This undated photo shows Sichuan University offers all-potato dishes at a canteen window. (Photo/Chengdu Evening News)
(ECNS) -- A university in southwestern China has started offering various dishes made of potatoes purchased from a poverty-stricken county in Sichuan Province to boost the income of local farmers.
Students at three campuses of Sichuan University in Chengdu City have been buying the dishes at exclusive windows in school cafeterias since Sept. 13. The potatoes are cooked in many ways, with added flavors ranging from spicy to sour and cumin, Chengdu Evening News reported.
The potatoes are all from Ganluo County in the province's Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, a place that the university has connected to in its one-to-one assistance program to help alleviate poverty.
The university ordered 10 tons of potatoes from Ganluo farmers in the first batch and half were consumed in two days.
The university's Wangjiang campus also put uncooked potatoes on sale at 10 yuan ($1.5) for a bag of 2.5 kilograms. One teacher bought five bags in a single purchase.
Students generally welcome the potato banquet, with boiled whole potatoes the most popular.
The county is surrounded by mountains and cut by deep valleys. The local government reports that the annual per capita disposable income in Ganluo was 22,365 yuan ($3,400) in urban areas and 7,199 yuan in rural villages in 2016, compared to 57,275 yuan and 22,310 yuan in Beijing.
