The land off the motorway has some of the most fertile soil in the country, the group says.

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As a group, PDPs like OneWorld Health, Medicines for Malaria Venture, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, and the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics target diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, Chagas, HIV and AIDS, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, a group of parasitic infections caused by worms.

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Hope Group's root had sprouted in the stony soil of Xinjin, near the company's current headquarters on the outskirts of Chengdu.

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Next month, the group also will start test marketing a concept called the Soil Trust, an ambitious loan guarantee for money lent to local enterprises.

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Cumbria Wildlife Trust and a group of volunteers restored a hay meadow at Row Foot, Ravenstonedale, after tests showed the soil had low fertility.

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