The six-year project (2014-2019), they said, has a budget of US$165 million funded by a preferential loan from the World Bank.They said it aims to raise the livelihoods of poor farmers by upgrading infrastructure, enhancing local public services and providing agriculture related training— and to date around 6,000 households have benefited.Ho Phuoc Thanh, director of the Gia Lai provincial Department of Planning and Investment who also serves on the Managing Board of the project, said it has greatly assisted poor people, especially ethnic minority people, helping them escape poverty.He noted that project staff in the future would encourage more local people to join the project, providing them with training on cultivation and rearing livestock to help them better their livelihoods.Siu Tam in Bah Leng Hamlet, La Pa District, in turn said in the past local villagers mainly grew only modest amounts of vegetables, but now thanks to application of more advanced techniques, yields have increased significantly.In Mang Yang District, there are nine sub-projects related to planting ginger. Tran Thi Hieu, a project staff member, pointed out that with around a US$6,000 cash outlay to grow ginger, each household can gross about US$13,000 from sales after only nine months.