The apple seedlings planted just last year have all borne fruit in the Apple Industry Demonstration Park, located in Huayang Village, Datun Township, Yuexi County.
In the early morning of August 26, local villagers Jiwu Musha and his wife got up and started their busy daily routine while their children were still asleep. Jiwu Musha was going out to weed the apple park on the hillside, and his wife was going to feed the sows that were about to deliver babies behind their house.
The couple have four children. Due to a congenital genetic cause, both of their two sons have class-one physical disabilities. Although the boys have become teenagers already, they are still incapable of looking after themselves. One of the daughters is 11 years old and attends fourth grade at the Beicheng Primary School in Yuexi County. Their younger daughter is scarcely one year old. Supporting the four kids is not an easy job for the rural couple; and the boy’s disability makes the family’s situation even worse.
“Thanks to the assistance of cadres designated here for poverty alleviation, during the last two years, our predicament has been greatly relieved. My two disabled sons obtain health insurance now. When odd jobs are not available, I can work in the apple park. The flexible and pretty easy work brings me a daily income of RMB 80,” said Jiwu Musha. He told China Today that with the help of the Yan’an-based China Executive Leadership Academy his family’s income has increased significantly over the last two years. Two years ago, the whole family moved into a new house, last year they built a clean and neat kitchen, and then this year they bought a new electrically operated tricycle. The family’s life has really taken a turn for the better.
Apple Industry Prevents Relapse into Poverty
Huayang Village is home to a mixture of people of the Yi and Han ethnic groups, totalling 1,653 residents in 532 households, among which 330 people of 89 households once lived in poverty. In 2016, this village successfully passed national tripartite assessments and eliminated poverty. “Although the whole village shook off the shackle of poverty, how to prevent these once poor households from returning to their former impoverished life is our key work,” said Zhang Xu, the first Party secretary stationed in Huayang Village from China Executive Leadership Academy.
A farmer gathering a rich harvest of grapes in Huayang Village.
In a bid to enable Huayang Village to have a sustainable leading industry and enable poor families like Jiwu Musha to have a sustained family income in the future, in early 2019, supported by Shaanxi Fruit Industry Group, the China Executive Leadership Academy took the lead and jointly invested over RMB 5,320,000 with Yuexi County Agricultural and Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd. to build the apple industry demonstration park in Huayang Village. “Our academy invested RMB 2.61 million as the share capital of the village. In March and December last year, 72.5 acres of standardized orchards were respectively designed and constructed in two phases. As a result, it attracted all the 89 poor households to join in by leasing their land to the park,” said Wang Jinyang, head of the poverty alleviation group from China Executive Leadership Academy in Yuexi County and also the deputy chief of Yuexi County. According to Wang, the apple industry demonstration park presently adopts the operation mode of “Party branch + company + cooperative + farmer.” In addition to the poor households, it also attracted 318 other households to pool their land as shares.
According to Wang, after the 89 households transferred their hillside land to the apple park, which had been planted with grain previously, they began to receive an annual land transfer subsidy, and more than that they can also be given priority when it comes to employment in the park, thus receiving monthly salary. In light of shares, 40 percent of the gains obtained by Huayang Village in running the park will be used for the dividends of the shareholders, 40 percent for the relief of the poor, and 20 percent for the village collective affairs. So households like the Jiwu Musha’s can obtain three sustainable parts of income annually from the apple park.
Both Yuexi County and Yan’an have the tradition of planting apples, but the apple industry in Yuexi has not formed its own brand advantages due to its scattered planting and few varieties. Yan’an has formed its unique brand development model after years of scientific planting, management, and operation. “The reason for the construction of the apple industry demonstration park is to bring the good experience and successful practices of Yan’an, along with its mature planting and marketing mode, to build the brand of Yuexi Apple, and find a practical and feasible industrial development pathway suitable to local conditions, which is also the goal of our targeted support,” Wang told China Today. He said that this year is the first year their trees have borne fruits with an expected yield of 10,000 kilograms. By next year, the fruit trees will reach their full capacity and the annual fruit output value will reach RMB 7 million, which can ensure the stable increase of the villagers’ income.
Zhang Xu, the first Party secretary stationed in Huayang Village, often visits Jiwu Musha’s family.
“After the ‘Yan’an experience’ was brought to Yuexi County, the apple industry in Yuexi has changed from the original mode of self-made and self-sold into the professional mode of ‘company + business leader,’ transforming the previous sales mode of waiting for customers to online sales, e-commerce sales, and brand sales, so as to achieve a large-scale and intensified sales model. As a result, this will assist local poverty reduction and consolidate the results of poverty eradication,” Wang said. Both Wang and Zhang feel this is the most meaningful moment in their work.
Grape Industry Helps Increase Income
“Try some of the crimson seedless grapes I planted. They look fantastic and taste very good. They can fetch RMB 10 per 0.5 kilogram,” said Feng Zhenlan, the 51-year-old villager of Huayang, whose family was one of the impoverished. Poverty alleviation cadre Zhang Xu is the first person to taste the grapes that Feng planted herself. In Feng’s heart, those cadres are her closest relatives. “This crimson seedless grape is a high-yield variety. As long as the management is ensured, the harvest will not be a problem. This year Feng’s 0.16 acres of land can produce 2,000 kilograms of grapes, and her income will reach RMB 40,000 at the price of RMB 20 per kilogram,” said Zhang.
Feng Zhenlan suffered from polio when she was a child. Because of her family’s poor economic condition, she has not been able to get timely medical treatment, which has resulted in disabled legs. To make things worse, her husband Zheng Shishu suddenly contracted ankylosing spondylitis two years after their wedding. No money for medical care likewise, his upper body became paralyzed. Although his physical condition improved later, he still cannot participate in work as normal people do. Both of them were identified with class-four physical disabilities.
All villagers in Huayang know that Feng has a strong character. Despite her physical challenges, she has not been reliant on other people for help, but instead has been working hard to create a better life for her family. “In 2016, she transferred 2.5 acres of land in the village to planting flue-cured tobacco, and her net income reached RMB 40,000. During the last two years, due to her physical disability, after picking up tobacco leaves, she hardly get them beyond the mountain,” Zhang said. Her hardworking spirit and distressful condition moved poverty alleviation cadres. They decided to designate 0.16 acres of the 6.6 acres of greenhouse land that had just been built in the village to Feng for grape planting. “The annual income from 2.5 acres of flue-cured tobacco is equivalent to that of 0.16 acres of grapes. However, the latter requires less daily labor,” said Feng. She and her husband used to live in an old house on the hillside, which was very inconvenient for them to go out and work in the field at the foot of the mountain and then climb back up to their home every day. “We helped them find a piece of flat land at the foot of the mountain to build a new house. They also received national housing subsidy of RMB 40,000,” Zhang said. Zhang then added that apart from helping develop rural economy by boosting local industries, village-stationed poverty alleviation cadres also need to address the urgent needs of the villagers. “Feng’s family transferred 0.6 acres of land, for which they can receive RMB 1,400 as a stable income for the transfer every year. In the future, they can also participate in collecting economic dividends,” said Zhang.
According to Zhang, in the specific work of targeted poverty alleviation in Huayang Village, the academy has also tried to implement accurate support and ensure no one is left behind. They encourage the poor to develop their suitable sidelines based on their own ability. “For poor households like Feng Lanzhen, we must create more channels to increase their income thus helping them increase their own production capacity. That support would be more meaningful if we can enable every person in each family to be self-reliant and self-independent,” said Zhang.
Feng Zhenlan said that it was the poverty alleviation campaign that changed the fate of her family. At present, encouraged and supported by poverty alleviation cadres, both her son and daughter have found satisfactory occupations after graduating from college, and the whole family has great expectations for their future life.
Targeted Support Yields Great Results
Yuexi County is one of the most deeply impoverished areas in China, as one of the seven poverty-stricken counties in Liangshan Prefecture. In 2020, it was identified as a poverty-stricken county under the central authorities’ supervision by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.
“The key to rooting out poverty is to develop the county’s own distinctive industry. At the end of 2019, 4,357 poor households shook off poverty through industrial development,” Wang said. He then explained that the industrial poverty alleviation in Yuexi County is an epitome of the whole task in the Liangshan prefecture. Since the Yan’an-based China Executive Leadership Academy started delivering targeted help to Yuexi County, it has helped attract more than RMB 33 million of funds to the place, including industrial poverty alleviation funds of RMB 15 million. It has also helped targeted villages to develop distinctive industries, such as planting and breeding, which has brought about obvious results.
In a bid to enhance the capacity of local cadres to drive poverty alleviation, the academy actively used their own advantages to train nearly 10,000 cadres at all levels in Yuexi County through training courses and other forms. “More than 190 local cadres also headed to the academy for professional training, which broadened their thinking and vision,” said Zhu Chao, deputy chief of the Organization Department of Yuexi County and also the deputy director of Poverty Alleviation and Development Bureau of Yuexi County, who is from the China Executive Leadership Academy, and now takes the temporary posts in Yuexi.
Since 2015, more than 11,000 poverty alleviation cadres selected from central state organs, colleges, enterprises, and public institutions have headed to the Liangshan prefecture and engaged in targeted assistance and support for poverty alleviation involving industry, education, e-commerce, and transportation. In 2019, 142,000 people of 318 villages were lifted above the poverty line in Liangshan, where accumulated 801,400 people of 1,772 villages have shaken off poverty with the poverty incidence dropping to 4 percent. Wang Jinyang, Zhang Xu, and the China Executive Leadership Academy are the most common representatives of this national poverty alleviation group.
