Pingnan puts efforts into rural poverty alleviation

Rural brewing workshop in Pingnan, Fujian province. [Photo / cn-bsy.com]

Fujian Glory Society allocated 500,000 yuan ($8200) to Pingnan county, Fujian province in 2013 to help poor villagers.

Pingnan Glory Society, associated with Pingnan's leading agricultural enterprises and farmers' cooperatives, set up a poverty alleviation mechanism of "companies, bases and farmers". The mechanism aims to make use of the fund to create maximum economic and social benefits, according to Chen Taiwang, chairman of the Society.

The poverty alleviation project focuses on helping villagers lacking money. For example, wine brewing and truck farming are effective programs to help villagers make more money.

Wine brewing

Huizelong Wine Co and Baishuiyang Wine Co have set up a mechanism to help 50 poor households in Yuyang and Longtan villages. Every family was granted 6,000 yuan by Pingnan Glory Society and 5,000 yuan by the wine companies to start the wine brewing program and generate an annual profit of 8,800 yuan.

The mechanism can benefit farmers a lot. First of all, intensive brewing can cut down the wine cost by 1 yuan per kilogram while increasing the yield by 8 percent. Second, the brewing season is in winter, which staggers the farm work time in spring. Third, companies send orders to the bases, which guarantee earnings and eliminates risks. The wine, approved by the food quality authority with a registered trademark, can enter the market directly.

The mechanism can also benefit the wine companies. Sterilization is a hard and costly work for villagers who brew wine by themselves. However, the intensive brewing in the bases is equipped with a professional production system and can get favorable prices for the raw material with guaranteed quality.

Truck farming

Thirty poor families in Lingxia and Shuangxi townships cultivate alpine vegetables in the plantation of 100 mu (7 hectares). Every household, with its own 1,200 yuan and 6,000 yuan from Pingnan Glory Society, can take part in the alpine vegetable planting program. The annual profit is about 17,000 yuan per mu (255,000 yuan per hectare).

The agricultural materials are centrally purchased by vegetable companies, which also provide seedlings, free facilities and nursery greenhouses. The cultivated land can get a subsidy of 390 yuan per mu and free technology guidance from the vegetable companies, which buy the vegetables at a price of 10 percent higher than the market level.

The bases can also meet the demands of vegetable companies who need them to provide fresh and high-quality vegetables and implement the trial and massive plantings of new vegetable species.

Pingnan county enjoys the highest average altitude in Fujian province, with an alpine climate suitable for vegetable planting. There is a total of 150,000 mu (10,000 hectare) cultivated land for vegetables in Pingnan.