Grape cultivation becomes a solid guarantee for escaping poverty and achieving prosperity

Recently, at the Gushanzi Vegetable and Fruit Marketing Farmers' Cooperative in Chutoulang Town, Songshan District, our reporter met Liu Fuzhong busy in his greenhouse. Since he began growing cold-frame greenhouse grapes, Liu Fuzhong has gone from having zero knowledge to becoming a grape-growing expert; loosening soil, fertilizing, watering, planting, trunk training and pruning - he is skilled at all of it.

"I grow cold-frame greenhouse grapes, and the returns in 2016 were quite substantial. With 2 greenhouses covering just over 4 mu, net income reached more than 20,000 yuan, and with the year-end dividend on top, annual net income came to around 25,000 yuan," Liu Fuzhong said cheerfully. Through cold-frame greenhouse grape growing, in just 2 years he not only successfully escaped poverty but also transformed into an advanced household on the path to prosperity. "In a few more months, around July, these grapes can be taken out and sold, and I estimate this year's income will be higher than last year's."

Gushanzi Village in Chutoulang Town is one of the villages in Songshan District, Chifeng City benefiting from asset-based income poverty alleviation. The village has 598 people, including 180 poor households. After ecological relocation in 2014 and 2015, most poor households have escaped poverty, but 40 households with 108 people remain.

Starting in 2014, taking advantage of the "three-to-village, three-to-household" poverty alleviation policy, Gushanzi Village began growing cold-frame greenhouse grapes through a model in which the village Party branch served as matchmaker, the cooperative raised funds, and poor households contributed shares. To date, the cooperative has invested a cumulative 3.15 million yuan, transferred 135 mu of land, built 70 cold-frame greenhouses, planted 88,000 grape vines, and enrolled 93 poor people as members. The first phase of grape planting generated sales revenue of 200,000 yuan, with an average guaranteed dividend of 2,000 yuan per household, and 32 poor households have steadily escaped poverty.

Zhu Xuejun, village head of Gushanzi Village and head of the cooperative, said: "The cooperative adopts the method of paying dividends each year to poor households that hold shares, ensuring that the return rate for poor households is no less than 12%, and ensuring dividends for no less than 5 years. Even if poor households no longer hold shares after 5 years, the greenhouse structure still belongs to the poor households, thereby ensuring that poor households do not lose their investment."

Villager Yu Wenqin said: "Our family has 4 people. The children's father has a disability and cannot work. Farming income each year is only around 10,000 yuan, and we still have to support two children in school. In 2014, after I used poverty alleviation funds to buy shares in the cooperative, I received dividends twice, totaling 5,000 yuan."

"This year we are building 10 warm greenhouses. Warm greenhouses are highly profitable; the price of warm-greenhouse grapes can reach 10 yuan per jin, fully double that of cold-frame greenhouse grapes. Through full coverage of the cold- and warm-greenhouse project, our village will achieve complete poverty eradication before the end of September 2017," Zhu Xuejun said confidently. (Reporter Wang Tana)