PhD Village Official Zhu Huitao Leverages Cultural and Educational Strengths to Lead Villagers to Prosperity

Lingyun, December 14 (People's Daily Online) -- Reporter Wang Yong: On the 14th, a roundtable discussion titled "PhD Village Official" Talks Development in the Fields was held in a cornfield in Gelou Village, Shali Yao Ethnic Township, Lingyun County. Zhu Huitao, a doctoral graduate of Peking University who has served as the Party branch "First Secretary" of Nongtang Village, Shali Yao Ethnic Township, Lingyun County, for more than half a year, has leveraged his cultural and educational strengths to lead villagers gradually onto a path to prosperity.

In March of this year, Zhu Huitao was assigned by the Organization Department of the Autonomous Region Party Committee to serve as the Party branch "First Secretary" of Nongtang Village, Shali Yao Ethnic Township, Lingyun County. After arriving in the village, Zhu Huitao discovered that Nongtang Village had not a single cement road, the villagers' houses were all dilapidated, and from the villagers' clothing and appearance one could tell that they did not have much money in their pockets. As a leader in scientific development tasked with leading the masses out of poverty toward prosperity, Zhu Huitao felt the weight of responsibility and burden on his shoulders. Over the past half year and more, he has led the village "two committees" team, Party members and the masses, focusing closely on the issues of greatest concern, most direct relevance and most practical urgency to the people, vigorously pursuing and implementing projects, doing more practical and good deeds for the masses, achieving certain results and gaining the recognition and support of the people.
 

"First Secretary" Zhu Huitao describes Nongtang Village's future development plans

First, strengthen infrastructure construction and improve the people's production and living conditions. A 1,100-meter hardened road within Nonghuang Tun and a 2-kilometer hardened access road to Nongjiao Tun and other locations have been completed successively, solving both the difficulty of villagers' travel and the difficulty of transporting agricultural and forestry products; 30 water tanks with a total capacity of 2,100 cubic meters have been built, solving the difficulty of drinking water for people and livestock; 3 thatched huts have been eliminated, and 24 dilapidated houses have been renovated, improving the people's housing conditions.

Second, accelerate agricultural industry development to achieve rapid increases in farmers' income. As a poverty-stricken village, Nongtang Village's annual per capita net income was less than 2,300 yuan. Zhu Huitao, together with the village "two committees" cadres and the broad ranks of Party members and the masses, focused on "developing idle resources" and "optimizing the industrial structure," vigorously developing agricultural industries, and doing a good job on the "increase" front. In agricultural industry development, following the approach of "combining long-term and short-term, using short-term to sustain long-term, using livestock to supplement crops," and with the leadership of capable prosperity-builders, he developed specialty planting and specialty breeding. In terms of "planting," based on Nongtang Village's location in the rocky mountain region, 500-1,000 mu of walnut trees were planted, producing good economic and ecological benefits, but the walnut industry takes a relatively long time to show results. In order to achieve "combining long-term and short-term," Zhu Huitao, based on local climate characteristics, intercropped honeysuckle under the walnut trees, achieving results within the same year. In terms of "breeding," he focused on specialty breeding and raising chickens under the forest, using livestock to supplement crops. At present, preliminary cooperation intentions have been reached with some companies in Guangxi, adopting the "company + farmers + base" model, with a planned breeding scale of 100,000-200,000 birds sold annually, generating several hundred thousand yuan in additional income per year.

Furthermore, strengthen education-based poverty alleviation and encourage and support rural children in pursuing education. Knowledge changes destiny; the greatest way to support intelligence and create self-sustaining capacity is to find every possible means to enable children in poverty-stricken villages to study more and receive more education. On one hand, caring entrepreneurs are extensively mobilized to pair up with students in Nongtang Village for assistance; at present, 6 caring entrepreneurs have been mobilized to assist 12 children in the village. On the other hand, resources from his alma mater are utilized to bring junior schoolmates to the village to share their experiences with the people. In addition, negotiations are underway with the Nanning branch of Peking University Affiliated Experimental School to learn from their advanced educational and teaching concepts and methods.

Over the half year and more since being stationed in the village, Zhu Huitao has done practical and good deeds for the people and has made some progress and achieved results in agricultural industry and educational development, but there is still a large gap from the development goals and the people's expectations. In the future, Zhu Huitao will continue to unite and lead the "two committees" cadres, Party members and the masses to further improve execution, vigorously implement projects, lead the people of Nongtang Village to achieve poverty alleviation and prosperity at an early date, change the face of the poverty-stricken village, and lay a solid foundation for ensuring that the people of Nongtang Village reach a moderately prosperous level by 2020. (End)

(Responsible Editor: Pang Guanhua)