Input Made with Concerted Efforts to Tackle Deep Poverty

By LI Lihui, People’s Daily

Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Input Made with Concerted Efforts to Tackle Deep Poverty

By LI Lihui, People’s Daily

To win the decisive battle and overcome poverty, we must tackle the key deep poverty-stricken areas. How difficult are thedeep poverty-stricken areas nowadays? How effective are these areas in overcoming poverty?

Reporters’ survey found that in every battlefield to overcome poverty, and on every road to prosperity, concerted efforts from many sides are inseparable - the government's efforts, no one should be left behind on the road to a prosperous society in all-respects; enterprises help, taking order from agriculture drives the peasants to become rich; individual efforts, poor households improve their labor skills to achieve sustained income growth.

In 2019, the special poverty alleviation funds of the central government increase by 20 billion yuan, up 18.85% over the same period in 2018, and the support is further strengthened. Financial support and real hard work are decisive to win the battle against poverty.

Recently, the Ministry of Finance allocated 35.117 billion yuan of special poverty alleviation funds from the central government, plus 90.978 billion yuan allocated in October 2018. In 2019, all the special poverty alleviation funds from the central government are paid to account, totaling 126.095 billion yuan.

According to the responsible persons for the Agriculture Department of the Ministry of Finance, the special poverty alleviation funds of the central government for 2019 increased by 20 billion yuan, up 18.85 percent compared with that for 2018. Incremental funds are mainly used for poverty alleviation in deep poverty-stricken areas. While supporting the Sanqu and Samzhou poverty-stricken areas, we should focus on increasing investment in deep poverty-stricken areas with a big number of poor people, high incidence of poverty and difficulty in poverty alleviation outside these areas.

How poor are the deep poverty-stricken areas? How effective are these areas in overcoming poverty? What aspects need to be strengthened? Recently, the journalists went to Yunnan for a field study and interview.

The Government's efforts: no one should be left behind on the road to a prosperous society in all-respects

On the newly built mountain road, vehicles were snaking to climb a mountain, we need to move from the foot of one big mountain to the foot of another mountain. As local saying goes that eighteen bends of a mountain road to climb to mountain top. On this road we took ups and downs, already more than 80 bends. Finally, we arrived at the Xialama village of Songping Township, Yongsheng County, Lijiang City, deep in the mountains.

The mountain villages deep in the mountains of Yunnan have subverted the traditional sense of a "village". In Xialama village, it took more than two hours to drive around. Villagers of 373 families households are distributed in three elevation zones: high, middle and low, with the highest elevation approaching 3000 meters. Among the villagers, there are 269 poor families with 949 persons in record. Over the years, the deep poverty keeps the village disgusting.

On the visit to the Villagers Group of Yak Village in Yongsheng County, the reporters did not see any yak, but saw the newly rebuilt wooden corrugated houses and planting greenhouses.

This group of villagers consists of 117 families with 375 persons, all of whom belong to the Naxi ethnic group, who live in the mountains between 2750-2950 meters above sea level. There are 117 well-preserved wooden corrugated houses, which is listed as key cultural relics protection units in Lijiang in 2012 and national traditional villages in November 2014.

Villagers used to living in the mountains are reluctant to move away, and traditional villages need to preserve. For this deeply impoverished village, what is the way out for poverty-relief on the spot? With the help of the Ministry of Finance, the idea of strengthening industry and promoting poverty alleviation is becoming clear.

The high altitude and low temperature of the Villagers Group of Yak Village are especially suitable for planting anti-season Morchella, Tan Jianmei, Secretary of the Party Committee of Songping Township, said that the natural growth of Morchella is harvested from November to April, while the cultivated anti-season Morchella is ready for the market in June-October, filled the gap in the market.

Now, the village plans 30 mu of land for greenhouse planting, which contains many fungus sticks, many of which have grown hyphae. If this is successful, one mu of land can earn 10,000 yuan, and we will expand planting, Tan Jianmei said.

In addition to planting cash crops, Xialama Village has also established Yongsheng Co-operative, investing 2 million yuan in new farms and raising 84 beef cattle. Co-operative is collective-owned, the annual income dividend of cooperative will cover all the poor households in the village.

Tan Jianmei briefed that at the end of 2018, there were 234 migrant workers in the village, of whom 160 were from poor households, with an average annual income of 4500 yuan per person. Through the transfer of labor force employment, the income of poor households on record increased by 720,000 yuan annually. "Songping Township has also set up public welfare posts for poor households, including eco-guards and cleaners. No one should be left behind on the road to a well-off society in all respects.

Enterprises Help: taking order from agriculture to get people rich

After realizing enough food and clothing for the poverty-stricken areas, how to make them more prosper is a more arduous task. In the battlefield of poverty alleviation, enterprises can be seen almost everywhere on the road to prosperity.

Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County is once one of 88 poor counties in Yunnan Province. More than half of the county's 524,000 poor people on record are poor because of lack of technical skills. Luo Jinghua, Secretary of the County Party Committee, briefed that in order to stimulate the joint efforts of all sectors of society to participate in poverty alleviation, Jinggu County has adopted an industrial support policy, granting each household with 5,000 yuan of industrial development support funds, and each household can apply for a financial discount loan of about 50,000 yuan. A total of 19 leading enterprises, 257 professional cooperatives and 43 e-commerce organizations in the county participate in industrial poverty alleviation efforts and have achieved remarkable results in poverty alleviation. In April this year, the People's Government of Yunnan Province formally approved Jinggu county to become a non- poverty-stricken county.

Yunjinglin Paper Co., Ltd. is a large state-owned enterprise in Jinggu. This enterprise takes the raw material forest base as the "first workshop" and adopts the mode of "company + farmer + base" to cooperate with farmers to develop planting forests. From planting fast-growing forests to papermaking, the company is responsible for technical guidance. Farmers can also come to the enterprise to work for a salary while earning income from planting forest. Driven by high-efficiency forestry and order forestry, 3571 poor households totaled 128,000 people in the county are alleviated from poverty.

Xiangyan Village in Weiyuan Town is one of the 40 poverty-stricken villages in Jinggu County. At present, all 121 households in the village are on poverty record and have set up interests- linkage mechanism with enterprises, which enjoys the project support of short-term poverty alleviation and long-term prosperity. The poverty-stricken population in the whole village decreased from 433 in 2014 to 31 in 2018, and the living standard of the villagers improved significantly.

My family has planted 50 mu of fast-growing forests and 12 mu of sugarcane, raised a dozen pigs, and earned more than 28,000 yuan a year. Now, my eldest son is admitted to a graduate school, and the youngest son is studying automobile repair in a vocational school. My life is getting better and better, Li Xiutang, a Dai villager who has just moved into a new house, said.

In Liang-e village of Yongsheng County, a sea of roses by the lake side is particularly noticeable. This is the 170 Mu edible rose base of the Liang-e Fumei Specialized Breeding and Raising Co-operative. As a village collective owned co-operative, it works hand in hand with enterprises to develop taking-order agriculture. The roses of the base can be picked all year round, whose technical support and protective price are provided by Lijiang Chenghai Qinxiang Rose Manor Co., Ltd. and Lijiang Zhongyuan Green Food Co., Ltd. All 58 poor households are cooperative members of the village on poverty record and participate in the planting and enjoy dividends.

Yongsheng County has the most suitable sun-shine and heat resources, fertile soil and good water infrastructure, which is very favorable for the development of soft-seed pomegranate, Wei Gaoming, Deputy Secretary of Yongsheng County Party Committee, said that the county is building a modern soft-seed pomegranate industrial park, and will cooperate with Alibaba to promote Yongsheng soft-seeded pomegranate to the whole country.

Individual efforts: improving labor skills to achieve sustained income growth

For poor households, the role of the government and enterprises is to help them. To really get rid of poverty relies on individual efforts too.

In Taoyuan Town, Yongsheng County, a job advertisement by Shanxi Jinlu Garment Processing Factory attracted many young people in the town. Hundreds of people came to apply for a job.

In order to solve the problem of poor people's difficult employment, under the coordination of the designated poverty alleviation task force of the Ministry of Finance in Yongsheng County, Taoyuan Town introduced Shaanxi Jinlu Garment Co., Ltd. and planned to build a garment factory with a total investment of 30 million yuan to create employment opportunities for poor people in town. In order to enter Jinlu Garment Company, it is necessary to get qualification training before signing labor contract. Many young Lisu people sign up enthusiastically. Right after lunch, they learn tailoring and sewing techniques in the training workshop. Taoyuan Town also opened a professional sewing training course in the county vocational high school. 59 students from poor households on poverty record participated in the training, and initially mastered a certain technology.

Whether taking order agriculture or processing industry requires farmers to have certain skills. In recent years, Jinggu County has held 847 employment training courses, which focus on food production, cash crops, animal husbandry, e-commerce and other related technical training. There are 347,700 registered poor households who participated in the training, which laid a solid foundation to get rid of poverty and realize the transfer of rural labor force to employment, Luo Jinghua said.

(Edited excerpts of the article in People’s daily, 3 June 2019)

In the process of deep poverty relief, compulsory education is a important part in Ynunan province.