Card Reader

Zuoquan County spares no effort to help its villagers earn more By Lan Xinzhen

Card Reader

Zuoquan County spares no effort to help its villagers earn more By Lan Xinzhen

Huo Haizhong, a farmer in Zhuning Village, Shanxi Province, holds a special card in his hand, a card that will help his future. It’s not a credit card, nor a debit card or special membership—it’s a farmer’s card, a large note card where Huo records information about crop yield, farm animals and his family’s income. It’s also a place where Huo can jot down problems on his farm and make suggestions to the local government.

The farmer’s card is being promoted across Zuoquan County. The county began promoting the card in 2008 on a trial basis,and now all 204 villages under its administration have introduced the card.

“By making detailed input and output of each crop, the farmers are able to readjust their production accordingly to earn more money,”said Dou Junxiu, Director of the Agricultural Economic Center (AEC) of Zuoquan County.

Each household in rural Zuoquan has such a card. The villagers record their production information, while county and township instructors collect the data each season for analysis.Summaries and solutions are then provided to the government, which in turn provides better policy and economic support to the farmers.

Vast stretches of barren wasteland have led to increases in the poverty rate in Zuoquan County. The growing season is limited to a few months each year. The rest of the year,the farmers take a massive exodus to nearby cities in search of odd jobs.

But 56-year-old Huo no longer goes to the cities. The income of his family of three mainly comes from their 1.33 hectares of land.

In early 2011, Zuoquan County passed out a “farmer’s card” to each household.Farmers were instructed to fi ll in information about their agricultural production, including various problems they had experienced.

The card also contains contact information of relevant government departments that may help villagers to solve their problems.

Huo and other villagers were hesitant to embrace the card, many arguing that this was just another one of the government’s publicity stunts, and refused to fill out the cards.

Huo Xiaojun, Chairman of the Villagers’Committee of Zhuning, encouraged his relatives and friends to accept the card. Huo Haizhong eventually gave in, providing the necessary information and citing a pest problem from the previous year’s corn crop.

To his surprise, the AEC sent a specialist to the village a few days later and taught him how to get rid of the pests.

Since then, Huo Haizhong has had renewed faith in the local government and the card.

The villagers are required to fi ll out a card biannually. But whenever Huo comes across a problem, he writes it down in the card, which helps him to resolve the problem quickly. The card has become his link to the agricultural specialists.

Guiding production

The beginning of each year sees Zuoquan entering a slow season. Village of fi cials give their analysis to each household in accordance with the information written on the cards and tell them how to adjust their production to earn more money in the coming year.

Huo Haizhong made 22,000 yuan($3,358) from selling crops, with his corn sales bringing in about 17,000 yuan ($2,595).

By analyzing Huo Haizhong’s card, Huo Xiaojun found the output of eachmu(0.067

LAN XINZHEN

(Left) RIGHT IN TIME: An agriculture speicalist (behind)investigates a vegetable greenhouse based on the problems raised by villagers and gives his opinions on how to adjust production

SHOW TIME: Huo Haizhong,a villager in Zuoquan County,Shanxi Province, shows his“farmer’s card” to journalists hectare) of corn exceeded 1,300 yuan ($198),while the output of other crops was only 600 yuan ($91) permu. If Huo Haizhong grew corn on all his land, his income could double.

After comparing Huo Haizhong’s experience with other villagers, Huo Xiaojun found Huo Haizhong’s corn was a higher quality strain with per-muoutput exceeding that of other farmers by 40-50 kg. The corn seeds were a gift from a relative living in another province.

Huo Xiaojun shared the information with other villagers and suggested they too should grow the good quality corn.

“I had no idea that I could make such a contribution to the whole village,” Huo Haizhong said.

Before, villagers in Zuoquan grew crops and plants randomly without any plan or scienti fi c methods, said Dou. The farmer’s card has guided farmers away from the random farming practices to planned production.

The card is a helper not only for farmers,but also for the government. The local government can easily track developments in each village, acquiring comprehensive first-hand information and then adjusting its agricultural policies and development goals.

Hanwang Town of Zuoquan County made an in-depth analysis of the industrial development of Changcun, Houzhai and Shigang, three villages in the area. The study found that villagers’ incomes from working in the cities hit a bottleneck, and they have to find other ways to increase their annual incomes. After careful analysis, the town government fi gured the three villages enjoyed advantages in cereal production and decided to build a minor cereal production base there.

Dou said Zuoquan is making a blueprint,encouraging each village to focus on a major product, establishing farmers’ professional cooperatives and developing the eco-park economy.The farmer’s card has played a critical part in the local government’s decision-making process.

Big popularization

In addition to the paper card that was tried out in 2008, e-cards were introduced last year in some villages.

“It is not just a card, it has a mission to increase farmers’ incomes,” said Dou.

Dou said they had conducted a thorough investigation into the design of the card, taking into consideration whether farmers wanted it, their ability to use it and its actual effectiveness.

Dou said they also printed favorable policies on the back of the card, such as the subsidy for crop growing, nine-year compulsory education, new rural cooperative medical service and the low-income family subsidy.“The farmers can get all this information in one card,” Dou added.

The card also contains information of 21 agriculture-related government departments and agricultural production companies.Farmers can get in touch with them online or by telephone. Professionals from the statistics development and local reform and development commission also joined the analysis.The farmers can also write down their comments on the of fi cials’ work attitude and their ef fi ciency.

“In the past, we didn’t know which department to turn to when we came across with problems. Now that we’ve got the card, we not only know which department to turn to,we can also lodge a complaint if our problems are not solved promptly,” Huo Haizhong said.

Zuoquan County invested more than 500,000 yuan ($76,300) and organized six largescale training programs to promote the card.

E-card upgrade

In the past, many government officials were unwilling to help farmers, and those who did go to the villages simply didn’t know how to help. But since the creation of the card,agriculture-related government officials are obliged to go to the farmers’ homes to collect information on their agricultural yields and livelihoods. The farmers write down feedback and send it to the county government.

“This helps boost the officials work enthusiasm,” Dou said. Zuoquan plans to replace all the paper cards with e-cards in 2012.

Dou said since the e-card is more cost ef fi cient and more effective, the farmers’ information can be computerized and analyzed automatically.

“We need seven to eight specialists to analyze the information on the paper cards from each town. But by using the e-card, we only need two specialists to do the work. The specialists will have more time to guide and help the farmers on site,” Dou said.