Tag: SW China

By Huang Xian, People’s Daily

Roxburgh rose fruit business is now a shiny signboard of Jiaxi village in south west China’s Guizhou province, helping local residents shake off poverty and embrace a bright future.

By the end of 2019, residents in the village located in Panguan town, Panzhou city of Guizhou, had planted over 6,600 mu (about 4.4 square kilometers) of roxburgh roses. Their efforts also drove residents from neighboring villages to grow a total of 31,200 mu of the plants.

The roxhurgh rose industry had benefitted 3,498 households from Jiaxi and seven other villages, created nearly 400 jobs, and helped lift 257 households out of poverty.

In 2019, the per capita income of villagers in Jiaxi rose to 12,044 yuan ($1,860), and all poor households in the village had bid farewell to poverty.

Back in 2014, Jiaxi was still a severely impoverished village in the Wumeng Mountain region. Its incidence of poverty stood at 29.36 percent.

At that time, the village was hold back by poor roads, and its residents, who grew corns and potatoes in the mountains, barely had decent income.

To change the situation, Nie Deyou, a resident of the village who used to work out-of-town, returned home and tried to persuade his fellow villagers to grow roxburgh roses, which he believed is a suitable business for the village to get rid of poverty.

However, nobody in the village bought into his idea. As a result, he sought help from officials with the township government, telling them the crop is resistant to drought and barren land, and helps conserve water and soil – the reason he believes the plant is suitable for the village.

It usually reaches full bearing in three years, and one mu of the plant brings an annual income of nearly 4,000 yuan, he further explained to the officials.

Thanks to his sincerity, the officials were finally persuaded, and sent cadres to Jiaxi village to explain the benefits of growing roxburgh roses.

The income per mu of corns stood at only 400 yuan before deducting labor input, while the minimum output per mu of roxburgh roses, if entrusted to cooperative, could reach the same amount, and plus, the villagers could also gain extra income working other jobs, the cadres told the villagers.

Li Xiaoyu, a fellow villager of Nie, opposed the roxburgh rose proposal at first, saying he saw no economic value in the fruit. However, after being persuaded by the cadres, he transferred 7 mu of land to an cooperative in the village, and the benefit of it further drove him to transfer all his 20 mu of land to the cooperative a year later. The man who used to work in east China’s Zhejiang province also returned home and found a job in an industrial park for roxburgh roses in the village

“The land transfer earns me 8,000 yuan each year, and I can also make 6,000 to 7,000 yuan from the job in the industrial park,” he said. Seeing a recent bumper harvest, the man called a relative who worked in Zhejiang to come back home and join the prosperous roxburgh rose business.

In 2016, Hongcai Group, a state-owned enterprise in Guizhou, bought shares in the village’s cooperative, and then established a complete industrial chain covering planting, processing and sales of roxburgh roses.

Later, Panzhou established a R&D center for roxburgh roses and a research institute for related industries.

The city has developed over 50 roxburgh rose product series, obtained 553 intellectual property rights and 67 product patents, and formulated 15 industrial standards involving the cultivation, planting, production and processing of roxburgh roses.

Last year, Jiaxi village reaped 3,200 tonnes of roxburgh roses, which generated a value of nearly 13 million yuan.

With Jiaxi village as a pioneer, Panzhou city has invested more than 6 billion yuan and formed an integrated industrial chain from the planting, R&D, processing to sales of roxburgh roses.

During China’s National Day holiday in 2020, the village’s industrial park, which covers orchards and a processing factory, received nearly 10,000 visits, and almost 3 million yuan of products were sold.

The plain plant is now a thriving industry in Jiaxi village. “The fruit has literally led us on a path to wealth,” said Long Tao, Party chief of Jiaxi village, expressing his confidence for the future.

By Liu Wenbo, Han Xiaoming, Li Maoying, People’s Daily

The Dounan Flower Market, located in southwest China’s Yunnan province, usually ushers in its peak of business at around 4 p.m., when trucks fully loaded with fresh flowers converge on the market. Citizens flock to the market to buy flowers, tourists are attracted by its reputation, and florists are always seen doing livestreaming shows to promote sales.

Nearly 70 percent of China’s fresh cut flowers are traded at theDounan Flower Market, Chenggong district, Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. With more than 110 major categories and over 1,600 varieties of flowers, the market has ranked first in China in terms of volume of business, cash flow, and the number of traders for many years in a row.

While it is now regarded as the wind vane and barometer of China’s flower market, theDounan Flower Market was only a street market where flowers were sold retail in the 1990s.

“Over 20 years ago, flower growers would cut flowers,tie them into bundles, put them into wicker baskets and then carry them with shoulder poles to the street flower market for sale,” recalled Hua Mingsheng, a shop owner in the Kunming Dounan Flower Market, adding that flower retailers would walk their bikes around the market and make a purchase.

Hua still remembers that the old market, located at a street corner of Dounan village, Chenggong district, was packed with flower growers and retailers, and stacks and bundles of flowers occupied both sides of the road.

Hua runs a potted plant shop in theDounan Flower Market. He often explains the planting methods of different plants to clients patiently.

In the late 1980s, Hua planted the first pot of carnations in Yunnan.In 2002, the Kunming International Flora Auction Trading Centerwas officially established in Dounan village. The first product auctioned at the center, fresh cut roses, was also planted by Hua.

From an ordinary farmer to a senior plant technician, Hua has witnessed the journey of local flower growers in more than 30 years.

In 1987, Hua, who was 24 years old, spent almost all the savings of his family on gladiolus seed balls and started to grow gladiolus on about 66.67 square meters of contracted land, becoming one of the first batch of flower growers in Dounan village.

Three months later, the first batch of gladioli flowers were cut and sold for more than 160 yuan ($23.68). “The profit is several times higher than that generated by growing vegetables,” Hua thought. Hua and other young people in the village discovered the business opportunity in growing flowers.

Flowers planted by Hua were very popular back then and some of them, such as carnation and babysbreath, were brand new varieties to local people.

“They were always sold quickly in the market and some flower retailers even waited by the fields to buy the flowers,” Hua said.

Hua described the flower growing forerunners in Dounan village as ambitious, daring, and hardworking.

Later, 95 percent of the peasant households in Dounan village started to grow flowers, instead of vegetables. They gradually introduced farming facilities into flower planting and stepped toward large-scale planting with more flower subdivisions.

The local government also rolled out policies to encouragelocal flower growers to rent land from other areas of the city so as to expand their planting areas. Hua and his friends pooled their capital and rented a total of about 20 hectares of land to grow cymbidium in Jinning district and Shilin Yi autonomous county of Kunming.

In 2012, Hua’s son returned to his hometown after finishing his study in Tailand, and took over the flower planting business of his father. Since he can speak good Thai, the young man started to explore the Thai market for export and import of tropical plants. Just recently, he successfully exported 5,000 pots of small potted plants to Thailand.

A number of young people like Hua’s son, who have been familiar with flowers since they were little, know about the market and skills, and boast vision, have infused more vitality to the flower industry in Dounan village.

Dounan village is no longer simply a base for growing flowers, but a synthesis of new forms of businessescovering auction, logistics, research and development, and agricultural resources.The village has shifted its focus from production into market-oriented services.

Last year, the annual sales volume of fresh cut flowers intheDounan Flower Market reached nearly 7.44 billion yuan, and 9.2 billion stems of fresh flowers were sold to different parts of the country and exported to more than 50 countries and regions around the world.

The small village standing near the bank of Dianchi Lake has now become a heavyweight among fresh cut flower trading markets in Asia, and helped create jobs for more than one million people.

By Lu Peifa, People’s DailyOverseas Edition

Thanks to efforts of a poverty alleviation working team to improve the living conditions of Jiayi village, the traditional stockaded village where people of Miao ethnic group inhabit has become cleaner and more attractive day by day.

Located in Jihua township in the hinterland of the Moon Mountain in Rongjiangcounty, Southwest China’s GuizhouProvince, Jiayi village has 1,843 residents of 409 households in six natural villagesor 14 village groups.

The mountainous village has long been troubled bythescarcity of water and farmland. Because of its unique terrain, residences are scattered in mountains and valleys.

For centuries, local people of Jiayi village had lived in semi-seclusion in typical two-story wooden buildings of the locality, where poultry and livestock like pigs, cattle, and chickens used to bekept on the ground floor, while people livedon the second floor.

In 2018, a working team on poverty alleviation and Party buildingof the information center of the organization department of Rongjiang county Party committee came to improveJiayi village.

“The local people are used to their traditional lifestyle and change would by no means be easy,”said Sun Jian, a member of the working team, recalling the first time he visited the village when sewage flowed everywhere and people and animals were surrounded by mosquitoes and other insects.

As it was difficult to find a resettlement site for the livestock, and it would requirea lot of efforts to clear the feces of animals, no household was willing to remove the livestock from their house.

The working team and local officials of Jiayi village then helped villagers relocate animals to an area far away from residential areas and clear the feces. After the cleaning, they started comprehensive renovation to the ground floors and made the houses much more livable.

As the transformed houses were not only clean, pleasant, and free from bad smell, but had twice the living space they could offer before, more residentswere willing to renovate their houses.

Although the transformation did give a brand new look to thehouses, the dwelling environment in people’s homes was still untidy, disorderly, and bad, for their living habits didn’t change much and they didn’t pay enough attention to keeping their homes clean.

To completely change the situation, the working team has carried out appraisal activities for domestic hygiene, and given material rewards to families which have kept their homes clean, thus gradually changing the living habits of Miao people.

In addition, the working team has installed kitchen ranges, chimneys, and windows for families that have maintained good hygiene habits, and moved their fireplaces from the second floor to the ground floor to reduce the risk of fire in people’s houses.

So far, Jiayi village has witnessed transformation of 98 dilapidated houses and106 buildings shared by people and livestock, as well as improvement in 125 houses in poor condition.

Eighty-two houses in the village have been reinforced and 91 old houses and pig and cattle pens have been pulled down.

Moreover, the village has got a total of 156 solar street lamps installed and been equipped with basically complete infrastructure including parking lots and public toilets.

Jiayi village has many high mountains and steep slopes, with 99 percent of its land being hilly areas. The lowest altitude of the village is 680 meters, while the highest is 1,450 meters.

With more than 10,000 mu (about 666.67 hectares) of primeval forests and over 3,000 mu of Moso bamboo woods, the village has a forest coverage rate of 90 percent and a forestland area of 34,373.4 mu.

Due to its subtropical monsoon climate, Jiayi village has warm climate and abundant rainfall. Its primeval forests that haven’t suffered any damage have been the natural treasure of the local people.

In March, Jiayi village established a company to sell farm products and characteristic local products so as to increase income for local people.

The company currently sells bamboo shoots in spring including fresh bamboo shoots, pickled bamboo shoots, and dried bamboo shoots, as well as roots of kudzu vine via online and offline means. The total sales volume of these products haveexceeded 200,000 yuan (about $29,480).

A bigger development plan is awaiting Jiayi village, according to Sun, who explained that the village has rich tourism resources, including its profound historical and ethnic cultural deposits, well-protected natural environment, and buildings with unique architectural styles.

Construction of afamily inn project is in full swing in Jiayi village. With the main structures all being fully completed, nine high-standard country inns in the village are now undergoing interior decoration.

A visitor center and a building for auxiliary facilities have also been built for Jiayi village. With the decorated archway in front of the buildings getting a brand new look, the tourism project is expected to flourish in half a year.

As rice in the paddy fields inJiayi village enters mature period, the golden terraced fields look as beautiful as a terrific picture scroll.

Terraced fields in Jiayi village are the masterpieces of the farming culture created by ancestors of Miao people. They represent the oldest features of Chinese rice culture, and have increased the income of some local people who tapped into the unique scenery for tourism development.