Developing industries are playing a vital role in China's poverty reduction, and that is especially the case in Guizhou's Weining county and Sichuan's Guang'an city.
Located at a high altitude, the mountainous Weining county is now making a fortune through vegetable farming, even though it once lacked water supply for industrial development.
Last year, a 10,000-kilometre irrigation pipeline network was laid in the county, covering 280,000 mu, or nearly 19,000 hectares of farmland. In addition, agricultural experts from Guizhou University would regularly visit the county, instructing vegetable growers on how to carry out science-based planting.
Today, vegetables produced in the county are sold not only to local residents, but also customers in central China’s Hunan province and south China’s Guangdong province, and have even made their way into the Southeast Asian market. In the county's Liangshan village, the business is lifting the average annual household income by 9,000 yuan ($1,390).
While the vegetable business is freeing Weining residents from poverty, Guang'an has blazed a trail in Hu sheep husbandry under a national program that encourages east-west collaboration on poverty reduction.
Hu sheep grow fast, produce twice as much meat as goats, and sell well on the market. They have become a popular variety among the farmers in Shihe village of Guang’an.
In 2019, You Hanzhong from Shihe started a Hu sheep farm with the help of the local government. Now, he owns over 200 ewes, compared to 80 in the early days, and earns a decent income.
Shihe village has also used the Hu sheep husbandry as a foundation to develop featured farm tour business and rural tourism, bringing villagers to a well-off life.
* This article was published in partnership with People’s Daily Online SA.