Pingxiang land transfer opens up a new path to prosperity for farmers
Pingxiang News "Our family's 6 mu of land has all been transferred out, with a fixed contract fee of 800 yuan per mu per year, and working at the enterprise brings in 70 yuan a day, more than 2,000 yuan a month. Land transfer has truly 'transferred' a good life for us ordinary folks." In the Shangshi Taiwan Modern Characteristic Agriculture Industrial Park in Pingxiang City, Huang Lifeng, a villager from Lianjiang Village in Shangshi Town, said happily. Farmers who benefit from land transfer like Huang Lifeng cover most villages and hamlets in Shangshi and Xiashi towns in Pingxiang, a microcosm of how land transfer in Pingxiang drives farmers to prosperity.
The Shangshi Taiwan Modern Characteristic Agriculture Industrial Park, with a total investment of 134 million yuan by Kunming Wangyuan Ecological Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd., is located in Lianjiang Village, Shangshi Community, Shangshi Town, and mainly grows crops such as the Meilawang —— beauty chili pepper, independently developed in Taiwan, vegetables, and the health-promoting Chinese herbal medicine "Tomorrow's Leaf". The industrial park adopts a development model of "unified company management + planting demonstration base + brokers + planting farmers + self-operated terminal sales", building the industrial park into a modern leisure and sightseeing characteristic agriculture industrial park with science and technology as the forerunner, integrating science, education, agriculture, industry, trade, tourism and shopping. At present, the first phase of the industrial park has a planting area of 800 mu, and seedling cultivation of beauty chili peppers is underway.
The author observed nearly 200 villagers busy in the fields at the industrial park. Villager Ling Rufeng of Shangshi Town, after the Shangshi Taiwan Modern Characteristic Agriculture Industrial Park leased her family's land, no longer grows crops such as peanuts and corn, but instead chooses to work here. Ling Rufeng said that she used to work outside, but now mainly works at her doorstep, which makes it convenient to take care of her family, allows her to earn money, and lets her collect land transfer fees as well, living a life of "double income". Ma Hongxiang, manager of Kunming Wangyuan Ecological Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd., told the author that the reason they chose Shangshi Town to develop the characteristic agriculture industrial park is that the climate, soil and other conditions here are very suitable for growing characteristic agricultural products. The industrial park's products are mainly sold to Southeast Asian countries and the Taiwan region, and can solve the employment problem of nearly 1,000 surplus laborers.
According to the person in charge of the Pingxiang City Agriculture Bureau, Pingxiang City promotes land transfer with emphasis on model innovation, using flexible national pro-farmer policies through various means such as creating modern agriculture demonstration parks to drive it, cultivating characteristic industries to promote it, and linking farmers' professional cooperative organizations. While advancing base construction, it also vigorously pursues the introduction of deep-processing enterprises for agricultural products, doing practical things for the people in rural infrastructure construction and industrial support, guiding rural land to transfer in an orderly manner to planting enterprises, effectively promoting large-scale agricultural operations and extending the industrial chain. According to statistics, Pingxiang currently has a total of 68 land transfer plots (blocks), with a total area of 11,100 mu, of which 9,377.5 mu are planted with sugarcane, involving 2,541 households and 11,494 people; and 1,722.5 mu are planted with vegetables, fruits and other crops. Mainly built are the Shangshi Taiwan Modern Characteristic Agriculture Industrial Park and the Modern Agriculture Standardized Production Demonstration Base in Shaoping Village, Xiashi Town.
In recent years, the face of Pingxiang's new countryside has changed with each passing day. Based on the development approach of government guidance, mass autonomy and industrial development, land transfer work has advanced rapidly, effectively revitalizing rural land resources while also achieving mutual benefit and win-win results for both parties to the transferred land. It is reported that at the end of 2013, Pingxiang City had a total population of 110,500, a rural population of 77,400, and a poor population of 12,507, with a poverty incidence rate of 16.17%. Compared with the end of 2010, when the poor population was 20,620 and the poverty incidence rate was 26.4%, the city's poor population decreased by 8,113 and the poverty incidence rate dropped by 10.23%. In 2013, the per capita net income of farmers was 7,090 yuan, an increase of 65.65% over 4,281 yuan in 2010, and the living standards of farmers have clearly improved. (Liu Xiaoyuan, Huang Cong)