Fighting Poverty in China's Arid West

Fighting poverty

Adam Smith defined poverty as to "appear in public without a linen shirt."

People in Sanxi, however, have described poverty as "having no food, water or fuel in the kitchen, and no clothing of any kind on your back."

By 1979, the Chinese government had spent 40 billion yuan (US$6.29 billion) -- about 10 percent of that year's GDP -- on poverty relief efforts. Dingxi alone received more than 800,000 pieces of clothing and quilts, 250,000 kg of cotton and 200 million yuan worth of relief flour.

The most effective means of relieving poverty, however, has been teaching local farmers how to build their own fortunes on their arid, futile land.

Chen Yunhua often hums to herself a folk song about vagrants. "How I miss you, my dear Mom. The vagrant has traveled to every corner of the globe, without the comfort of a home."

Tears trailed down her face as she sang and recalled the day she left home 16 years ago.

It was on the eve of the Chinese New Year, the most important holiday for family gatherings. Chen, however, decided she would make a fortune away from home.

For three years, she worked on a chicken farm, learned all the chicken rearing techniques and saved money to run her own business.

At the end of the three years, she returned to her home village in Dingxi's Lujiagou township and began to run a chicken farm. Today, her farm has thousands of chickens.

Unlike the cheerful, talkative Chen, peasant woman Zhou Ailan is shy and scared of strangers. She tried to hide away when Xinhua reporters visited her potato base. "Oh my, what can I tell you?" she said brokenly.

The taciturn woman, however, is China's second largest potato seed supplier, and she provides quality seeds for more than 100,000 farmers every year.

Potato is among the few crops that grow well in Sanxi's arid land and has been the staple food of locals for centuries. It wasn't until 1996, however, that locals learned to exploit its economic value.

Today, Dingxi is home to China's biggest potato trade center and its potatoes are sold in almost every corner of the country.

Likewise, the arid soil grows quality apples, grapes and herbs that sell well on the national market and have lifted some of the farmers out of poverty.