Countermeasures and institutional innovations for poverty alleviation in Yulin Prefecture of Shanxi Province
陕西榆林地区的脱贫对策与制度创新

Yulin prefecture, which still has a population of 400 000 under poverty line by 1997, is one of the poorest areas in arid and semiarid lands of China. In this paper, the authors put forward the countermeasures for shaking off poverty and the viewpoints on institutional innovations of extinguishing poverty after analyzing the causes of poverty related to ecological vulnerability low efficiency of economic system, backward social and oultural system and irrational policy and institution in detail. The countermeasures are (1) to alleviate and control soil and water erosion by tackling small drainage areas in a comprehensive way; (2) to decrease the number of population and reduce natural increase rate of population by adjusting the priority objects of extinguishing poverty; (3) to heighten economic benefit by transforming industrial structure based on resource advantage; and (4) to improve policy and institutional system by insisting on equal rule. The institutional innovations comprise three aspects, which are (1) to bestow partial ownership of mineral resources on the local government to remove poverty radically, (2) to put all wastelands under farmer's control and corporations to stop tragedy of commons, and (3) to attach importance to local interests to quick the pace of extinguishing poverty.