Potatoes save lives and dreams in Gansu Province
- By Lu Na
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 22, 2015
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Students take notes as they listen to a presentation by Lanzhou LS Group. [Photo by Lu Na/China.org.cn] |
Anding District in the city of Dingxi, which is located in central Gansu Province, is one of the 592 key counties that are a focus of the national poverty alleviation plan due to the extremely arid conditions of the environment there. The district receives only 380 millimeters of rainfall annually, but it has an evaporation capacity of 1,526 millimeters. Despite these conditions, the area has managed to shake off poverty by developing agriculture and related industries.
In order to alleviate poverty, the Anding local government has focused on six aspects of development and has made great achievements. First, it has improved infrastructure by providing residents with more durable brick houses, electricity and running water. Second, it has accelerated the development of naturally advantaged industries such as the potato-farming industry. Third, it has made great achievements in poverty alleviation by helping area residents relocate to other places. Fourth, it has strengthened the local economy through financial capital support. Fifth, it has significantly improved public services, and finally, it has trained and educated farmers to allow them to improve the overall quality of their work.
Under these great policies, Anding has made great achievements in alleviating poverty. In 2014, the GDP of the district exceeded 6.1 billion yuan (US$986.7 million), up 9.2 percent over the previous year. The poverty rate in the district also decreased from 41.3 percent to 22.94 percent.
"We have 20 mu (1.3 hectare) of fields, and all of them are planted with potatoes, corn and flax," said Yang Lu, a farmer in Daping Village of Qinglanshan Countryside. "I have two children: my daughter is working at Gansu Provincial Tradicitonal Chinese Medicine Hospital, and my son is selling cars in Longxi County in Dingxi."
"I have earned about 10,000 yuan (US$1,614) per year from agriculture, and most of it comes from potatoes. Potatoes have solved our poverty problem," said Yang, whose house was painted white and the master bedroom was filled with brand new furniture and linens and a TV set. "Twenty years ago, it was difficult to get adequate food for us," he said
His story is just a typical example of life in the village. Daping Village has 123 households with a total population of 539 people. All of them now live a similarly happy life because of the development of industries including grass farming, potato farming, labor services and vegetable farming.
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