Chongqing continues making efforts to expand rural characteristic industries

After lifting villagers out of poverty, Qijiang district of southwest China's Chongqing municipality has continued to boost its advantageous industries that feature local characteristics by investing a total of 120 million yuan ($18.4 million) to build over 6,533 hectares of high-standard farmland.

Photo shows Hu Yuanyong, Party head of Zhenxing village, Longsheng town, Qijiang district of southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

By integrating tourism with agriculture, Qijiang has cultivated a thriving rural tourism industry. In 2020, it brought in tourism revenues of more than 3.5 billion yuan.

Qijiang has also held skill training sessions for farmers so that they can find jobs without having to leave their hometown. Last year, over 33,000 people received the training and 14,279 people were given lessons on how to start a business.

In Qijiang, 98 percent of the administrative villages have vowed to realize full employment and together have created 2,010 public welfare jobs for local residents.

In Zhenxing village of Longsheng town, plum cultivation has become a pillar industry. Hu Yuanyong, Party head of the village, explained that the village was impoverished before 2014 when he first came to work there.

Back then, the villagers made a living by growing corn and sweet potatoes, Hu recalled, adding that it was imperative for the village to develop its own specialty industry. After careful evaluation, Hu and the fellow villagers eventually decided to develop plum tree planting into a characteristic industry.

Today, 253 hectares of the village’s total area of farmland at 266 hectares has been planted with plum trees. In addition, the village has established partnerships with 17 companies for selling and processing plums.

"The plums are large and sweet, and taste really good," said Zhou Xianmo, head of a farmers' cooperative, adding that the output value of the plums exceeded 1 million yuan last year, the first year the trees started to bear fruit.

In 2020, the village brought 6 million yuan in dividends to villagers, which mainly came from rental incomes of land transfers and salaries paid by the farmers’ cooperative, pushing the per capita income to 16,200 yuan.