GUIZHOU, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- If flooding does not destroy Hu Mingzhong's meager crops, grown in a rocky crevice in the karst of south China's Guizhou, drought usually does.

Unlike farmers in the lowlands, his constant hard labor has never yielded enough food for Hu's family. With broken terrain and poor soil, the terraced fields in the Guizhou karst only support some low-yield corn.

Hu, 49, who has been no stranger to starvation since childhood, said the corn from his farm did not meet even half of his household's needs. "The rest came from relief distributed by the local authorities for the past years."

Guizhou has the most poor people of all provinces and regions in China, and embarked on an ambitious nine-year project in August last year, aimed at moving 2 million people like Hu from harsh environments to newly built townships with modern infrastructure.

This poverty alleviation scheme will result in one of the largest organized migrations in history, surpassing even the Three Gorges Dam relocation that involved 1.27 million people along the Yangtze River.

Thursday is the International Day of Eradicating Poverty. China is striving to eliminate poverty and build a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2020.

According to figures released by the State Council Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation and Development, by the end of 2012, China had just under 100 million people living under the state poverty line of 2,300 yuan (377 U.S. dollars) per capita a year.

The hardest challenge comes from concentration of poor people in harsh geoclimatic areas like Guizhou, Yunnan and Gansu. In 2013, the Central Government plans to spend 39 billion yuan to assist local authorities tackle poverty in such regions.

In Guizhou, the provincial government has a 160-billion-yuan relocation project on the agenda. Investment in housing, employment and social welfare will help the relocated settle down.