Energizing poverty reduction in rural areas

Not Alone

It is the same case for other poor areas in western China, where there they have long been experiencing water shortages and extreme poverty. However, the water-based poverty reduction plan has either been misdirected or has remained incomplete due to a lack of funds or a well-considered pre-construction plan.

With the help of local and central governments, people from a distant rural village in China began to dig a water pool for drinking purposes. But trouble came as they discussed where to dig it. What's more, the government did not weigh their ideas on providing a fair compensation to those whose farming land was used for digging a water pool. It only offered money for water pool construction. The zero compensation for rural land acquisition put the project on the shelf. As a result, those villagers had to suffer from water shortages again.

"For fear of inciting misunderstandings, we gradually gave up a series of poverty alleviation projects," said the local official when confronted with such a problem.

Another example on growing herbal medicines also presents a snapshot of the industry-leading growth in anti-poverty progress. Even though the government covered its fees for planting and marketing, some of the farmers are still reluctant to participate in the campaign due to the high cost of wasteland cultivation.

"We (locals) are so poor that we can't employ more to open up the wasteland for farming, let alone planting herbal medicines," claimed farmers.

Joint Actions

Specifically, some of the measures should be adjusted in light of local conditions. Instead of conducting an anti-poverty mechanism from a broad sense, detailed measures should be implemented, such as creating files for each impoverished household or village to have a clearer picture about what’s going on, found Xinhua.

In addition, central government funds for poverty alleviation efforts are scheduled to be increased by 43.4 percent, according to the Government Work Report released mid-March in Beijing.

China needs to channel significant energy into cultivating business operations with distinctive local features in support of employment and business development, asserts the report.

Taking road construction for an example, the report pointed out that roads leading to villages needed to be rebuilt with concrete or asphalt, and it would be well managed and maintained after being upgraded.

Impoverished rural areas would definitely benefit from the plan, said Li Guoxiang, a researcher from the Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He affirmed that adopting a one-size-fits-all method was an inadequate response to what was in fact a unique situation in the case of each family and each village.