Gansu official says agriculture key to poverty relief

Han Linguang, vice-director of the Gansu Provincial Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department, has urged government officials to do more to reduce rural poverty by supporting the agricultural sector.

According to Han, integrating resources and developing technology are key factors in stimulating the agricultural industry in Gansu.

Official statistics reveal that in areas prone to poverty in Gansu, 64,600 hectares of agriculture and animal husbandry land were added in 2015 and a total of 733 standard livestock farms were constructed.

Gansu’s characteristic products, such as potatoes and raw ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine account for 60 percent of farmers’ income.

Han hopes to expand the market for local agricultural products by upgrading fragmented production to scale production. One of the ways to achieve this, according to Han, is to create farming cooperatives to allow individual farmers to scale up production, sales and output.

More and more quality agricultural products from Gansu have been exported to other countries in recent years, including Kyrgyzstan, as part of government efforts to open international markets to farmers there.

Gansu will improve social services available to workers in agriculture to improve their technical skills, according to Han.