Cleverly Seizing the Opportunity to Plant Flowers of Prosperity, Li Zhuo Sets Out on the Road to Increased Income
In 2015, Linxia City achieved overall poverty alleviation. Wangping Village, the poorest village in the city, also shook off poverty on schedule. When talking about the secret of their "cap removal," many people in the village would give a thumbs-up and say: "The young village secretary has great abilities!"
Wangping Village is the only mountainous village in Linxia City, with 9 cooperatives and 1133 people. The per capita arable land is only 1.4 mu, and the poor population of the whole village accounts for 63% of the total population. Under the leadership of Li Zhuo, a college-graduate village official, Wangping Village opened up a new path of targeted poverty alleviation and targeted poverty eradication centered on peony cultivation.
In 2007, Li Zhuo, a graduate of Gansu Agricultural University, struggled in Lanzhou for three years. In 2010, by taking the selection examination for college-graduate village officials, he became assistant to the village committee director in Wangping Village, Baohan Town, and in 2013 he was elected village party secretary.
Because of three years of work experience, Li Zhuo gave serious thought to the development of Wangping Village. He said: "Changing the infrastructure and cultivating industries are the key to Wangping Village shaking off poverty, becoming prosperous, and building a moderately prosperous life." After being elected village party secretary, he actively coordinated efforts and, over two years, built a 10-kilometer cement road over the hills and ridges to Wangping Village, and also thoroughly renovated the village's water source area, bringing the upgrading rate of infrastructure such as hardened roads and safe drinking water in the village to 100%.
"Peonies can be found anywhere, but Linxia's are unsurpassed." This is people's praise for Linxia peonies. Making use of the unique locational advantage, Li Zhuo had an idea in mind: the beautiful Linxia peony is an excellent industry for enriching the people.
By a fortunate coincidence, in June 2014, the person in charge of Linxia Prefecture Peony Garden Co., Ltd. came to Wangping Village to inspect a project. Li Zhuo felt this was a good opportunity not to be missed, and at that time he made up his mind that this project must be settled in Wangping Village. So a peony planting farmers' professional cooperative was established. Because land transfer was involved, many farmers were somewhat resistant to this at first, and the work progressed rather slowly. In order to successfully establish the cooperative, Li Zhuo mobilized cadres of the village "two committees" to go door to door doing mass work, explaining the path to shaking off poverty and becoming prosperous, and the benefits of developing peonies.
Hard work pays off, and finally some villagers joined in with a try-it-and-see attitude. Three months later, Wangping Village formally signed a contract with Linxia Prefecture Peony Garden Co., Ltd. and established the Wangping Village Oilseed Purple-Spotted Peony Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative. At present, the cooperative has planted 120 mu of oilseed purple-spotted peonies, solved employment for more than 20 people, and increased the income of land-transfer households by an average of 840 yuan per mu. At the same time, more than 100 people have been completely freed from the land, either developing livestock farming or going out to work. In 2015, the per capita income of the whole village reached 8300 yuan, and the per capita disposable income of the poor population reached 5532 yuan.
The beautiful peony has brought a new path for Wangping Village to shake off poverty and become prosperous.