Localized efforts reduce poverty in Guangxi's eight desertified counties

Driving through the winding, mountain roads in northwestern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, one can find a small, bustling village known as Dashishan. Sights such as forest rangers patrolling the ridges in the area, officials guiding construction vehicles, and lush tea oil camellia growing along the roads can be seen in the tiny hamlet in one of the autonomous region’s eight impoverished counties.

Located in a craggy part of northwest Guangxi that suffers from desertification, the eight counties have proven to be difficult places to reduce poverty in. Officials and other invested parties have had to think carefully about how to effectively address the issues that have affected their development. At the beginning of this year, the autonomous region created three supervision teams to inspect the poverty alleviation efforts that have been made in its impoverished villages and counties. Coordinated efforts were made to effectively resolve 32 of the 123 problems that were discovered in the first half of the year, and measures have been taken to tackle 83 more.

Stimulating motivation by enhancing industrial foundations and developing e-commerce

A Case:

“Our blueberry bushes have been growing very well in the past two months, so we will surely have a good harvest this year!” Pan Mei, an impoverished resident of Jindong village in Gandong township of Rongshui Miao autonomous county, told the reporter while picking the fruit at a local farmers’ cooperative.

In recent years, Jindong’s residents have pursued alpine agricultural undertakings based on local conditions. Bumper harvests did not delight them until recently, however, because it was difficult to maintain freshness while products were transported long distances from the village high in the mountains. This year, 80,000 yuan (US$11,528) of poverty alleviation funding secured via a cooperative framework between eastern and western regions of China was used to establish a packaging factory and cold storage facilities in order to improve the situation and make it easier to sell the fruit that Jindong produces.

Challenges:

Guangxi’s eight impoverished counties are all located in a contiguous mountainous region with poor soil conditions, high elevations, and sparse roads, which have contributed to the weak economic foundation in the area and made it difficult to develop new industries. It is possible to produce many unique products in the vicinity, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on sales, and inadequate logistics have impeded sufficient market access. Impoverished families have tended to lack enthusiasm as a result of what they have experienced over the years, which has had a negative effect on the development of new industries.

Efforts:

“We signed a sales contract with the blueberry farmers’ cooperative in Jindong,  providing them with cultivation guidance, and purchasing their products at prices that were agreed upon in advance,” noted Wu Shaolin, manager of the e-commerce service center that was created for Gandong’s agricultural products. Guangdong province funded the establishment of an online sales and marketing platform in order to promote poverty relief in Rongshui via e-commerce. The 168 village-level e-commerce service stations that currently exist in the county have achieved 42 million yuan (US$6.05 million) of sales and benefited more than 1,400 impoverished households.

Rongshui has been able to implement 29 poverty eradication projects with the help of 51.85 million yuan (US$7.47 million) of special funding that Guangdong has provided, such as construction of standardized plants at the Guangdong-Guangxi industrial park. Dahua Yao autonomous county established deep-processing production lines and a cold-chain logistics base, and created an industrial chain involving animal husbandry, processing, storage, and marketing via a consumption-oriented poverty alleviation platform that the province and the autonomous region developed while encouraging local poverty-stricken residents to raise chicken, sheep and cattle. Guangdong had provided a total of nearly 500 million yuan (US$72.05 million) of funding to Guangxi’s eight impoverished counties for poverty elimination purposes as of June 30. Twenty agricultural products in seven categories have received the “Zhenpin” certification, meaning that they meet food quality standards established by the government of Shenzhen city, Guangdong province, and supermarkets in Shenzhen have signed letters of intent to purchase eggs and Qibainong-brand chickens produced in Dahua in order to promote poverty eradication via consumption.

“Fifteen training sessions covering management, marketing, and other aspects of industries that help people escape from poverty had been conducted as of June and benefited about 600 impoverished people,” Leye County Party Secretary Fang Zhigao explained. The efforts have helped people become more intrinsically motivated, which is an important part of developing new industries for poverty relief purposes, and have increased output. A total of 11,382 impoverished households were also identified across the county and have been encouraged to participate in the development of local characteristic industries.

Guangxi created incentive policies in order to recognize impoverished citizens’ achievements and allocated 484 million yuan (US$69.74 million) of awards and subsides to 92,413 poverty-stricken families engaged in fruit farming, silkworm breeding, and livestock farming in the first half of this year. Approximately 4.276 billion yuan (US$616.17 million) of microcredit has been extended to impoverished residents of its eight poverty-stricken counties during the same period as well.

Boosting employment in people’s hometowns, helping laborers return to work

 A Case:

“I used to think about how I would support my family as soon as I woke up every day,” said impoverished Santuan villager Lan Yingxian in Dongmiao township, Du’an Yao autonomous county. He had been under a lot of pressure to provide for his wife, Wei Liqing, and their five children as a result of being out of work due to complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have a lot of strength and experience and am surely qualified,” a smiling Lan stated while completing the approval procedure for a job in Zhuhai city, Guangdong province that he applied for at a job fair that Du’an organized in April. The middle-aged man seized the opportunity to work in the prefecture-level city and calculated that he would be able to save 3,000 yuan (US$432) a month. Lan soon received the health certificate that he needed in order to begin working and left for his new job.

“I work near our home, which makes it possible for me to look after our children while my husband works outside of our local area,” Wei explained. The Santuan native is currently employed as a cleaner and earns 1,300 yuan (US$187) a month, and life has been getting better and better for the family recently.

Challenges:

Home to large numbers of impoverished people, the eight counties have had to address the pressure that they experience to promote full employment in their borders. A large portion of their poverty-stricken natives have chosen to work outside of their hometowns as a result of the difficulties that have impeded the development of new industries in their local areas, but some of them have not been able to return to work as planned as a result of the emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak, which reduced their incomes.

Efforts:

Employment is the most important part of people’s livelihoods. Du’an county Party Secretary Chen Jiyong believes that the convenient transportation services that the administrative area has arranged have reassured impoverished citizens. Du’an organized job fairs and chartered buses to take employed residents – totally 78,088 as of June – to their destinations.

Guangxi’s impoverished counties also make efforts to increase employment in their borders. Sanjiang Dong autonomous county has been creating new poverty alleviation-oriented public welfare posts, with 6,680 having become available so far this year. Temporary public welfare posts involving COVID-19 prevention work, such as manning checkpoints, disinfecting potentially contaminated areas, and taking people’s temperatures, have also been created in the eight counties in order to contain the pandemic and make it possible for members of impoverished households to work in their hometowns.

Longlin multi-ethnic autonomous county has made great efforts to make employment information available to impoverished people and replace classroom-based training with on-the-job training. It has also helped the factories and workshops that were established for poverty reduction purposes in its borders resume operations after they were temporarily suspended in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. They are all currently back online and employ 984 people at present, including 209 members of impoverished households.

Stable employment safeguards people's livelihoods

All levels of government in Guangxi have been making careful efforts to provide  employment assistance to poverty-stricken residents. Its eight impoverished counties  issued a total of 8.56 million yuan (US$1.2333 million) of subsidies to the companies that employ 6,331 poverty-stricken people, and have created part-time public welfare posts in villages for 29,649 impoverished laborers, including those migrant laborers who have returned home. As of June, 1,796 migrant workers had returned to their hometowns, of whom 181 got public welfare posts, 1,069 were re-employed locally, and 434 received help developing their own businesses.

Making thorough post-disaster reconstruction efforts

A Case:

Residents of Xin’an village, Siba town, Luocheng Mulao autonomous county used to use bamboo vessels to collect water in the karst caves in the area before dawn every day in dry season in order to use it for drinking, washing, household use and their animals. When in rainy season, they had to deal with the presence of too much water in the area. Heavy downpours tended to flood about 60 percent of the land in the low-lying village, which would diminish harvests.

“We are very happy when we turn on the faucet,” impoverished Xin’an resident Wu Daichun exclaimed after a centralized water supply project was completed in the village. The 1.16 million-yuan (US$167,156) project was put into operation in March, and everyone in the community celebrated. The village’s poverty alleviation team also raised 320,000 yuan (US$46,112) from various sources in the beginning of this year in order to fund a floodwater discharge project involving the creation of a more-thorough, cement-lined drainage system. Thanks to the completion of this new drainage structure, when heavy storms hit the village in June, the floods quickly dissipated, which greatly reduced losses.

Challenges:

Factors such as complex topography, inconvenient transportation, and poor infrastructure have been very challenging in Guangxi’s impoverished counties. The region has also experienced frequent heavy rainfall since May, which has suspended, slowed down, or destroyed various poverty reduction projects. Flooding had affected up to 7,572.9 ha of farmland, impacted 26,200 impoverished people, and caused as much as 82.7951 million yuan (US$11.9308 million) of direct economic losses as of June 29.

Efforts:

Government subsidies and social fundraising have made it possible to accelerate housing renovation and water tank construction projects in Dahua county. A method was developed to address the water shortage that the projects faced, and every household in the county received 2,000 to 3,000 yuan (US$288 to US$432) of subsidies to cover costs related to the issue. Differential subsidies were also provided to cover transportation of materials, and households were given an additional 5,000 to 20,000 yuan (US$721 to US$2,882). More than 60 construction squads were created for the purpose of carrying out poverty alleviation projects in Dahua’s impoverished villages, providing more than 1,000 jobs for its rural residents. A total of 827 dilapidated homes have been renovated across the county, and all 1,992 domestic water tanks that were slated to be installed in residents’ homes have been put into use.

“Approximately 27.54 million yuan (US$3.97 million) has been spent repairing 167 damaged projects thus far,” noted Napo County Poverty Alleviation Office Director Huang Kai. A total of 240 infrastructure projects involving roads, irrigation, water conservancy, and safe drinking water were damaged by flooding in the administrative area in the first half of the summer. Emergency response teams were created so that sections of road that had collapsed could be dredged as quickly as possible, public facilities could be repaired, safe passage could be ensured for the public, and continuous power and communication could be maintained.

Luocheng also suffered from heavy downpours in early June, which have caused serious damage to agriculture, forestry, water conservancy and transportation. Shortly after, the county began to integrate disaster relief with industrial development in order to create more employment opportunities and made full use of comprehensive financial subsidies issued by the Ministry of Finance in order to repair damaged  projects. Measures have also been taken to assist households that are at risk of falling into poverty as a result of calamity and ensure that impoverished households have stable income, including issuance of microloans and implementation of other timely initiatives to support the development of sweet wormwood and selenium-rich rice cultivation, chicken and duck farming, and other industries and the creation of part-time public welfare posts.