External Social Monitoring Report # 3 Semiannual Report September 2020 People’s Republic of China: Fujian Farmland Sustainable Utilization and Demonstration Project Prepared by Sichuan Fontal Strategic Consulting Co., Ltd. for the Fujian Provincial Government and the Asian Development Bank. NOTE (i) In this report, "$" refers to United States dollars. This social monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Loan No.: 3450-PRC Fujian Farmland Sustainable Utilization and Demonstration Project External Social Monitoring Report No. 3 Sichuan Fontal Strategic Consulting Co., Ltd. September 2020 ABBREVIATIONS ADB - Asian Development Bank AP - Affected Person FGD - Focus Group Discussion GAP - Gender Action Plan IA - Implementing Agency M&E - Monitoring and Evaluation NCB - National Competitive Bidding PMO - Project Management Office RP - Resettlement Plan SDAP - Social Development Action Plan Units Currency unit = Yuan (RMB) RMB1.00 = US$0.15 1 hectare = 15 mu 1 Project Overview 1.1 Project Introduction 1 The Fujian Farmland Sustainable Utilization and Demonstration Project (hereinafter, the “Project”) formerly involved 13 counties (cities, districts) in 5 municipalities, namely Wuyishan City and Guangze County in Nanping Municipality, Datian, Youxi and Ninghua Counties in Sanming Municipality, Yongding and Xinluo Districts in Longyan Municipality, Pinghe and Zhangpu Counties in Zhangzhou Municipality, and Jiaocheng District, Zherong County, Dongqiao District and Fu’an District in Ningde Municipality, with a total construction area of 269,000 mu, including the improvement of 204,000 mu of slope farmland, including tea garden, oil tea garden, grapefruit garden, etc., and the improvement of 65,000 mu of low farmland, involving paddy rice, vegetables, pasture, pearl barley, lotus seed, etc. The Project has a gross investment of 1.242 billion yuan (equivalent to $190 million), including an ADB loan of $100 million, and a construction period of 5 years, from May 2017 to May 2022. See more details of outputs and construction contents in the 1st external monitoring report. 1.2 Scope of Construction and Changes 2 During the first and second round of M&E, some implementing agencies (IAs) had completed construction or quitted to implement relevant subprojects due to changes in construction conditions in the long preparation period. By the date of the second M&E report, 11 subprojects1 were dropped out from the Project, with a total amount of $23.3 million. Their withdrawal has been approved by ADB. These changes have already been reflected in No.2 M&E report. 3 During this round of M&E, the cancellation of some subproject components of two companies in Longyan Municipality and one company in Ninghua (see Footnotes 2, 3 and 4) were approved by ADB. See Table 1-1 for the latest construction scope of the Project. Table 1-1 Construction Scope of the Project (As of Aug 2020) County / Remarks No. IA city / Scope of construction (Changes from last report, if any) district Wuyishan 5,000 mu paddy field in Wuyishan— No change Zhuzi Eco- Wuyishan water and ecological revetment 1 agriculture City infrastructure improvement, 5,000 mu Co., Ltd. paddy field—traffic. 60,000 mu low-yield tea garden and No change 40,000 mu low-yield oil tea garden Datian improvement—farmland protection and County ecological conservation, 18,000 mu Golden low-yield paddy field improvement— Datian 2 Phoenix farmland protection and ecological County Agricultural conservation, 4,700 mu low irrigated Development land leveling, improvement of 4,285 mu Co., Ltd. tea garden terrace and other infrastructure, and organizational capacity building Ninghua Improving 1,010 mu oil tea garden, Removal of some components was Ninghua 3 County State- mainly including oil tea garden approved. County owned Eco- 1 The withdrew IAs include Yangzhong Town Xingkaicheng Urban Construction Co., Ltd. ($4.5 million), Youxi County Shenlang Edible Oil Co., Ltd. ($3.6 million), Ninghua County Ninghua High-tech Food Co., Ltd. ($1 million), Fujian Chunhui Tea Co., Ltd. ($1.2 million), Fujian Cuiyun Tea Co., Ltd. ($1.3 million), Ninghua County Jinxi Tea Co., Ltd. ($1.2 million), Ninghua County Houde Eco-agriculture Co., Ltd. ($1.3 million), Fujian Hongsheng Gardening Co., Ltd. ($3.6 million), Fujian Jianye Agriculture & Forestry Investment Co., Ltd. ($3.6 million) and Ningde Qilongxiang Agriculture Co., Ltd. ($2 million) , total $23.3 million. Guangze County Zhengyuan Eco-food Co., Ltd. have proposed new project components using existing $4 million. 1 County / Remarks No. IA city / Scope of construction (Changes from last report, if any) district forest Farm improvement and infrastructure Co., Ltd.2 construction Longyan Improving 5,565 mu oil tea garden, 608 Removal of some components was Longyu mu vegetable base / nursery, mainly approved. Ecological Yongding including lowland and water 4 Industry District infrastructure improvement, seedling Development supply, and pest control equipment Co., Ltd.3 Longyan 4,000 mu paddy field—water Removal of some components was Green Land infrastructure improvement and 2,000 approved. Eco- Xinluo mu paddy field protection 5 agriculture District Development Co., Ltd.4 Improving 12,691 mu grapefruit No change garden, 6,328 mu oil tea garden and Fujian Xinghe 10,079 mu tea garden (including 6,651 Investment & mu organic tea garden and 3,428 mu Pinghe 6 Development green tea garden), mainly including County Group Co., land leveling, field roads, agriculture Ltd. protection, farmland irrigation, sustainable cultivation, etc., and organizational capacity building 4,460 mu oil tea field facility No change Fujian Luyin improvement, water facility Jiaocheng 7 Agriculture improvement, shelter forest and District Co., Ltd. ecological conservation, seedling supply, and pest control equipment 1) Construction of 500 mu fine tea No change variety breeding base; 2) replanting of 1,000 mu tea garden; 3) construction of composite ecological tea garden; 4) tea Fujian Farms Fu’an garden pipe irrigation and water- 8 Agribusiness District fertilizer integration technique Tea Co. Ltd. extension; 5) construction and application of remote pest monitoring, diagnosis and early warning service platform of tea garden; 6) 2 Ninghua County State-owned Eco-forest Farm Co., cancellation of the following components were approved by ADB: 7 contracts, including (FJ-NHLC-CW-01, Rehabilitation of 15,331 mu Slopeland for the Oil-tea Plantations in Huatou Township, FJ-NHLC-CW-02, Rehabilitation of 9,201 mu Slopeland for the Oil-tea Plantations in Shibi Township, FJ- NHLC-CW-03 Construction of Irrigation/drainage systems and access roads in the 15,331 mu oil-team plantations in Huatou Township, FJ-NHLC-CW-04 Construction of Irrigation/drainage systems and access roads in the 9,202 mu oil-tea plantations in Shibi Township, FJ-NHLC-CW-05 Land leveling and construction of irrigation/drainage systems and access roads in the 850 mu oil-tea plantations in Anle township，FJ-NHLC-GS-02 Supply of 1.294 million Oil-tea Saplings for 16,175mu Oil-tea Plantations and FJ-NHLC-GS-02 Supply of 0.826 million oil-tea Saplings for 15,331 mu Oil-tea plantations) totaling $9 million. 3 Longyan Longyu Ecological Industry Development Co., Ltd. cancellation of the following subproject components were approved by ADB: 6 contracts,( including 3,592 mu tea garden—slope land and water infrastructure improvement, seedling supply, 8,395 mu paddy field—lowland renovation, water infrastructure, farmland protection, 4,140 mu pasture—lowland leveling, soil monitoring, and farm product quality testing,) totaling $7.5 million. 4 Longyan Green Land Eco-agriculture Development Co., Ltd. cancellation of the following subproject components were approved by ADB: 9 contracts, (including water infrastructure improvement including 2,690 mu pearl barley garden, 1,820 mu low-yield oil tea garden, 1,200 mu low-yield tea garden and 2,064 mu vegetable garden), lowland improvement, terrace improvement, farmland protection, farm product quality testing, oil tea seedling supply, and farmland ecological conservation (shelter forest)), totaling $6.5million. 2 County / Remarks No. IA city / Scope of construction (Changes from last report, if any) district reconstruction and expansion of tea quality test station; 7) farm product and tea quality tracing system; 8) skill training Source: fieldwork / IAs 4 The remaining 8 IAs covered 83 villages in 18 townships in 6 counties (cities, districts) in four municipalities by the date of this report. These 83 villages have a resident population of 60,183, including 29,544 females and a poor population of 992. Compared to previous M&E report, some of the beneficiary villages were changed. See Appendix 1 for the remaining beneficiary area of the Project.5 1.3 Project Implementation Progress 5 The 8 IAs have 50 contracts (including construction and procurement) in total. By the date of this report, procurement for 31 contracts had completed, including 27 subject to national competitive bidding (NCB) and 4 subject to shopping. 6 By the date of this report, 8 contracts had been completed their implementation (5 of Fujian Luyin Agriculture Co., Ltd., 1 of Datian County Golden Phoenix Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., 1 of Fujian Xinghe Investment & Development Group Co., Ltd., and 1 of Wuyishan Zhuzi Eco- agriculture Co., Ltd.), 19 were ongoing (6 of Datian County Golden Phoenix Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., 2 of Longyan Longyu Ecological Industry Development Co., Ltd., 2 of Longyan Green Land Eco-agriculture Development Co., Ltd., 3 of Fujian Xinghe Investment & Development Group Co., Ltd., 2 of Wuyishan Zhuzi Eco-agriculture Co., Ltd., 2 of Ninghua County State-owned Eco-forest Farm Co., Ltd., and 2 of Fujian Farms Agribusiness Tea Co.