Five hours' drive out of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, roads wind up into the mountains in the province's southwest. One road leads to a village, which is also the home of pig farmer Wei Chunfu.

The 47-year-old would never ordinarily have considered building a new pig farm. But things changed when the local office of two nongovernment organizations, partnered with MasterCard Inc, one of the world's biggest payments networks, helped farmers in Daying village in the province's Hanyuan county.

Earlier this year, farmer Wei and other villagers got training on how to start a business and make a financial plan. At the end of the training, each of them submitted a business proposal for review to the US headquartered global humanitarian aid agency Mercy Corps and the Development Organization of Rural Sichuan, a British charity.