A Theoretical Analysis And Empirical Test Of The Human Capital Implications Of A Rural Children Nutrition Improvement Project

China, like other middle income countries, is facing the challenges of the next stage of development as its leaders seek to guide the nation into becoming a high income country. At this same point of development, however, other countries have faltered, raising the possibility of stagnation or collapse. The stagnation of growth after reaching a level of income high enough to be call "middle income" is a phenomenon which some observers call the Middle Income Trap.The sustainable development of China’s economic is inseparable from education and the improving of the people’s quality. We also document the high levels of human capital inequality in China today, a harbinger of high future inequality. In discussing the sources of the human capital inequality, in addition to the structural and institutional barriers that are discouraging many students (and their parents) from staying in school to achieve the levels of learning that we believe are necessary for preparing individuals for employment in the coming decades, we also identify severe nutritional and health problems. We believe that these nutrition and health problems, unless addressed, are creating serious China’s human capital deficiencies in poor areas of rural China and locking in decades of hard-to-address inequality. The paper ends with a call for leaders in China (and countries at the same level of income of China) to launch immediately a war on poor education, health and nutrition as one step in helping such nations avoid the Middle Income Trap in the future.The overall goals of this study are to examine the impact of Nutrition interventions on the anemia and academic performance of rural pupils, and provide policy suggestions for government decision makers on improving nutrition status and academic performance, promoting the physical and mental health of a comprehensive development of primary school students.To achieve th above goals, this study focuses on the following three specific objectives. First, analyze of the anemia status and associated factors of rural pupils in poor area. Second, examine the impacts of anemia on the physical and mental health and academic performance of rural pupils in poor areas. Third, investigate the effect of nutrition intervention on improving anemia status and academic performance of rural pupils in poor areas.The results of this study show that:(1) the anemia is widespread of rural pupils in China’s Northwest area, and there is a certain lack of understanding of the anemia among people.(2) Student accommodation, the diet of students, the educational level, the farming situation of parents and whether the parents are at home having impact on whether students are anemia.(3) Anemia has a negative impact on the physical development, mental health, and academic performance of rural pupils.(4) Nutritional interventions have a positive impact to improve academic performance and the health status of rural pupils, and different nutritional interventions have different effects.Based on the above conclusions, several policy implications are presented as following:(1)Widening the "egg and milk", we should take it as a "nutritional issue". It should be paid attention to balance the diet during the implementation of the project. Furthermore, it may be necessary to provide multivitamin pills for poor students;(2)Increasing the nutrition knowledge training to relevant personnel, for example, the cafeteria staff, etc. The training should be enhanced especially for the boarding school;(3)Carrying out the home-school interactive knowledge training to overcome anemia in children;(4)Establishing and improving the supervision and effective incentive mechanism during the implementation of nutrition improvement process.