Rural people make progress through modern farming and new industries

Jing Liyi, a farmer in Baichi village in Pinglu county, finds his life has changed for the better since he began modernized apple farming several years ago with the help of the local government.

Pinglu is a part of the city of Yuncheng, which is known as the granary of Shanxi. Yuncheng produces more than a half of the province's wheat output.

In addition to wheat, Yuncheng has recently developed another agricultural sector to be proud of－a modernized apple farming industry.

Yuncheng is home to more than 100,000 hectares of apple orchards and is renowned throughout the country for its high-quality apples.

The city has implemented a campaign to modernize its apple farming in recent years. To date, Yuncheng has invested more than 9 billion yuan ($1.39 billion) to upgrade the industry. About 4,000 hectares of apple orchards have been upgraded according to modern standards and about 100,000 farmers have been trained to master modern farming skills.

The village where Jing lives is one of the beneficiaries of such a campaign.

According to Jing, the upgrades to orchards in Baichi include the use of modern technologies such as spray irrigation and seedling cultivation for the purpose of improving both quality and quantity, as well as new sales models like e-commerce.

Jing is the owner of a 0.4-hectare apple orchard.

"The use of new technologies can lead to a 20 percent increase in output," Jing said. "And the quality improvement as a result of new seedling cultivation leads to an increase of 20 to 30 percent in prices compared with the ordinary varieties."

Jing was once an impoverished resident in the village. He said he was lifted out of poverty several years ago and now "lives in a well-off life".

In addition to modernizing farming, Yuncheng has also used industrial development to help improve the livelihoods of residents in both rural and urban areas.

Yang Shufang, a resident in Longyuan village in Pinglu county, is an example of those lifted out of poverty via industrial development.

Yang is now a packaging worker at plant near her village, which earns her a stable monthly pay.

The plant where she works was established specifically for the purpose of poverty alleviation.

Yuncheng has a total of 219 such plants, which offer jobs to more than 4,000 impoverished residents.

The city of Yuncheng has also placed livelihood improvement high on its agenda.

According to the city government, Yuncheng has invested more than 34.8 billion yuan in improving locals' livelihoods during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). It represents an annual increase of 13.6 percent on average.

Increasing government expenditures on livelihoods are a result of growing industrial strength in the city, local officials said.

Boosted by the strong development of its emerging industries including new energy, advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture, Yuncheng's GDP reached 164.36 billion yuan in 2020, growing 5.2 percent year-on-year despite the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the local government.

Li Shu contributed to this story.