Helping the people of the old revolutionary base areas get onto the path to higher incomes and prosperity
Qiqihar News Network, August 13 (Zheng Yue) "A moderately prosperous society is not truly moderate prosperity unless our rural fellow citizens are prospering too." General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that poverty alleviation is a long and arduous task, and that bringing prosperity to the old revolutionary base areas admits no delay. To implement this important instruction, we must persevere in poverty alleviation and development work and truly shoulder the mission of our times in the fight against poverty.
Xinsheng Township in Baiquan County, an old revolutionary base area, also holds the honor of being one of the nation's ecologically beautiful townships and is the core area of an international green industry demonstration zone. However, because of its large impoverished population base, and in line with the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the township still faces an extremely daunting task in its poverty alleviation efforts.
Faced with this reality, Xinsheng Township did not give up in despair. Instead, targeting the actual conditions of this impoverished old base area and drawing on the township's unique ecological advantages, and in accordance with the unified arrangements of the county Party committee and county government on poverty alleviation, it firmly grasped the main thread of "promoting economic revitalization through industry and promoting higher incomes for the people through revitalization," broke through bottleneck problems, innovated development models, and blazed a new trail of poverty alleviation driven by the development of local advantage industries.
Focusing on leading industries to spark new vitality in poverty alleviation
Mention Baiquan County, and people marvel at its fresh air and rich ecological resources. Step into Xinsheng Township, and you see a scene of vast fertile fields: 85,000 mu of woodland nurturing 860,000 successor Scots pine trees, forming 400 green grid squares of 500 x 500, plus 10,500 mu of firewood forest, with forest coverage reaching 28%, radiating boundless vitality.
Since the beginning of the year, Xinsheng Township has decided to make developing the forest products economy its first leading industry to drive poverty alleviation, striving to make the total output value of the forest products economy account for more than 15% of the township's GDP by 2018, and to help nearly one-fifth of the township's farming households, including impoverished households, increase their incomes and prosper through developing the forest products economy.
At the same time, Xinsheng Township has optimized its agricultural structure, concentrating the shift in crop structure toward potatoes and soybeans, which suit local growing conditions and offer relatively high economic returns. At present, the potato planting area in Xinsheng Township has increased to 10,000 mu. While stabilizing and appropriately expanding the soybean area, the township is focused on improving quality and developing organic soybean cultivation. Fushun Soybeans and Tongshuang Soybeans have both completed trademark certification, and 11 planting cooperatives each implemented a three-year soil-building plan of more than 100 mu in 2016, with organic soybeans expected to reach 5,000 mu within three years.
Strengthening the livestock industry is also an effective path to prosperity for Xinsheng Township. It signed a "free-range chicken" breeding and purchasing agreement with Harbin Bingcheng Animal Husbandry, and the township's current breeding volume has reached 50,000 birds. At the same time, two cattle breeding cooperatives in Zhifu Village have both applied for standardized breeding farm construction projects, greatly spurring the breeding enthusiasm of local farming households. The pig breeding cooperative in Xingsheng Village is also gradually growing and expanding, achieving an output value of 8 million yuan and profits of 6.1 million yuan. The Tianbao White Goose Breeding Professional Cooperative in Xinhua Villagegoose raising100,000 birds, with expected profits of 300,000 yuan. These two cooperatives are expected to help 67 impoverished households shake off poverty this year.
The tourism industry, as an emerging industry, has also joined the ranks of Xinsheng Township's economic development. Xinsheng Township will focus on building the tourism brand of "six zones and two parks," creating a distinctive rural tourism brand. At present, eco-tourism in Xinsheng Township has become an excellent development model for the county's integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries and for industrial poverty alleviation.
Exploring driving models to gather new momentum for poverty alleviation
"When hardship arises, one thinks of change, and change brings a way forward." When encountering difficulties, Xinsheng Township kept exploring on the road to development and found new poverty alleviation models suited to its own development.
Today, the cooperative model has become a powerful guarantee for developing the rural economy. Xinsheng Township has developed cooperative organizations, driving employment, income generation and poverty alleviation for farmers across the board. Xinsheng Township has 13 "seven-unified" planting cooperatives and 5 breeding cooperatives, with 2,245 member households, of which 1,808 are impoverished households, accounting for 80%. The cooperatives continuously integrate the various elements of modern large-scale agricultural development, gather new momentum for increasing production and efficiency, and give full play to the positive role of new types of business entities in driving poverty alleviation. At present, they have achieved bumper harvests for 7 consecutive years. In 2015, the cooperatives' total planting surplus was 7.08 million yuan, with an average income of 650 yuan per mu.
Not only that, Xinsheng Township has also created a development model of "one village, one product" and "one household, one trade," opening up new paths to poverty alleviation through multiple channels. Xin'an Village develops beef cattle and pigs; Xinhua Village developsgoose raising; northern villages such as Qingshan and Guangfu develop potatoes; the four villages of Hefa, Zixin, Xinsheng and Xing'an develop black fungus, oyster mushrooms and lion's mane mushrooms...
Based on the actual conditions and existing foundations of each village and household, Xinsheng Township guides and helps villages create famous brands and households have specialties. Some farming households with capital, skills and ability have achieved one household, one trade.
"Thanks to the good policies, I can run a business right at home, and my family's finances have improved." Returning migrant worker Sun Haichao, following the household heating information released by the township after the mud-and-thatch house renovation, set up a small boiler factory. The village and township also gathered market information for him from other places such as Mingshui and Hailun. Today, the small boiler factory's annual returns have reached more than 100,000 yuan.
The villagers are also keeping pace with the times, and "Internet Plus" has entered their vision, creating a new model for selling agricultural and sideline products. Villagers release information via the Internet and establish supply and marketing partnerships with outside merchants. The township has now signed orders for 120,000 jin of black fungus, lion's mane mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, with profits set to reach 1.2 million yuan. By 2018, the township will add 16 online stores, ensuring every village group has an online store, so that farmers can sell agricultural products through e-commerce platforms and increase their incomes.
Providing strong guarantees to build a new pattern of poverty alleviation
To sound the charge in the battle against poverty, Xinsheng Township has consistently treated industrial development as its development strategy and industrial poverty alleviation as the main direction of targeted poverty alleviation, providing the necessary guarantees in leadership, policy environment, funding and technology.
In recent years, the Baiquan County Party Committee and County Government have attached great importance to the work of helping farmers in the old base area of Xinsheng Township shake off poverty and prosper. Key leaders have gone deep into Xinsheng Township many times to conduct research and provide guidance on agricultural cooperatives, tree planting and afforestation, the development status of the forest industry and eco-agriculture, and how to develop them, and have repeatedly visited the sites in person to make arrangements and provide on-site guidance on tree planting and afforestation, environmental improvement, agricultural cooperatives and other work. Leading cadres at the township and village levels have devoted their main energy to industrial projects, going out for inspections, providing on-site guidance, and helping face-to-face to solve various problems encountered in the construction of industrial projects.
At the same time, in order to fulfill the task of ensuring every impoverished household has a dedicated person providing assistance, the township designated 462 responsible assistance personnel, including 124 assistance cadres sent by the county, 30 assistance cadres sent by the township, 162 village cadres, and 146 assistance personnel drawn from Party members and representatives of the masses. There are 6 first secretaries of villages sent by the county and 1 first secretary of a village sent by the province, totaling 469 people, ensuring that every impoverished household has a dedicated person providing assistance.
Not only that, Xinsheng Township has also worked hard on attracting investment and encouraged capable people to return home and start businesses. Xinsheng Township consistently treats launching projects and strengthening industries as the engine of poverty alleviation, continuously optimizing the economic development pattern and inspiring the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of the whole township. At present, Xinsheng Township has 18,990 people working away from home. With the implementation of preferential policies such as investment attraction and the forest products economy in Baiquan County, a large number of farmers have returned home to start businesses.
Accelerating infrastructure construction, ensuring villagers enjoy a comfortable living environment, and promoting poverty alleviation are also an inevitable path. Xinsheng Township is actively accelerating road and bridge transportation construction, striving to harden all 200 km of village and village-group roads in the township within three years, and to build or repair 36 bridges and culverts, ensuring smooth travel for villagers. At the same time, it is accelerating water conservancy construction, giving priority to solving the people's drinking water problem, and speeding up the renovation of dilapidated houses and the improvement of the living environment, completing the renovation of dilapidated houses for impoverished households within three years and completely eliminating dilapidated houses among impoverished households.
The key to poverty alleviation in the old revolutionary base areas lies in being "targeted." Today, the innovative practice of industrial poverty alleviation carried out by Xinsheng Township has driven a wave of poverty alleviation throughout the township. It is believed that in the near future, all the impoverished people in the township will shake off poverty and truly achieve the goal of moderate prosperity in all respects.