these disadvantaged groups, this Project will take powerful measures to have them participate in and benefiting from the project on an equal basis. Risk of land transfer. There are mainly three types: Firstly, it is a blind pursuit of high land transfer rate without consideration of the local natural conditions and realities in development and without any respect to the intentions and autonomous rights of farmers; Secondly it is a lack of an exit mechanism in contractual rights of land, which can hardly protect the farmer’s benefits and will affect the grain production safety. For example, non-standard transfer contracts prevent the farmers’ benefits from being guaranteed. Thirdly it is a transfer without title affirmation due to the delay in granting a certificate for land title affirmation and registration, which can easily cause disputes over land. 101 9.2 Suggestions In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products�, the following supporting measures is recommended: To ensure a smooth implementation of “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� in the to-be-included demonstration area, it is necessary to follow the supporting policies as below: (1) to strengthen farmer’s participation in trainings, form a farmland governance association and establish a full participation and grievance mechanism to ensure in-depth participation and extensive consultation of farmer households during the implementation of the project and resolve the social risks of change of cropping system in heavily polluted areas; (2) to work out a basic compensation package and a subsidy scheme to ensure farmers’ income increase and avoid or reduce to the maximum extent the negative effects on farmers caused by the governance of polluted farmlands; (3) to enhance the publicity and training and the guidance of public opinions and mitigate the risks of public opinions during the governance; (4) to observe the original RPF and incorporate the measures and plans for helping the disadvantaged group. RPF has been prepared during the social evaluation before the official implementation of this Project. This Project is an expansion or addition of demonstration areas based on the original project. Therefore, the implementation plan and the schemes are consistent with the original implementation plan and corresponding RPF and protection plans for vulnerable groups can also be extended to the new implementation. Remember to make public the resettlement policy framework in the newly-added demonstration area, print and distribute publicity materials and finalize the implementation. In addition, the Social Assessment found problems when monitoring the original project including incomplete pre-project work, slow implementation and inconspicuous effects of project driven employment. To better give play to the positive effects of the project and avoid repeated problems in the to-be-included demonstration areas, the Social Assessment Team also proposes to optimize the new-added project design: (1) Optimize the pre-project implementation scheme. Conduct in-depth site 102 survey and intensive monitoring and risk rating in the demonstration area and optimize, adjust and draft implementation plan, procurement plan, and training plan on a yearly basis for the Project. (2) Enhance the implementation and monitoring of agronomic measures. Based on the sample testing data from the previous year and focusing on farming seasons, design and optimize the implementation plan for agronomic measures for the next year. (3) Speed up the construction and management of field works and push forward the employment of farmer households. Following the procedures of the World Bank, push forward the project counties and cities to, during rice harvest and fallow stage, complete project design, financial review, etc. as early as possible, finish tender work and accelerate the completion of outstanding engineering works that are delayed due to various objective reasons despite of the completion of bidding work. (4) Continue to strengthen the management of training for farmers. Push forward third parties to act upon the training responsibilities and check the trainings in terms of contents, time schedule, trainers, effects, etc., fulfill the annual trainings to farmers and project management staff in a timely manner, increase farmers’ planting techniques and improve the skills of project management staff. (5) Push forward and promote the guidance of the project for farmland cooperative economy. It is recommended to promote the farmland cooperative economy by means of land lease, leaseback and contract to farmers, contribution of land as shares, company + rural household, company with base, etc., such as encouraging the establishment of shareholding corporation for farming and business operation and encouraging the development of characteristic farms on the heavy metal polluted farmlands to promote large-scale operation in agriculture and farmer’s employment. In the meantime, the PMO will also need to continue the leading and implementing mechanisms for COVID-19 epidemic or other infectious disease in project areas for planning epidemic prevention work and handling with any emergency preparedness to have an effective control over the COVID-19 epidemic and other infectious diseases. 103 104 10. Social Action Plan of the Project 10.1 Logical Framework As for casual loop diagram involving problems existing in polluted villages of Hunan Province, causes of formation and social impact as well as functions of project activities, negative influence and consultation and discussion results of problems and countermeasures, the consulting experts adopt “Target-oriented Project Planning Method� to draft Social Action Plan of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project. The long-term objectives of the Project in social terms are recommended as: Realize effective administration of polluted farmland in demonstration areas of relevant counties and cities to enable farmer households especially low income people and women to produce safe grains and increase income, get rid of poverty and diseases resulting from polluted farmland, shorten the gap between the rich and the poor among village groups and farmer households, increase agricultural risk resistance, orderly participate in rural cooperatives and develop high-efficiency and ecological agriculture. The objectives during project planning stage are recommended as: Enable polluted farmland in each town, village group and farmer household in demonstration areas to produce safe grains. Outputs in support of the objectives include: 1. The polluted farmland regions have basically adopted effective farmland remediation technologies based on level of pollution; 2. The administration cost of polluted farmland is reasonably apportioned and the farming benefits are significantly improved; 3. Monitoring equipment of polluted farmland has been basically purchased and put in use and effective monitoring is in place; 4. Vulnerable groups of people, such as low income people, women and ethnic households, have equally participated in planning, implementation and management of 105 the Project and fairly benefited from the Project. Project activities to launch in order to reach the desired results: As for administration and management of polluted farmland: (1) Apply remediation technologies in polluted farmland management, including liming, flood irrigation, replanting of low-cadmium varieties, application of organic fertilizers, planting of green manure, spraying of leaf surface controlling agent, additional application of soil conditioner and deep ploughing technology. These technologies involve cost subsidy though. Remediation technologies or replanting of low-cadmium varieties also involve benefit loss subsidy. (2) Guide farmers to adjust planting structure, such as replanting candy orange, grapefruit, cotton, and other suitable crops. The adjustment of cropping structure involves peovision of subsidies for production and associated risks. (3) Repair irrigation works and facilities allocated in field. (4) Establish monitoring equipment of polluted farmland and agricultural products and cultivate relevant monitoring professionals. (5) Establish long-term effective polluted farmland administration measures and develop relevant management organization. Social participation of pollution management: (1) Offer training of concepts on social fairness and responsibility, priority to poverty reduction as well as participatory project planning, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation approaches and methods to PMO, and leaders and personnel of relevant implementing agencies; (2) Offer training on concepts of equality including gender and ethnic equality, participation and democratic rights and implementation methods to cadres of project village groups and representatives of farmer households (including sufficient low- income individuals and women); (3) Strengthen farmers’ cooperatives in project towns and villages to ensure that farmer households participate in the planning, design, implementation, engineering 106 quality supervision and acceptance of the Project in an equal manner; (4) Establish interest appeal mechanism of farmland pollution management between agricultural management department and environment protection department, and project villages and farmers’ cooperatives. 10.2 Consultation Consultation Framework The participation and consultation consultation framework applicable for each party during implementation of the Project shall comprise several aspects, including organization structure, rules and regulations, actual operation and supervision management: 10.2.1 Organization Structure It is recommended to form farmland administration association as organization structure of this framework in the community level. The farmland administration boundary in this demonstration area is basically consistent with the boundary of administrative village. Therefore, the farmland control association (hereinafter referred to as “the Association�) is recommended to be formed with administrative village as unit. It shall be classified into 4 levels, namely, farmland control association, villager representative assembly, village congress and villagers supervision group. The villagers supervision group shall carry out supervision and management of project construction and polluted farmland administration within scope of each group. Farmer households, low-income households, other types of farmer households and women shall elect their own representatives respectively to exercise democratic rights such as participation, expression and supervision in the organization and operation of villager congress. The ratio of women in total number of participants shall not be lower than 30%. Villager representative assembly or enlarged villager representative assembly is the consultation consultation and deliberative organ responsible for formation, operation or village-level development of the association. This organ is also responsible for discussing and nominating candidates of executive committee members, or village 107 project management team and supervision team, forming schemes and reaching consensus on planning, implementation and management of articles of association and each rule of the association as well as the project in the village level as well as use and maintenance of the project through discussion and negotiation, and submitting the foregoing to villager congress or general villager assembly. As the highest decision-making body, villager congress selects executive committee members of the Association and members of the supervision team, discusses and modifies articles of association, rules and project planning as well as other schemes submitted by the representative assembly, listens the annual work report, work plan of next year and farmland administration plan of executive committee of the Association or project management team as well as reports of the supervision team, and discusses, modifies and votes. Under the condition that overwhelming majority of farmer households in the whole village trust and authorization, the villager congress or enlarged villager congress may vicariously exercise the authorities of villager general meeting. As the executing agency of farmland administration association, the project management team is responsible for organizing and implementing the Project, executing rules and regulations regarding farmland pollution management and project maintenance, implementing polluted farmland administration measures, and coordinating with disputes and contradictions resulting from farmland pollution administration. The number of members of executive committee of the Association and project management team shall better not exceed 3-5 so as to reduce lost labor subsidy expense. Since the Project is community oriented (i.e. all villagers are required to participate in the Project and fairly benefit from the Project), the main leaders in village Party branch and village committee (the two village committees for short) responsible for the Project shall be allowed to directly enter the executive committee and project management team and host the work without election so as to avoid existence of two leading centers in one community; other members and supervision team shall be elected and appointed by villager congress or representative assembly or enlarged villager representative assembly. The members of supervision team shall have no direct relationship with members of executive committee and management team so as to make it convenient to give play to supervision function. 108 The responsibilities of the two village committees include: Analyze differences of communities and farmer households with the help of PMO, organize each representative to analyze farmland pollution control problems and countermeasures, and participate in planning and design of project contents at village level; mobilize and organize each villager group to elect members of enlarged villager representative assembly and prepare to establish and convene villager representative assembly, enlarged villager representative assembly, villager congress, and all villager assembly; after establishment of project management team, except main leaders responsible for the Project entering and hosting the work, the two village committees shall continuously support the work of the Association or the management team, coordinate with superior- subordinate and internal-external relationships and carry out necessary supervision instead of taking on the work of management team for replacement. During negotiation, discussion of official business, organization of implementation of the Project, operation and maintenance of the Project and mediation of disputes, the functions of family elders, social elites, senior Party members and veteran cadres shall be brought into play and the development and work implementation of the Association or project management and supervision organization shall be supported; also, young people shall be encouraged to take part in development of the Association as well as planning, implementation and management of the Project. 10.2.2 Rules and Regulations & Procedures The villager congress shall formulate articles of association or relevant terms in project management system to ensure the proportion of poverty-stricken village groups, low-income households and women in villager representatives. Certain rules and procedures shall be formulated for negotiation, discussion and decision-making of the Association or the Project, including group discussion, communication in assembly and reaching of consensus of groups such as low income people and women so as to ensure that each low-income village group, low income people and women may exercise rights such as right to know, participation, expression, decision-making and supervision and make sure that they can participate in development of the Association as well as planning, implementation, management, 109 monitoring and evaluation of the Project. 10.2.3 Actual Operation The personnel of PMO shall adopt participatory methods and tools. Help village group cadres to determine residence distribution of low-income residents and differences between villager groups and farmer households; join hands with each representative especially representatives from low-income communities, low-income households and women representatives to discuss and analyze problems, causes and countermeasures in terms of administration of polluted farmland so as to realize the necessity of implementation and management of the Project; analyze negative influence of project contents as well as problems possibly taking place during implementation of the Project, and determine measures to avoid or lighten such negative influence; specifically plan and design project contents of each villager and formulate project implementation plan based on actual circumstances and conditions and people’s needs and wishes. Assist the formation of village groups, village representative assembly or enlarged villager representative assembly and ensure the implementation of relevant terms in articles of association of the Association and project rules regarding low-income village groups, low-income households, ethnic minority (if applicable) and women representatives. Help project management team and project village joint conference formulate rules and regulations involving agriculture management, engineering management and financial management of farmland pollution administration and prepare project maintenance plan. Special attention shall be paid to safeguarding of rights of ethnic minorities, poverty-stricken village groups, low-income households and women including equal participation, consultation and benefiting; solve possible water consumption contradictions and disputes of project management team or water consumption household groups. Strengthen the capacity building of leaders and relevant personnel of the Association or project management team and improve their awareness of social fairness, responsibility and priority to poverty reduction. 110 10.2.4 Supervision and Administration PPMO shall establish a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, containing internal supervision and external supervision. This mechanism is to supervise and monitor execution of subsidy schemes of the Project and social benefits generated. The internal monitoring is specifically implemented by Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation Center, Agriculture Commission of Hunan Province. The Center is required to establish a top-to-bottom internal supervision mechanism. Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation Center, Agriculture Commission of Hunan Province or consulting experts hired shall check the implementation progress of project subsidy scheme, form a progress report and submit the report to the World Bank once every half a year. As for external monitoring, PMO entrusts an independent agency and consulting expert through public bidding to carry out external monitoring and evaluation of project subsidy scheme and social benefits of the whole project twice a year until the planned objectives of the Project are fully realized. The independent agency or individuals can be academic agency, NGO or independent consulting company which shall have qualified and experienced professionals . Also, the TOR of such agencies shall be accepted by the World Bank. The internal and external supervision and assessment indexes of the Project include farmers’ income, jobs and farmer households’ skills. See Table 10-1 for details. Table 10-1 Social Assessment Index System of the Project Social impacts of the Monitoring and evaluationindices Acquisition of indexes Project ◇ Increase of farmers’ Farmer households’ pure income per person Baseline survey income (before and after the Project) Ongoing monitoring Cost of production input of every mu of crops on and evaluation of the average (before and after the Project) Project Market prices of agricultural products Comparison of data before and after soil Yield of every mu of agricultural products on administration average Income of special groups per capita ◇Increase of jobs Increase of number of agricultural technical Relevant statistics of personnel government in each demonstration area Number of farmers returning to their hometowns and developing agricultural production Record of PMO Types of agricultural industries newly increased 111 after the Project Increase of jobs of special groups ◇ Increase of farmer Personnel participating in technical training Record of PMO households’ production skills Sessions of agricultural technical training Learning of skills of special groups ◇ Improvement of crops’ Various heavy metals contained in crops Monitoring records of safety and quality PMO ◇ Improve soil quality Heavy metal content of soil in farmland Monitoring records of PMO ◇ Change of traditional Villagers’ environmental protection awareness Baseline survey awareness of groups (Questionnaire and benefiting from the Project interview) and increase of their knowledge Frequency of participation in activities such as Records of PMO and training and visit community Statistics of training contents Assessment of project training effect Technical talents appearing in the Project Project village cases ◇ Promotion of Number of rural cooperative organizations in Statistics of CPMO establishment of farmers’ project villages cooperative organizations and community democracy Number of rural socialized organizations in Records of county and project villages village Degree of satisfaction of benefited groups for Questionnaire project managements Interview Conditions of participation of villagers in community meetings and other affairs Villagers’ assessment of the Project ◇ Capacity building of Construction of agricultural product producing Record of PMO project management office place heavy metal pollution of soil monitoring system Symposium Construction of agricultural product producing place environmental quality early-warning system Construction of technical service system of the Project 10.3 Specific actions for social development (1) Establish and improve the villager monitoring teams in the project villages, establish management systems, management structures and supervision mechanisms, reinforce the function and role of these monitoring teams, and inspire local residents to 112 participate. At the same time, these villagemonitoring teams are established to build a mechanism and platform for equal dialogue between the PMOs and rural households, where they can discuss about the common needs and differences, mitigate the disputes between the PMOs and rural households and work out the direction and target for development. (3) Increase rural households’ participation. PMOs are recommended to change the management mindset by hearing and considering the opinions and suggestions of rural households in major decision-making, project implementation and project management and establish a mechanism of participation for rural households to reflect their rights to stay informed, and participate in terms of project implementation. (4) Establish a normative management system to regulate farmers' conducts through institutional powers and traditional moral codes. PMSs at all levels and farmers are recommended to jointly establish management regulations, supervision agreements, and compensation mechanisms through participatory discussions. Institutional management and traditional moral codes are used to enhance the moral literacy of farmers and refrain from their irrational behaviors. (5) Promote gender equality and women's empowerment. The Social assessment suggests that woman members shall be no less than 30% and women participate in meetings, trainings and management of farmers’ cooperatives. (6) PMOs of all counties, cities and districts are responsible for implementation and management of this Project. 10.4 Grievance Redress Mechanism During preparation and implementation of the Project, in order to timely get to know and solve the impacts and problems caused by the Project to affected people, local communities, affected enterprises and other stakeholders, varied and effective grievance redress mechanism shall be established in the Project. Such mechanism specifically include the following procedures: Stage 1: The affected people may express their dissatisfaction to the project owner, or village committees/community neighborhood committees, or town 113 governments/sub-districts in form of oral or written appeal. The said project owners, or village committees/community neighborhood committees, or town governments/sub- districts shall preserve a written record of oral appeal and give clear reply within two weeks. Stage 2: If the affected people are still dissatisfied with the handling decisions of stage 1, they may put forward appeal to relevant implementation and management agencies such as PMO of the project county after receiving the decisions and relevant agencies shall make decisions on handling of such matters within 2 weeks. Stage 3: If the affected people are still dissatisfied with the decisions of stage 2, they may put forward appeals to PPMO after receiving the decisions. Relevant agency shall make decisions on handling of such matters within 2 weeks. Stage 4: If the affected people are still dissatisfied with the decisions of stage 3, they may put forward appeals to competent administrative authorities’ level by level for arbitration according to the Administrative Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China. Stage 5: If the affected people are still dissatisfied with the arbitration , after receiving the arbitration result, they may appeal to the civil court according to the civil procedure law. Contact details of the agencies receiving the complaints are shown in Table 10-2: 114 Table 10-2 Contact details of the agencies receiving the complaints of project site Project site Organization Contact person Contact telephone XiangXi Foreign Investment and Foreign Zhang Ye +86-15274308806 Prefecture Aid Office Zhongfang Agriculture and Rural Affairs Yang Wen +86-13517450920 County Bureau Foreign Investment and Foreign Jishou City Yang Jun +86-13762167240 Aid Office Huayuan Foreign Investment and Foreign Shi Junlin +86-13974377849 County Aid Office Yongding Agriculture and Rural Affairs Hu Wenling +86-13637440869 District Bureau Agriculture and Rural Affairs Cili County Yang Hongquan +86-13974477800 Bureau Agriculture and Rural Affairs Linwu County Chen Xiangwu +86-13975595524 Bureau Agriculture and Rural Affairs Yizhang County Xiao Lisheng +86-13574541943 Bureau Agriculture and Rural Affairs Qiyang County Li Haiying +86-15367516667 Bureau Lengshuitan Agriculture and Rural Affairs Wen Jun +86-15807480337 District Bureau Hengnan Agriculture and Rural Affairs Yin Xiangyang +86-13974721668 County Bureau Hengyang Agriculture and Rural Affairs Liu Kangxing +86-13973415242 County Bureau Foreign Investment and Foreign Baojing County Li Qingxing +86-13974382626 Aid Office Yongshun Foreign Investment and Foreign Chen +86-13787433288 County Aid Office Shengshuang Agriculture and Rural Affairs Anhua County Peng Xiumiao +86-13787376160 Bureau 10.5 Prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic Currently, Hunan is a low-risk area for COVID-19 but a risk of spreading in the future still exists. There may be a risk of spreading COVID-19 among the laborers and residents in the neighborhood during the project development and operation. 115 Governments at all levels in Hunan Province have taken strong measures to control the spread of COVID-19 epidemic. Foreign Investment Project Management Office of Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hunan Province has also taken overall measures including: • Establishing a leading group responding to the COVID-19 epidemic for the purpose of arrangement of epidemic prevention and response to emergency and management oversight any time; • Disseminating the epidemic prevention in an active manner, such as the knowledge of epidemic prevention, preventive measures, etc., by distributing epidemic prevention booklets to each employee and posting the guidelines by ways of WeChat, QQ, in the workplace, etc.; • Supplying the project workers with protective appliances, infrared thermometer guns to measure the temperature ofemployees and guests; • Conducting disinfection and sterilization. • Including specific COVID-19-related measures in the contracts and agreements of project implementation; • Monitoring, supervising and reporting on health and safety related to COVID- 19 (COVID-19 Coordination Center) including the key duties and the detailed reporting arrangements of the project supervision engineers and major contractors; • Raising safety awareness of workers and enhancing trainings to workers so as to slow down the spread of COVID-19; • Providing evaluation, assignment and treatment to patients and/or workers infected with COVID-19; • Establishing procedures and cultures of accident reporting and investigation in the daily operation according to the Environmental and Social Commitment Plan. 116 Appendix 1: Social Assessment Questionnaire of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project with World Bank Loan Dear friends, Hello! In order to control the heavy metal pollution in agricultural product producing area, Agricultural Commission of Hunan Province intends to implement the “Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project�. This survey will not involve personal identification information, so please answer them truthfully. Thank you for your support for the project! Please fill in the details on the line, draw “� on the corresponding option. Research Group on the Social Assessment of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project December 2020 A. Basic Information A1. Your gender: ① Male ② Female A2. You are years old. (Please fill in the specific figure on the line) A3. Your education degree is: ①Primary school and below ②Junior high school ③Senior high school/technical secondary school/vocational school ④University and above A4. Your marital status is: ①Unmarried ②Married ③Divorced ④Remarried after divorce A5. Are your family a poverty-stricken family established the files? ① Yes ② No A6. Are there any disabled people in your family? ① Yes ② No A7. Your current professional status is: ①Full-time worker ②Part-time farming ③Full-time farming ④Others A8. Your current identity is: ①General retail ②Peasant entrepreneur ③Professional investor ④Work in large investor or rural cooperatives ⑤Others A9. In 2019, your average monthly income is yuan? (Please fill in the specific figure on the line) 117 A10. How many people are there in your family? Person. (Please fill in the specific figure on the line) A11. In 2019, your total household income was yuan; non-agricultural income was yuan, agricultural income (including farmland rent) was yuan; gross income (including cost) from paddy field planting was yuan, and the cost was yuan. A12. In 2019, your total household expenditure last year was yuan; agricultural expenditure was yuan; living expenses was yuan; medical expenditure was yuan; education expenditure was yuan; endowment expenditure was yuan; other expenditures were yuan. A13. Within the confines of your village, you think that your family economic status is: ①Very good ②Good ③General ④Poor ⑤Extremely poor A14. What is the main industry in your village (community)? ①Mainly agriculture ②Mainly non-agriculture ③Agriculture and non-agriculture are basically equivalent ④Unclear B. Awareness and Support Willingness B1. The farmland heavy metal (such as cadmium, nickel and arsenic etc) pollution situation in your location is: ① Very serious ② Relatively serious ③ General ④ Not very serious ⑤ No pollution B2. The farmland heavy metal pollution situation in your location has lasted for: ① 1-2 years ② 3-5 years ③ 5-10 years ④ Above 10 years ⑤ Unclear B3. The development trend of farmland heavy metal pollution phenomenon in your location is: ① More and more serious ② Better and better ③ Maintain the status quo ④ Unclear B4. The impact of farmland heavy metal pollution on the local area is: a. The impact of farmland ② Relatively ④ Relatively pollution on the health of ①Very great ③General ⑤No impact great small local people b. The impact of farmland ② Relatively ④ Relatively pollution on the yield of ①Very great ③General ⑤No impact great small local agricultural products 118 c. The impact of farmland ② Relatively ④ Relatively pollution on the quality of ①Very great ③General ⑤No impact great small local agricultural products d. The impact of farmland pollution on the selling ② Relatively ④ Relatively ①Very great ③General ⑤No impact price of local agricultural great small products B5. Do you understand the “Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project�? ①Completely do not understand ②Not too understand ③Understand a little ④Relatively understand ⑤Very understand B6. Generally speaking, do you think the “Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project� will be favorable to the development of local economy and society or not: ①Very favorable ②Relatively favorable General ④ Not too favorable ⑤Very unfavorable B7. Generally speaking, your attitude to local implementation of the “Safety and Quality Improvement Project for Producing Area of Agricultural Products� is: ①Very supportive ②Relatively supportive ③General ④Not too supportive ⑤Strongly opposed C. Participating willingness and expectations C1. Your paddy fields are mu; paddy fields currently cultivated are mu; paddy fields rented out are mu; paddy fields rented in are mu? C2. At present, crops planted in your farmland all year round are: ①One-season paddy ②Double cropping rice ③Rice+ rape ④Rice+ tobacco ⑤Others (Please specify) C3. According to demand of the project, if you are required to adjust farmland planting pattern (e.g. Change “one-season paddy� to “rice+ rape�), are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C4. According to governance demand of the project, if you are required to adjust rice planting pattern, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C5. According to governance demand of the project, if you are required to spray lime in the farmland and spray leaf surface controlling agent (Si), are you willing to do so? 119 ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C6. According to governance demand of the project, if you are required to adopt irrigating with clean water in the farmland, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C7. According to demand of the project, if you are required to apply organic fertilizer or plant green manure and not to apply chemical fertilizer any more, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C8. According to demand of the project, if appropriate transformation and upgrading shall be made to the irrigation infrastructure of local farmland, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C9. According to demand of the project, if heavy metal contaminated straw treatment facilities shall be newly built in heavy metal contaminated area of farmland, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C10. According to demand of the project, if farm tracks shall be newly built or reconstruct, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C11. If the project construction occupies the farmland, you think that the subsidy standard shall be yuan/mu. C12. According to demand of the project, if land transfer and contiguous development shall be conducted in a systematic way, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C13. If land transfer shall be conducted, which of the following land transfer ways do you prefer to choose? ① Renting (e.g.rent your farmland to project party, large grower or other agricultural operating entities, and you shall obtain rent) ② Buying shares (e.g.fix a price for operating right of your farmland to buy shares, set up a joint stock company, and you obtain profits according to shares.) ③ Shares + cooperation (Set up a cooperative by taking land operating right as shares, and you obtain income according to land minimum guarantee and benefit bonus) ④ Others (Please specify) C14. According to demand of the project, the project shall hire some farmers to participate in the construction of local project, are you willing to do so? 120 ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C15. According to demand of the project, the project shall conduct technical training on participating farmers, are you willing to do so? ① Very willing ② Relatively willing ③ General ④ Not too willing ⑤ Very unwilling C16. If you are willing to participate in, in your opinion, the technical training subsidy shall not be less than yuan/person/day. (Please fill in the specific figure on the line) D. Replantation Management (Areas without a crop switching plan will be directly relocated to E. Farmland governance for filling) D1. According to demand of the project, if you are required to replant other other crops, which crops are you willing to replant? ①candy orange, navel orange, plums, grapes, pitaya ② seedlings, flowers, mulberry ③ Chinese mugwort ④ sorghum, cotton, corn ⑤ lotus root, lotus leaf ⑥Others D2. According to demand of the project, if you are required to replant other crops, what are you worried about? ① Higher input costs for crop conversion ② Product sales of replanted crops ③ Technical requirements for replanting crops ④Subsidy management for replanting crops ⑤ Others D3. If land transfer shall be conducted, which of the following land transfer ways do you prefer to choose? ① Renting ② Buying shares ③ Shares + cooperation ④ Others (Please specify) D4. In your opinion, how much subsidies you receive to replant if your lands are required to be replanted the following cash crops: D4a.The proposed subsidy of candy orange, navel orange, plum, grape or pitaya is yuan/mu for years. D4b. The proposed subsidy of flowers, plants and seedlings or mulberry is yuan/mu for years. D4c. The proposed subsidy of Chinese mugwort is yuan/mu for years. D4d. The proposed subsidy of sorghum, cotton or corn is yuan/mu for years. D1e. The proposed subsidy of lotus root or lotus leaf is yuan/mu for years. D5. Which of the following ways do you think should be adopted in compensation period? 121 ① Once a year ② Once half a year ③ Once a quarter ④ One-time subsidy D6.Which institution do you think should implement the compensation？ ① Provincial PMO ② County PMO ③ Village-level PMO ④ Special compensation management group D7. Which kind of supervision way do you think should be adopted during compensation? ① Supervised by provincial PMO ② Supervised by County PMO ③ Supervised by Village project implementation group ④ Supervised by special compensation supervision group ⑤ Supervised by specialized third party organizations ⑥ Cooperatively supervised by departments at all levels D8. Who do you think of should participate in the compensation supervision group: (Multiple choices) ① Leaders of World Bank project ② Members of provincial project group ③ Members of county project group ④ Town cadres ⑤ Members of village project group ⑥ Villager ⑦ Others D9. What is the most concerned about during compensation? ① Low compensation standard ② Low practical operability of compensation method ③Withholding actions during compensation ④ Insufficient transparency during compensation ⑥ Inconsistent policies ⑦ Imperfect compensation mechanism ⑧ Others E. Farmland Governance and Management E1. Does your family participate in the rural cooperative currently? ①Yes ② No E2. According to your knowledge, the villagers in the village have not joined the rural cooperatives due to (Multiple choices): ① Insufficient funds ② Poor farming techniques ③ Excluded by cooperative members ④ Fields are just for the full stomach ⑤ Fear of being looked down on ⑥ Be not willing to risk ⑦ Insufficient labor force ⑧ Others E3. What the management organizations do you think that need to be established in the village to carry out the management of polluted farmland? 122 ① The farmland control association ② The members of the project management group ③ supervision and management group of the project ④ Technical group of the project E4. Which of the following persons do you think shall be included in your village's farmland governance committee of “Management Project of Polluted Farmland� (Multiple choices)? ①Poverty-stricken households ②Village cadres ③Women ④Peasant households ⑤ Others E5. In the implementation process of the project, if your wishes and expectations are different from or conflict with the project, what approach do you hope to resolve the differences or disputes between them? (Multiple choices) ① Reflect to village cadres ② Reflect to government ③ Ask project party for solution ④ Quit, do not cooperate with project party any more ⑤ Find a group of people to solve with force ⑥ Others E6. After the completion of the project, what positive impact do you think it will have on the local area? (Multiple choices) ① Ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products ② Increasing the awareness of residents in the treatment of farmland pollution ③ Improved rural infrastructure ④ Contaminated farmland is effectively managed and used rationally ⑤ Conducive to large-scale operations and creating rural brands ⑥ Increasing the employment opportunities of local farmers ⑦ Conducive to increasing the income of local farmers ⑧ Others (Please specify on the line) E7. Does the project construction pose the following negative effects on your production and life? (Multiple choices) ① Short-term reduction in real income of farmers ② Increasing in agricultural production labor ③ The sales of crop products that have been replanted could not go out ④ The construction has destroyed the original vegetation on the ground and caused soil erosion. ⑤ Construction has caused road dust, automobile exhaust, drip oil and other environmental pollution ⑥ Others F. Concern and project awareness for Environmental (please evaluate the following points according to your feelings) F1. The current environmental pollution is on the verge of the limit that the Earth could bear (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F2. Human destruction of nature often results in catastrophic consequences (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree 123 F3. Humans are abusing and destroying the environment (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F4. Animals and plants have the same rights to survival as humans (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F5. The nature can fully rely on its own power to respond to the impacts of the modern industrial society (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F6. Regardless of special powers, humans are still dominated by natural laws (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F7. It is an overstatement that humans are facing an "environmental crisis" (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F8. Space and resources on the earth are limited (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F9. The balance of the nature is very fragile to the extent of being disrupted very easily (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree F10. If everything goes on as it is, we will soon suffer a severe environmental disaster (1) Very agree (2) relatively agree (3) not clear (4) not quite agree (5) very disagree The investigation is over. Thank you again for your participation and support! Wish you all the best! Appendix 2: Questionnaires of ethnic minorities 1.Your nationality is: ① Tujia ② Bai ③ Dong ④ Yao ⑤ Miao ⑥ Others 2.Does your nationality have its own language? ① Yes ② No 2a. What is the language of your nationality? Please specify. 2b. Can you speak your own language? ① Entirely ② A little ③ Absolutely not 124 2c. The language you used to use in daily life is: ① Chinese ② Your own language 3.Does your nationality have characters？ ① Yes ② No 3a. What is your own characters? Please specify. 3b. The character you used to use in daily life is: ① Chinese character ②Your own character 4.What is your national costume? Please specify. 4a. Do you wear national costume? ① Often ② Occasionally ③ Only for ethnic customs and activities ④ Never 5.What is the worship of the totem of your nationality? Please specify. 6.What is the most important festival of your nationality? Please specify. 7.What are taboos of your nationality? Please specify. 8.Does your nationality have clan chiefs (castellans)? ① Yes ② No 9.How do you resolve the disputes with others? ① Ask village cadres for help. ② Settle the matters privately. ③ Ask the elderly to mediate. ④ Others 10.Does your nationality have some taboos about land? ① Yes ② No 11.Do you interact with people from other nationalities in daily life? ① Often ② Occasionally ③ Never 12.Does there are any intermarriage with other nationalities in your family? ① Yes ② No 13.Do you feel that you are a minority in daily life? ① Often ② Occasionally ③ Never 14.Were you discriminated because of your ethnic identity? ① Often ② Occasionally ③ Never 15.In your opinion, the differences between you and Han people in life are: ① Very obvious ② Obvious ③Not obvious ④Small ⑤No difference 16.In your opinion, the differences between you and Han people in the customs and habits are: 125 ① Very obvious ② Obvious ③Not obvious ④Small ⑤No difference 17. Discrepancy you think you have between you and Han people in terms of language: ① Very obvious ② Obvious ③Not obvious ④Small ⑤No difference 18.In your opinion, the differences between you and Han people in planting crops are: ① Very obvious ② Obvious ③Not obvious ④Small ⑤No difference Thank you for your support! This is the end of the questionnaire. 126 Appendix 3: (Village) Cadre Interview (Symposium) Outline of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project I.Basic information of the project village (county) 1.Population (number, gender, nationality, belief, occupation, and number and ratios of agricultural population and non-agricultural population) 2.Natural resources (land, forest, mineral products, etc.) owned by village (county) and utilization of such resources 3.Economic income of village (county), main sources and their ratios and ranking in township 4.Composition of livelihood mode (agriculture, non-agriculture and animal husbandry) and development conditions 5.Economic development level of village (county): What is the income per capita of the village? How about the poverty condition? What is the economic development ranking? How about the development condition of collective economy? 6.History and planning of development of village (county) 7.Problems and status quo of infrastructure of village (county) 8.Conditions of ecological environment and influence on local people’s lives 9.Composition and operation conditions of formal agencies and informal organizations of village (county) 10.Experience of similar projects implemented in village (county) II.Ethnic Minorities (applicable for villages with relatively abundant ethnic minorities; this part can be omitted if the villages have no ethnic minorities or the ratio of ethnic minorities is small) 1.Types, population, ratios and residential places of ethnic minorities of village (county) 2.Sources of ethnic minorities 3.Informal social organizations of ethnic minorities 4.Main natural resources owned by ethnic minorities as well as convention and common law of environmental protection 5.Conditions of economic development, production and consumption of ethnic minorities 6.Beliefs of ethnic minorities 7.Government aid for ethnic minorities 127 8.Association conditions among different nationalities (intermarriage) III.Opinions on the project 1.What kind of benefits will the implementation of the Project bring to the village (county) and who would benefit most from the Project in your opinion? 2. What kind of difficulties encounters during implementation of the Project in your opinion? 3. Will the agricultural pollution producing place project have an impact on the activities already locally launched. What kind of impact will be caused if any? 4. Does the village (county) have sufficient labor to participate in agricultural pollution producing place administration project? 5. What factors would influence implementation of the Project in your opinion (economy, management, technology and finance)? 6. What are the negative influences of the Project on the local region (society, culture, economy and environment�)? 7. What countermeasures can be adopted to mitigate the negative influences of the Project on the local region? 8. Are women and ethnic minorities willing to participate in the Project? (Note: This interview outline also applies to county-level group interview or cadre interview. The questions of interview can be added or deleted according to specific conditions. The purpose of the interview is to get to know the social, economic and cultural background information of the Demonstration Areas as well as opinions of villagers and town cadres on the Project.) 128 Appendix 4: (Village) Cadre Interview (Symposium) Outline of Hunan Integrated Management of Agricultural Land Pollution Project I.Interview Questions: 1.Do you know the Project? When do you know the Project? Where do you konw the Project? What messages do you learn? What else do you want to know? 2.Is your villager is a rich village or a poor village compared with other villages in the counties? What’s your opinion on the causes of poverty if you think that your village is a poor village? 3.What about losses caused by pollution of agricultural producing places to your family and village and how about the recovery work? 4.Are you for or against the Project? Please explain the reason if you are against the Project. 5.What kind of influence would be imposed on your family’s production and life after implementation of the Project (positive or negative)? 6.What issues of the Project do you care about most? Please list the issues and sort them according to degree of importance. 7.Who would benefit most from the Project? 8. What are your suggestions on the Project? (The suggestions shall be sorted according to degree of reproject awareness .) 9.What kind of influence of construction of the Project will be imposed on your village’s existing natural environment as well as its culture, historical heritage, religious belief and tourist attractions? 10. What is the influence of construction of the Project on women’s production and lives and what their requirements and suggestions on the Project (inquiries from the women only)? 11.What is the influence of construction of the Project on production method, lifestyle and customs of your nationality and what about your suggestions (inquires from the ethnic minorities only)? II.Mapping: 1. Make daily life diagram and season activity diagram as per sex. 2. Make daily travel diagram and daily intercourse diagram as per sex. (Note: This interview outline also applies to household interview. This interview outline is launched on the basis of questionnaire survey.) 129 130