Taipingzhuang Village: To address the common problems in northern rural areas

Lessons from Taipingzhuang

The people of Qiaotou Town are encouraged by the progress Taipingzhuang Village has made in poverty alleviation.

Qiaotou Town has 23 administrative villages with 15,140 households and 58,915 people. This town is the largest one in the Ongniud Banner. There are currently 687 households classified as impoverished.

The six poor villages in the town have made full and innovative use of the autonomous region budget, annually 450,000 yuan (U.S. $65,621) available to each village, for poverty alleviation.

The town’s Party chief Xu Lijun told this reporter: “When we discussed the best ways to use the capital, villager representatives suggested that it should be used for digging wells and irrigation facilities. But I did not think the results would be as good as they expected. I pointed out that even if we dug a well for every acre of land, not many people would get rich by growing traditional crops like corn and millet.” Instead, the fund of the three villages in the town was used to buy sika deer, while the other three villages bought dairy cattle. They are now fed and taken care of by professional livestock companies, and these companies give an agreed dividend to the villages every year.

This reporter saw sika deer kept in special circular sheds at the Jinghao Deer Company Ltd. The company sells the velvet antlers cut from the deer, and poor households are paid a dividend. In accordance with the agreement signed by the village livestock cooperative and the company, each village that spends 450,000 yuan (U.S. $65,621) to buy 35 sika deer for the company will receive an annual dividend of 80,000 yuan (U.S. $11,666) for poor households. Each poor household will then get 1,500-2,000 yuan（U.S. $218-291）a year. After five years, the ownership of the deer will be returned to the village.

The local breeding project favors sturdy animals such as sika deer, cows, and pigs. “We provide assurance to the villagers by not changing their rights to the animals under any circumstances; any risk is carried exclusively by the companies,” said Xu.

According to Xu Lijun, Qiaotou Town has set the goal of being the first in the banner to shake off poverty, so they have to do something extraordinary. The town leadership came up with ten approaches to increase villagers’ incomes. Poor households will have priority access to jobs in the villages and town, and they enjoy targeted support in various fields.

Thanks to their poverty alleviation initiatives, Taipingzhuang Village and Qiaotou Town are developing rapidly. People are better off with every day that passes. The experience of Taipingzhuang Village shows that through tailored guidance and support, and constant efforts made by the officials and the local people, many poor rural regions in the north can become stronger and more prosperous.

It also shows the tremendous impact that poverty alleviation has on social progress, on standards of living, and on quality of life. Targeted poverty alleviation has consolidated regional development, and laid a solid foundation for the local people to achieve their aspirations.