Wen | Danhua, a reporter from The National Weekly of Finance and Economics, and Luo Jingying, an intern
At the end of the Loess Plateau, between the Tao River, the Daxia River and the Liujiaxia Reservoir of the Yellow River, is Dongxiang Autonomous County of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu Province. Here the middle is convex, the surrounding area is flat, the mountains are undulating, the terraces are stacked, and the 8 towns and 16 townships under its jurisdiction have 215 administrative villages and a population of 311,300, and the Number of Middle Eastern township ethnic groups has reached 271,800, accounting for 87%.
Due to the climate of nine droughts in ten years, the annual evaporation is close to four times that of rainfall, coupled with the deep mountain trenches and continuous beams, the proportion of mountain dryland is more than 85%, and Dongxiang is also known as "the place where the mountains meet". According to statistics, the cultivated land area of the county is 367,800 mu, the per capita cultivated land is only 1.18 mu, and the source of income of the people is very limited, which can be said to have been a place of "bitter barren world".
"Except for sheep and potatoes, there is no industry, mainly by going out to work." Locals told reporters.
In 2018, after Country Garden and Guoqiang Public Welfare Foundation paired up to help Dongxiang in Gansu, a 20-person Dongxiang help team was established to carry out in-depth research for the first time. After in-depth thinking and summary, they decided to focus on the "three treasures" of local characteristics - sheep, potatoes and embroidery, relying on the group's resource advantages, carry out market-oriented assistance, grasp the supply and quality of products on the one hand, and the brand and sales on the other, vigorously develop industrial revitalization, and help farmers increase their income and become rich.
"It is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish." The relevant person in charge of the Rural Revitalization Office of Country Garden Group told reporters that in the practice of participating in the effective connection between the consolidation and expansion of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in Dongxiang, the group has always taken the market as the traction, focused on opening up the "last kilometer" of the countryside, and explored a hematopoietic, sustainable and replicable rural revitalization road.
Demonstration mechanized cultivation Potatoes bear fruit
In the Ming Dynasty's "Chronicle of Hezhou", it was recorded that Dongxiang was "diligent in farming".
Today, in this barren land, the potato is one of the few crops that can grow. In Hebrew, the potato is called "the apple of the soil", and in Dongxiang it is an indispensable "golden egg", and almost every household eats potatoes.
"In the past, where there were fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes, only potatoes could be eaten as rice." Born in 1978, Mu Numo of Shaheichi Village in Wangji Town is an authentic Dongxiang farmer who clearly knows that if he wants to change the status quo and develop and become rich, he must first find ideas.
In May 2018, country garden Dongxiang County Precision Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization Project Department was established, and officially launched the Dongxiang potato industry support project, and began to look for a group of local leaders to get rich. Mu Numo enthusiastically joined at the beginning, and cooperated with Country Garden and Guoqiang Public Welfare Foundation to build a 200-acre demonstration base. The project linked 60 poor households and led to potato cultivation in more than 1,000 acres in the surrounding area, which made many villagers' pockets bulge.
From the perspective of geographical conditions, Dongxiang County is located in the transition zone between the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, not only the altitude is high, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the soil is loose, which is very suitable for potato growth, but due to the complex geographical environment, the backward planting technology of farmers, the seed potato detoxification technology is not perfect, and it is urgent to upgrade.
To this end, Country Garden purchased the high-quality variety "Longshu No. 10" from the largest potato seedling breeding base in Gansu Province, and provided seeds for more than 5,000 farmers in Dongxiang County free of charge. At the same time, experts from the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences were invited to provide technical guidance and vigorously promote the mechanized planting technology of potatoes.
Zhou Shengfeng, first secretary of the Gansu Provincial Rural Revitalization Bureau in Shaheichi Village, Wangji Town, Dongxiang County, and leader of the village-based task force, told reporters: "It is through this way of taking the point to lead the way, making several demonstrations, so that the people can feel it themselves." ”
"The original yield of two or three thousand catties per mu can reach five or six thousand catties per mu under the unfavorable climate of drought this year, and farmers can quickly double their income." Zhang Tao, head of the Rural Revitalization Project Department of Country Garden Dongxiang County, said that the demonstration role of mechanized planting has been fully demonstrated, and the mentality of growers has changed from suspicion and refusal to eagerness to even take the initiative to participate.
"We covered the black mulch film to achieve moisturizing and insulation, the people did not believe it at first, felt useless, and waited until the potatoes grew out, and experts in the county and the city came to see and lamented the quality of the potatoes." Grower Ma Zhonghua told reporters that next year there will be more variety, and more can only be more, not less.
In order to help open up sales channels, Country Garden also jointly developed the "Dongxiang Potato Boutique Gift Box" with the Miao Miao Potato Cooperative in Dongxiang County, and from the perspective of deep processing, developed potato snack foods including fresh French fries, potato durian cookies, potato mustard nori biscuits, etc., which won unanimous praise from the market, and sales achieved year-on-year increases, making Dongxiang potatoes also famous.
The former Dongxiang "tribute sheep" now enters thousands of households
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the "golden egg" potato, Dongxiang actually has another well-known specialty. Due to the high mountains and deep ravines, every household here has the habit of raising sheep, and the locally produced mutton is of excellent quality, and during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it also became a "tribute".
In recent years, Country Garden has vigorously supported the breeding of local Dongxiang sheep, and has successively established 20 standardized breeding cooperatives, and relying on its own brand "Zhenbi Township", community retail "Bi preferred" and other platform resources, it has successfully helped farmers sell nearly 30,000 Dongxiang sheep, linking more than 6,000 farmers, with a per capita income of more than 5,000 yuan.
Ma Guolong, the leader of the Dongxiang sheep industry to get rich, said, "Since Country Garden and the Guoqiang Public Welfare Foundation began to help in 2018, from our local farmers to purchase sheep, the sales channels of sheep have also been opened, and they can also sell at a good price, which has greatly improved the lives of villagers." ”
Wang Rehamai, a 46-year-old member of the Dongxiang Sheep Breeding demonstration cooperative, is an ordinary Dongxiang woman, her husband has suffered from mental illness for many years, her eldest son has a leg disability, and her daughter and young son are still young, and the burden of the whole family is on her shoulders. At the end of 2018, Wang Rehamai received an increase of 74,832 yuan in one-time income by breeding Dongxiang sheep.
Since then, Wang Rehamai has actively joined the Dongxiang Sheep Breeding Co-construction Demonstration Cooperative, which adopts the form of cooperation of "enterprise + cooperative + farmer", Wang Rehamai and other farmers who participate in the shares can not only have a stable working income, but also dividends at the end of each year.
"Since 2018, the cooperative has paid dividends of about 800 to 1,000 yuan per household, and after becoming a demonstration base for the co-construction of Country Garden's Dongxiang sheep breeding, the dividends of members have doubled again." Ma Guolong said.
In October 2021, in order to better help the county's sheep industry embark on the road of scale, standardization and marketization, Dongxiang County transferred 30.33 mu of land in Wangjiachuan Village, Baihe Township, and established Wangjiachuan Village Revitalization and Breeding Co., Ltd. to build a Breeding Base for Sheep Breeding in Bixiang, with a total investment of 16 million yuan.
"To be a demonstration leader, with the most advanced breeding technology, show to the local villagers." Zhang Tao said that the base will play a role in observation, training, demonstration, incubation, etc., with more modern, standardized, high-tech characteristics, and the breeding environment is also more ecological and environmentally friendly, which is of great significance to promoting the sustainable development of the Dongxiang sheep industry.
With the assistance of Country Garden, they also developed and established the Dongxiang sheep traceability system, with the "blockchain + Internet of Things + big data" technology, the "full transparency" monitoring of the breeding, processing and circulation of Dongxiang sheep, strengthening the quality control tracking and supervision and management of the supply side, and bringing the most advanced management concepts and technical means to Dongxiang.
For farmers, sales are the biggest guarantee. In recent years, during the "Double Eleven" period every year, Country Garden and Guoqiang Public Welfare Foundation will join hands with the Dongxiang County Government to jointly hold the "Love in Dongxiang" consumption poverty alleviation month activity, taking the form of "purchasing instead of donating" to help Dongxiang farmers increase their income, and more than 20,000 Dongxiang sheep were sold during the activity alone.
"As long as the sheep can be sold quickly, there is nothing to worry about, and the income is guaranteed." Local farmers have said that they are more confident and have decided to raise more in the coming year.
Stimulate rural vitality The "old village chief" became the leader
In fact, whether it is potatoes, Dongxiang sheep, or any other industrial development, people first need to take the lead and land. In order to help peasant households emancipate their minds and move towards the road to prosperity, many old party members and secretaries who are familiar with local conditions have been re-elected as "old village chiefs" and continue to shine.
Qi Guangzu of Qi Yang Village in Hetan Town is one of the representatives. He worked conscientiously and solidly, and the mass foundation was good; he assisted in visiting households many times, actively preached various assistance measures for poor households, and also used his own resources to hire professors from Gansu Agricultural University to regularly counsel peasant households, which was unanimously recognized and praised by the villagers in the village.
"I joined the army in 1973, retired from the army in 1978, drove a boat for several years, became the director of the village committee in 1988, and became the village secretary in 1997, and was responsible for the village work for 21 years." Qi Guangzu recalled to reporters that when he was young, he had served as a soldier in Golmud, Qinghai, responsible for repairing the road from Qinghai to Tibet, and did very hard work.
He described that in the past, Dongxiang was very backward, and as long as there was a strong wind, the water in the Liujiaxia reservoir would flood out, flooding the entire village and fields, and bringing huge losses to the villagers. At that time, Qi Guangzu took the initiative to come forward and volunteered to organize the people to dig two ditches to protect the village. Since then, he has also led farmers to change corn to pepper cultivation according to local conditions, which has greatly increased economic income.
Under the recommendation of Qi Guangzu, Country Garden provides key assistance to the difficult students admitted to college in the village every year, and each subsidizes 6,000 yuan in financial aid to help them achieve their college dreams, and some children who are studying in middle school and primary school have also received a one-time subsidy of 1,000 yuan. In addition, for the local families with special difficulties (often caused by illness), Qi Guangzu pulled out the list, and Country Garden unified to give 3,000 yuan of medical insurance every year, and also gave each family an electric car.
On December 12, 2019, tribute to the Dreamer Zhiyuan Chinese Dream - 2019 (Third) China Real Estate New Era Ceremony" was held in Beijing. At the scene of the grand ceremony, 11 representatives of "rural poverty alleviation people" took the stage and were awarded the honor of "rural poverty alleviation people", and Qi Guangzu participated in the grand ceremony as a winner.
Similarly, Longquan Town's Barren Mountain Village is located in the north of Longquan Town, with a 15-kilometer-long area from north to south, and 15 communities are distributed on a ridge and two ditches, and Ma Baoshan, the former village secretary, has also been recommended to become the "old village chief" outside the Country Garden Poverty Alleviation Task Force.
Since the end of 2019, he has implemented various work arrangements with Country Garden's support team in barren mountain villages, cooperated with the effective landing of the group's "4 +x" assistance measures, and as a leader in getting rich, absorbed many poor households to develop the aquaculture industry. In order to increase the income of poor households in the village and change the traditional concept of breeding and breeding, Ma Baoshan regularly comes to the homes of the targets of help to carry out policy publicity.
He pointed to the sheep pen and said, "Everyone should make good use of the party's policies, seize the breeding dividend, calculate the breeding account, make sheep money, and pay attention to regular epidemic prevention and monitoring to ensure the excellent quality of our Dongxiang sheep." ”
The data shows that since participating in poverty alleviation, Country Garden has extensively invited local government party members and cadres, poor village secretaries, first secretaries stationed in villages and grass-roots party members to carry out research and study activities with discussions and exchanges, training and teaching, field research, etc. As of August 2021, 35,000 party members and cadres have been trained.
"Geese are headless and can't fly in unison. Man has no head and a disorganized heart. According to the relevant person in charge of the Rural Revitalization Office of Country Garden Group, Country Garden has always focused on party building in the practice of rural revitalization, vigorously trained grass-roots party members and cadres and leaders to get rich, helped the grass-roots to build a strong fighting fortress, and left a large number of rural revitalization task forces that have experienced market storms.
Above the thick soil, between the ravines. Dongxiang people have a strong desire for development and rejuvenation, and we also believe that a more beautiful, more open and more energetic Dongxiang in Gansu is painting a new chapter!
(Information)