20 | Thursday, March 7, 2019 CHINA DAILY FARMERS GROW WAY TO PROSPERITY Government By CHEN HONG seeds, guarantee the water supply employed or started their own busi- [email protected] and sometimes weed. The mosses ness — on average 1.78 persons in efforts to raise the can grow very well,” said Qu, adding every household — in 2018. living standards of An agricultural revolution is pulling that the villagers now have time to Started in 2016, it is expected that millions of people out of poverty in take temporary jobs in the town for a total of 1.88 million people will be poor people have Southwest China’s Guizhou province. extra money. relocated by the end of June 2019, focused on using Long Jiayi, 33, is a beneficiary of the He also invited experts from the according to the government. modern agricultural government campaign that encourag- administration and universities to Hu Guozhen, vice-governor of the es farmers to grow cash crops on the guide the farmers and raised funds Qiandongnan Miao and Dong auton- techniques to kick- land they cultivated with traditional to improve planting and processing omous prefecture and a member of start China’s vast crops for generations. skills and equipment. the standing committee of the 12th Two years ago, with the support of Statistics show that 266.7 hectares National Committee of the Chinese rural economies the village’s governing body, his fam- of sphagnum was planted at Zilin- People’s Political Consultative Con- ily started to grow sphagnum, a kind shan village as of the beginning of ference, said relocation of families of natural moss with a high economic 2019. It could make 12 million yuan a is an important method in poverty value. It can be used in potted plants year, up 12.5 percent from a year ago. alleviation. to replace the soil. Nearly 500 families, or 80 percent A farmer dries sphagnum in the sun. Dried sphagnum will be sold However, the limited time and vari- The approach is “We planted 11 mu (0.73 hectares) of village households, joined the pro- in the flower market. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ous difficulties make it a challenge. enlightening, which I of sphagnum and can harvest nearly gram, which can earn them each It’s important to help them live and 3,000 kilograms in total, which can be more than 20,000 yuan annually. work after relocation, Hu said. have never seen any- sold for roughly 60,000 yuan ($8,961) Some 307 people in 78 families in the Guizhou province and a deputy to crops — to increase farmers’ income “To guarantee their livelihood, where else and Gui- a year,” Long said. village got out of poverty in 2018. the National People’s Congress, said: by improving efficiency and econom- industries should be developed and Just a decade ago, his family grew Over the years, Guizhou has been “Our aim is to ease all the people and ic benefits of the land.” a long-term mechanism should be zhou’s experience corn and rice in their 0.27 hectares trying to lift people out of poverty counties out of poverty by 2020. To The government will help farm- taken into consideration.” is worth learning of land, which made just 3,000 yuan by agricultural revolution, reloca- solve regional poverty, basic princi- ers to choose the right sector — veg- Sun said that 2019 is a critical year annually. tion and road building, as well as ples include increasing their income, etables, tea, poultry, fungi, herbs and to beat poverty. around the world.’’ “My village is in the mountainous assistance and subsidies in education, access to housing and clothing, as other economic crops — to replace He noted that more resources will Jim Yong Kim, former area and we have limited land. We medical care and housing. well as access to education and medi- traditional corn and rice, and help be allocated to the most impover- president of the had no choice at that time but to grow “Our efforts aim to write a miracu- cal resources.” them acquire techniques, funds, man- ished villages to fulfill the target this World Bank Group the crops, or let the land lie. Young lous chapter in China’s poverty-relief Sun reiterated the importance of agement and marketing skills. year. people went outside to find jobs,” history and to provide a case study the agricultural revolution, which will Another program is to relocate peo- Jim Yong Kim, former president Long recalled. for the rest of the world,” said Sun change the rural industry’s structure ple from areas unsuitable for living. of the World Bank Group, spoke However, Zilinshan village, where Zhigang, Party secretary of Guizhou. and help farmers out of poverty. Villages with fewer than 50 house- highly of Guizhou’s mode of devel- 6.43 Long lives, was suitable for sphag- The province’s poor population was Meng Pinghong, a researcher at holds and 50 percent of its population oping the e-commerce to promote million num. This is due to the cool and cut from 9.23 million in 2012 to 2.8 the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural in poverty are moved to new govern- production and expand local markets humid weather, said Qu Jia, an offi- million in 2017. It was the biggest Sciences and a deputy to the National ment-built residential areas. in rural areas. people in Guizhou cer with the National Forestry and reduction in the country during that People’s Congress, said Guizhou has The government designs the resi- “The approach is enlightening, province were lifted out of Grassland Administration who led period, according to official figures. little flat land. dential areas to keep cultural charac- which I have never seen anywhere poverty from 2012 to 2017 the poverty-relief mission there in Li Jian, deputy secretary-general “To make good use of agricultural teristics and develop a local economy else and Guizhou’s experience is worth August 2017. of Guizhou provincial Party com- resources, we have to change the tra- so residents have job opportunities. learning around the world,” he said. “It’s an ideal place for the growth of mittee, director of the Poverty Alle- ditional farming system, adjust plant- Official figures show that about moss. The villagers just need to sow viation and Development Office of ing structures and adopt multiple 500,000 relocated people were Li Hanyi contributed to this story. and Miao autonomous prefecture of Guizhou are key production areas Poverty alleviation efforts for Chinese green tea. The number of tea processing enterprises and cooperatives reached 5,000. In 2018, bear fruit in Guizhou town the total production volume of tea was 362,000 tons, with output value By SONG MENGXING band, meanwhile, found a security reaching 39.4 billion yuan. [email protected] guard job with a monthly salary of Zhou Shaojun, director of the 2,400 yuan and her mother made Datun village committee in Shiqian The Xinxing community in several friends in the community. county and a deputy to the National Guizhou province is home to The community is located in People’s Congress, is involved in the several new dwellings for peo- Daozhen Gelao and Miao auton- tea industry. For years, he and other ple who have moved here from omous county, a poor region in villagers have built a modern eco- impoverished areas. Among them Guizhou and near Chongqing. In Local women remove stems and impurities from fresh tea. XIAO YUYE / FOR CHINA DAILY logical tea park, based on a moun- is 36-year-old Zhu Fumin. 2016, the county began to help tain. Production reached 670 square Zhu was a local villager and about 15,000 impoverished farm- meters per family per year on aver- due to the poor living environ- ers in 14 villages and counties to age. ment, her family could not live on move. Now the tea is a major brand of their earnings from agriculture. Zhu’s family is representative of ‘King of tea’ enriches rural workers Shiqian county. The tea won nation- She had to find a job in a distant the successful poverty alleviation wide fame and is one of the top three region. campaign in Guizhou. The prov- By YUAN SHENGGAO duced 28.5 kg of tea, but only 5 kg teas in Guizhou. Her husband had a severe stom- ince plans to move 1.88 million were sold. The next year, 240 kg of 362,000 “The poverty alleviation policy has ach illness and her mother had people during the 13th Five-Year Guizhou province has the largest tea were in stock till autumn. brought more opportunities. We aim mental health problem. Zhu’s Plan period (2016-20) . area of tea gardens in China, making To find the reason, Xiao brought metric tons to make the tea industry bigger and 16-year-old son had been living Luo Yinghe, Party chief of the it a key production center for tea. about 10 bags of dark tea to the Gui- stronger,” Zhou said. in a relative’s home, which made Xinmin community in Huis- Through tea planting, processing zhou Tea Research Institute. production volume of tea The tea industry will become key to it easier for him to go to school. hui county and a deputy to the and selling, the income of local peo- Lei Ruiyong, an expert at the insti- in Guizhou province in 2018 promoting ecological development, But life has been looking up National People’s Congress, is one ple has seen a significant increase, tute, said the tea was precious, but poverty-relief and rural revitalization since June, when Zhu’s family was of the relocated people in Gui- as part of Guizhou’s efforts to relieve the shape and aroma not so attractive in Guizhou, with an improved scale, allocated an 80-square-meter new zhou.