New bright spot: poverty reduction in Enshi, Wuling Mountain Areas
Original, GPIG, 03-19-2018
The lofty Wuling Mountain stretches for eight hundred meters. “the land was flat and spacious. There were houses arranged in order with fertile fields, beautiful ponds, bamboo groves, mulberry trees and paths crisscrossing the fields in all directions. The crowing if cocks and the barking of dogs were within hearing of each other.” Tao Yuanming, the famous writer of the Eastern Jin Dinasty (317-420 AD), once described the place as a land of idyllic beauty.
However, over the past 1,000 years, the Wuling Mountain areas has always been associated with poverty.
In November 2011, the state Council first launched a development-oriented poverty reduction pilot project in the Wuling Mountain Areas and the eight counties and cities in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture were all covered in the project.
To ensure that over one million impoverished people enjoy a fairly comfortable standard of life, and at the same time, provide methods and model for the poverty reduction in contiguous poverty-stricken areas and mountainous areas in China -this is the goal Enshi pledged to fulfill.
As the capital of the youngest autonomous prefecture in China, Enshi by way of the development-oriented poverty reduction pilot project carried out in the Wuling Mountain Areas and its own capital regional advantages, made great efforts to build itself as the center for cities in the Wuling Mountain Areas, for transportation hinge, for tourism and leisure, for the clustering of low-carbon industry, for the production of rich-selenium, as well as for the process of the demonstration of national unity.
Enshi Prefecture has accumulatively invested more than three billion yuan to build itself as a city of folk customs, a landscape garden, an ecological tourist resort, a transportation hinge, and a regional center, gradually perfecting the urban functions. The protection and development of villages with local characteristics were also in the ascendant. So far, more the 50 million yuan was spent to renovate 25,000 residential buildings, and a batch of national architecture clusters, like Hukou and Xiaoxi also formed. Those measures not only improved the living environment for ethnic minorities but also protected their culture.
Besides the focus on the development of the green industry, distinctive agriculture, and ecological tourism, Enshi Prefecture engaged to build Enshi as a land of idyllic beauty. At present, distinctive industries concerning tobacco, tea, medicinal herbs, vegetables, fruits, animal husbandry have come to a scale; industry clusters including green food rich in selenium, hydroelectric energy, mineral products, building materials, pharmaceutical chemicals. Machine manufacturing and tobacco industry are growing vigorously.
The beautiful Enshi in Hubei Province.
In time, Enshi Prefecture overtook the development curve. Statistics proved it was leapfrogging in its development. In 2011, the prefecture made two breakthroughs. First, its GDP exceeded ten billion; second, its general financial revenue exceeded one billion. In 2013, it made another two breakthroughs: its fixed assets investment exceeded ten billion; the number of tourists exceeded ten million.
Stepping into Jixin Village, Longfeng Township, Enshi City, a picture of a clean and affluent new rural landscape is unfolded: next to the curving roads around the mountains, which were populated with exuberant vineyards with strings of crystal grapes; and on both sides of the road, there were blocks of new buildings; and in the new rural houses , tap water, biogas digester, washing machine, and solar water heater were all perfectly in service.
“I have never dreamed that I would have a decent life”, Guan Dikuan, a local villager said. Years before, villagers still lived in low tile-roofed houses and had to gather firewood in the mountains to cook meals; however, in recent years, with the support of related national policies, agricultural products bases of grape and tobacco were built, and people’s life became better and better. Last year, Guan Dikuan’s son bought a car.
Changes in Jixin Village were an epitome of the poverty reduction work in Enshi in recent years. Green mountains and clean waters, thriving and robust, the experience gained in the development-oriented poverty reduction work in Enshi was a significant reference for the poverty reduction work in other Wuling mountainous regions.
“Whole village advancement”, the meaning of which is to carry out poverty reduction programs in a holistic way in every village, is an important measure taken by Enshi Prefecture to get rid of poverty and become better off by way of outside support. Through whole village advancement and other methods, Enshi Prefecture in 2012 built another three hundred thousand mu of industrial bases with local advantages in an attempt to reduce poverty, developed 26 prefecture-level flagship enterprises and 721 farmer professional cooperative societies. The brand awareness and market share of some distinctive agricultural products like “Enshi Yulu tea”, “Qingjiangyuan” tobacco, “Dashanding” vegetable and “Changyou” wild vegetables apparently increased.
Scene of Maliuxi Village in Xianfeng County, Enshi
In Maliuxi Village, 65 kilometers away from Xianfeng County, stilted buildings of the Tujia ethnic group were well proportioned. By way of whole village advancement, the village built 1,650 mu of organic tea bases and developed matching ecological tourism, thus stepping into a road combined with ecological agriculture and sightseeing tour and becoming the demonstrative unit for the comprehensive poverty reduction efforts in rural areas in Enshi.
The whole village advancement program carried out in Cunfang Village in Huaping Town in the southeastern Jianshi County made full use of its unique geological and climate conditions by planting “Guankou Grape”, “Red Kiwifruit” and other distinctive agricultural products. Annual per capita net income of the villagers reached 6,840 yuan and there were 158 farmer households whose annual net income exceeded 50,000 yuan.
To increase poverty reduction efficiency, we must precisely dock with the rural poor house holds. To ensure every household have access to the poverty reduction fruits, Enshi first time in China tracked out and established the dynamic management information system concerning the impoverished population in Enshi Prefecture. The information of impoverished farmers was all recorded into the system for the convenience of information collection, checking, changing and management.
Enshi Prefecture, on the basis of precisely docking with rural poor households, made full use of professional cooperative societies, flagship enterprises and small-sum loaning to establish benefit sharing mechanism where industrial development benefited farmers, making it easier for them to take off poverty and increase income.
In Erpoli Village, Longfeng Township, Enshi City, straight paths crossed the fields and the crowing of cocks and the barking of the dogs were within hearing of each other. According to the pattern that government supports, cooperative society organizes, rich and influential families mobilize, and peasant households take an active part, the village developed characteristic industries with laying hens farm as the pillar. An increasing number of impoverished households were attracted to participate breeding of laying hens by strengthening breed improvement and human and technology training. By the end of 2013, a total of 1.92 million yuan were increases and 456 people from 125 households covered in the poverty reduction program were lifted out of poverty.
Yin Qingfu, a seventy-two-year-old man in Erpo Village, told the reporter that, he raised 500 laying hens. The government directly subsidized half of the price of baby chicks and rearing cages. And the eggs, which would be purchases from professional agricultural products companies who had signed a contract with the village, sold well. Solid outside support made him confident, “I am going to prepare to make more room to raise more laying hens. It brings more profits than planting crops.”
Ren Maoqiong, section chief of the economic department of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commissions of Enshi Prefecture told the reporter that in 2012, the total output value in Enshi Prefecture reached 48.2 billion, and per capita net income of farmers reached 4,571 yuan; the growth rate ranked the first in Hubei Province for two consecutive years.
Original, GPIG, 03-19-2018
The lofty Wuling Mountain stretches for eight hundred meters. “the land was flat and spacious. There were houses arranged in order with fertile fields, beautiful ponds, bamboo groves, mulberry trees and paths crisscrossing the fields in all directions. The crowing if cocks and the barking of dogs were within hearing of each other.” Tao Yuanming, the famous writer of the Eastern Jin Dinasty (317-420 AD), once described the place as a land of idyllic beauty.
However, over the past 1,000 years, the Wuling Mountain areas has always been associated with poverty.
In November 2011, the state Council first launched a development-oriented poverty reduction pilot project in the Wuling Mountain Areas and the eight counties and cities in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture were all covered in the project.
To ensure that over one million impoverished people enjoy a fairly comfortable standard of life, and at the same time, provide methods and model for the poverty reduction in contiguous poverty-stricken areas and mountainous areas in China -this is the goal Enshi pledged to fulfill.
As the capital of the youngest autonomous prefecture in China, Enshi by way of the development-oriented poverty reduction pilot project carried out in the Wuling Mountain Areas and its own capital regional advantages, made great efforts to build itself as the center for cities in the Wuling Mountain Areas, for transportation hinge, for tourism and leisure, for the clustering of low-carbon industry, for the production of rich-selenium, as well as for the process of the demonstration of national unity.
Enshi Prefecture has accumulatively invested more than three billion yuan to build itself as a city of folk customs, a landscape garden, an ecological tourist resort, a transportation hinge, and a regional center, gradually perfecting the urban functions. The protection and development of villages with local characteristics were also in the ascendant. So far, more the 50 million yuan was spent to renovate 25,000 residential buildings, and a batch of national architecture clusters, like Hukou and Xiaoxi also formed. Those measures not only improved the living environment for ethnic minorities but also protected their culture.
Besides the focus on the development of the green industry, distinctive agriculture, and ecological tourism, Enshi Prefecture engaged to build Enshi as a land of idyllic beauty. At present, distinctive industries concerning tobacco, tea, medicinal herbs, vegetables, fruits, animal husbandry have come to a scale; industry clusters including green food rich in selenium, hydroelectric energy, mineral products, building materials, pharmaceutical chemicals. Machine manufacturing and tobacco industry are growing vigorously.
The beautiful Enshi in Hubei Province.
In time, Enshi Prefecture overtook the development curve. Statistics proved it was leapfrogging in its development. In 2011, the prefecture made two breakthroughs. First, its GDP exceeded ten billion; second, its general financial revenue exceeded one billion. In 2013, it made another two breakthroughs: its fixed assets investment exceeded ten billion; the number of tourists exceeded ten million.
Stepping into Jixin Village, Longfeng Township, Enshi City, a picture of a clean and affluent new rural landscape is unfolded: next to the curving roads around the mountains, which were populated with exuberant vineyards with strings of crystal grapes; and on both sides of the road, there were blocks of new buildings; and in the new rural houses , tap water, biogas digester, washing machine, and solar water heater were all perfectly in service.
“I have never dreamed that I would have a decent life”, Guan Dikuan, a local villager said. Years before, villagers still lived in low tile-roofed houses and had to gather firewood in the mountains to cook meals; however, in recent years, with the support of related national policies, agricultural products bases of grape and tobacco were built, and people’s life became better and better. Last year, Guan Dikuan’s son bought a car.
Changes in Jixin Village were an epitome of the poverty reduction work in Enshi in recent years. Green mountains and clean waters, thriving and robust, the experience gained in the development-oriented poverty reduction work in Enshi was a significant reference for the poverty reduction work in other Wuling mountainous regions.
“Whole village advancement”, the meaning of which is to carry out poverty reduction programs in a holistic way in every village, is an important measure taken by Enshi Prefecture to get rid of poverty and become better off by way of outside support. Through whole village advancement and other methods, Enshi Prefecture in 2012 built another three hundred thousand mu of industrial bases with local advantages in an attempt to reduce poverty, developed 26 prefecture-level flagship enterprises and 721 farmer professional cooperative societies. The brand awareness and market share of some distinctive agricultural products like “Enshi Yulu tea”, “Qingjiangyuan” tobacco, “Dashanding” vegetable and “Changyou” wild vegetables apparently increased.
Scene of Maliuxi Village in Xianfeng County, Enshi
In Maliuxi Village, 65 kilometers away from Xianfeng County, stilted buildings of the Tujia ethnic group were well proportioned. By way of whole village advancement, the village built 1,650 mu of organic tea bases and developed matching ecological tourism, thus stepping into a road combined with ecological agriculture and sightseeing tour and becoming the demonstrative unit for the comprehensive poverty reduction efforts in rural areas in Enshi.
The whole village advancement program carried out in Cunfang Village in Huaping Town in the southeastern Jianshi County made full use of its unique geological and climate conditions by planting “Guankou Grape”, “Red Kiwifruit” and other distinctive agricultural products. Annual per capita net income of the villagers reached 6,840 yuan and there were 158 farmer households whose annual net income exceeded 50,000 yuan.
To increase poverty reduction efficiency, we must precisely dock with the rural poor house holds. To ensure every household have access to the poverty reduction fruits, Enshi first time in China tracked out and established the dynamic management information system concerning the impoverished population in Enshi Prefecture. The information of impoverished farmers was all recorded into the system for the convenience of information collection, checking, changing and management.
Enshi Prefecture, on the basis of precisely docking with rural poor households, made full use of professional cooperative societies, flagship enterprises and small-sum loaning to establish benefit sharing mechanism where industrial development benefited farmers, making it easier for them to take off poverty and increase income.
In Erpoli Village, Longfeng Township, Enshi City, straight paths crossed the fields and the crowing of cocks and the barking of the dogs were within hearing of each other. According to the pattern that government supports, cooperative society organizes, rich and influential families mobilize, and peasant households take an active part, the village developed characteristic industries with laying hens farm as the pillar. An increasing number of impoverished households were attracted to participate breeding of laying hens by strengthening breed improvement and human and technology training. By the end of 2013, a total of 1.92 million yuan were increases and 456 people from 125 households covered in the poverty reduction program were lifted out of poverty.
Yin Qingfu, a seventy-two-year-old man in Erpo Village, told the reporter that, he raised 500 laying hens. The government directly subsidized half of the price of baby chicks and rearing cages. And the eggs, which would be purchases from professional agricultural products companies who had signed a contract with the village, sold well. Solid outside support made him confident, “I am going to prepare to make more room to raise more laying hens. It brings more profits than planting crops.”
Ren Maoqiong, section chief of the economic department of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commissions of Enshi Prefecture told the reporter that in 2012, the total output value in Enshi Prefecture reached 48.2 billion, and per capita net income of farmers reached 4,571 yuan; the growth rate ranked the first in Hubei Province for two consecutive years.
