A boarding school in an underdeveloped rural area in Southwest China has turned its wasteland into a farm to help poor students finance their study.

Guanduqu Middle School, located in the eastern suburb of Kunming in Yunnan province, has 630 students from rural areas with most coming from families who have difficulty financing school life.

So the school transformed a piece of deserted land into a working farm where students can grow vegetables and raise livestock for the canteen while earning money to help pay their tuition fees.

So far, the school has reclaimed a total of 0.7 hectares of wasteland, producing 100 kilograms of vegetables and 100 kilograms of chicken for the school canteen each week. They also have seven pigs and sheep each semester. Thanks to the farm, students now can have an affordable and relatively nutritious lunch that consists of a meat dish with two vegetables.

Two students weed crops on the farm operated by Guanduqu Middle School in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan province, on Dec 8, 2011. [Photo/CFP]