Feng Xuezhong, deputy head of the standing committee of the People’s Congress at Dongxiang autonomous county, of Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in northwest China’s Gansu province, has been occupied by poverty alleviation work since the Chinese New Year.

“Because of the novel coronavirus, migrant workers were not able to go back to work. To make up for their economic losses, we decided to help impoverished households expand the farming of quinoa, which is already widely cultivated here,” said Feng.

Dongxiang autonomous county is a hard nut to crack in the prefecture and even the whole province’s poverty alleviation. The county still had 12,800 registered impoverished people by the end of 2019.

To lift those people out of poverty, the prefecture has designated more than 500 officials and 1,800 cadres to help villagers out of poverty.

It has stabilized employment by creating more jobs.

Ma’axiguo is an impoverished farmer in Daban village, Daban township, who shook off poverty after being employed by a poverty alleviation cooperative. While before his family could only make ends meet, now the man is able to earn nearly 2,000 yuan a month.

As of early April, Dongxiang county mobilized employers to provide over 4,000 jobs for impoverished residents.

He Musa, a 39-year-old farmer of Nalaxiehu village in Fengshan township, a landlocked town that was impoverished. Due to the harsh natural environment, the land could yield only about 150 kilograms of potatoes and corn per mu (1 mu is 667 square meters). What was worse, the only source of drinking water was rainwater.

Thanks to the relocation project, about half of the villagers resettled as of the end of last October. The rest will be relocated by the end of this June, according to Tang Zhizhen, head of the Party committee of Fengshan township.

“My family will move to the township in about one month or two,” said He, adding that he likes the new home very much as it has access to hardened roads and clean and safe drinking water.

So far, Dongxiang autonomous county has relocated all 5,255 impoverished households, a task scheduled to be finished by the end of 2020.