'China's nutrition program benefits over 34 mn rural students'

Over 34 million students in China have been benefited from the government's rural nutrition drive which has improved their physical fitness and academic performance in five years, the Ministry of Education said.
The programme was launched as a pilot project to address malnutrition in rural areas, and the government began to allocate three yuan (USD 0.43) a day per student to supplement their diets with nutritious meals.
This was increased to four yuan (USD 0.58) last year.
It has been expanded to cover 1,502 counties in 29 out of the Chinese mainland's 31 provincial regions, according to the ministry, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Prevalence of anemia among the students dropped by 8.9 percentage points from 2012 to 2015, data from the National Institute of Nutrition and Health under the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention showed.
The students' physical fitness has improved and their academic performance enhanced along with their nutrition, the ministry said.
Education Minister Chen Baosheng said the government aims to expand the programme to cover all poverty-stricken counties.