[Poverty Alleviation Through a Lens] Stories of poverty alleviation in the Luoxiao Mountains

Known as Gannan, the city of Ganzhou is located in the south of Jiangxi Province. It’s another key battleground for poverty reduction. Ganzhou has 11 counties in regional extreme poverty of the Luoxiao Mountain, among which 8 are national level impoverished counties and 932 villages receive provincial assistance. Towards the end of 2016, Ganzhou had 431,400 people living in poverty, accounting for 5.7% of the population. Through various means such as developing competitive industries, Ganzhou has made remarkable achievements in recent years. So far, industrial development throughout the city has improved the income of 113,500 households and 440,600 people, which makes up 62.8% of those on the poverty list. Furthermore, Ganzhou is the first city in China to pilot affordable housing in rural areas. It adopted a government-backed measure to build public ready-for-use housing. For locals, it was as easy as bringing in their bags through the front door.

Farmers build canals to irrigate stevia plants in Dukou Village in Ganzhou, Jiangxi on May, 20th, 2017. [Photo by Peng Kaijian]