TOUGH COMPETITION: Candidates take part in the 2014 civil service exams in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on March 23. More than 240,000 examinees competed in the exams to qualify for around 6,480 provincial civil service posts (XINHUA)

Educational Equality

China is eyeing a 10-percent increase in the number of students from impoverished rural areas attending the country's top universities this year, according to a circular released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) on March 24.

The MOE said that the growth will be realized through expanding the three existing programs.

Under the first program, central government-affiliated universities and key universities at local levels will recruit 50,000 rural students, up from 30,000 last year.

This program will be carried out in 832 impoverished counties and 10 provinces with low rates of enrollment in key universities, said the circular.

Under the second program, MOE-affiliated universities and a handful of universities piloting discretionary enrollment should set aside 2 percent of their enrollment quota for students from underdeveloped regions.

The third program will see leading universities at local levels offer more seats to rural students of the same jurisdiction.

The MOE also stressed transparency in information disclosure and stern qualification assessment of candidates during enrollment so as to guarantee justice and equality.

Locoweed Remedies

Chinese scientists said on March 24 that they have "tamed" wild poisonous plants on the Tibetan Plateau, an achievement that can help protect livestock and prevent desertification.

Researchers with Tibet's Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences have developed both drugs against the effects of locoweed, a common name for any plant that produces swainsonine, a phytotoxin harmful to livestock.

Wang Baohai, a researcher with the Lhasa-based academy, said that the remedies included therapeutic liquid for oral administration and preventive pills based on Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, respectively.

"According to clinical tests, the liquid can cure 95 percent of livestock poisoned by locoweed," said Wang Jinglong, another expert with the academy. "China has granted it a national patent."

The researchers have also discovered a comprehensive mechanism for locoweed prevention and treatment. They removed locoweed in a fenced area of grassland, where poisoned livestock can be isolated and recover.

Herdsmen call locoweed the enemy of grassland because livestock show symptoms of intoxication after eating the plant, which causes animal reproduction rates to drop or even death. Its rampant growth can also lead to grassland degradation.