Aerial photo taken on Sept. 1, 2018 shows the rural scenery in Kechang Township of Longlin Various Nationalities Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Ailin)

Longlin Multi-ethnic Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are working hard to win victory over the battle against poverty.

As one of the 52 poor counties in China, Longlin is a hard nut to crack in Guangxi's poverty alleviation. The county still had 7,829 impoverished people from 2,219 households in 10 villages by the end of 2019.

Longlin has been taking concrete measures to tackle real problems with attention paid to details, so as to ensure that all poor villages and people will be lifted out of poverty as scheduled, said Zhang Qisheng, Party chief of the county.

"Eradicating poverty has now come to a critical stage, we must go all out to strengthen measures to realize the goal," Zhang said, adding that the county has made a general plan and different projects for the 10 poor villages to resolve prominent problems in poverty alleviation.

According to these plans, heads of the county Party committee and government should visit poor villages every month. Leaders at the county level who are responsible for the 10 poor villages should help solve difficulties in poverty alleviation at least once each month. In addition, additional officials and working team members for poverty alleviation will be dispatched to these villages.

"Since the implementation of the plans, the Party chief has visited our village several times to solve difficulties," said Gou Shiyou, the first secretary of Pingtai village in charge of poverty alleviation.

During Zhang's visit to the village, he allocated funds to support Wang Ayou, a poor resident, in expanding construction of his 40-square-meter house for five family members. He also urged the department of water resources to implement a project to ensure that residents in the village will have access to safe drinking water, which is expected to be put into use by the end of April.

Longlin is also taking a full inventory of all registered households living in poverty, so as to take targeted measures to lift them out of poverty. In April, the county sent over 600 officials to conduct thorough investigations into the housing conditions of impoverished villagers, and relocate those living under poor housing conditions.

Meanwhile, Longlin has also developed industries that cater to local conditions. So far, the county has planted 37,000 mu (1 mu is 667 square meters) of bananas, 56,000 mu of mulberry trees, and 100,000 mu of Chinese chestnuts and tea-oil trees, respectively.

Yang Hua, an impoverished resident in Meji village, planted 8 mu of mulberry saplings, which were provided by the county for free, in late March. "I can earn 4,000 yuan per mu," Yang said, adding that he would earn 47,000 yuan from the planting this year if a subsidy of 15,000 yuan is included.

With 390 impoverished people from 86 households, or a poverty headcount ratio of 14.8 percent, Meji is the village with the largest poor population in Longlin county. Most of villagers used to plant corns, with a slender income of about 500 yuan per mu.

Due to serious rock desertification, mulberry tree is the most suitable crop to plant, said Yang Zaihong, the first secretary of the village in charge of poverty alleviation, noting that 54 impoverished households have planted mulberry trees and bred silkworms, which will allow them shake off poverty.

Longlin has stepped up efforts to develop the silkworm-raising industry. It invested about 30 million yuan to build cocooneries covering an area of more than 30,000 square meters for impoverished people free of charge.

"The development of suitable industries will help boost poor residents' income and lift them out of poverty," said Yang Ke, head of the county, adding that Longlin plans to build two new silkworm-raising demonstration bases and plant over 30,000 mu mulberry trees this year.