Village in China's Guizhou brings wealth to residents by developing industries suited to local conditions

Gaowen village, a village of the Miao ethnic group located deep inside the mountains of Rongjiang county, southwest China's Guizhou Province has developed industries that cater to local conditions, generating wealth for villagers living in the locality.

Farmers pack passion fruits in Gaowen village, Rongjiang county, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo/Guiozhou Daily)

In the past, people in the village with insufficient arable land resources failed to grow crops that could be sold at a good price.

In 2016, villager Li Yingsong embraced a bumper harvest of chives and sold them at a good price, which brought hope to his fellow villagers. Influenced by him, 58 farmer households in the village planted chives.

Li went on to set up a cooperative and boost the scale and strength of the village's chive industry.

One year later, the village planted chives on 260 mu (about 17.3 hectares) of farmland, and the per capita income of chive growers reached 3,600 yuan (about $517.5).

In early 2020, the cooperative had 400 mu of chives, but encountered poor sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Chives have a short shelf life and the cost of cold-chain logistics is high. Let's plant something else," said Li Changlin, Li Yingsong's son.

Li Changlin then suggested planting passion fruit trees as the village boasts a sound climate and soil conditions for the growth of the fruit trees.

With the support of Rongjiang county's agricultural authority, Li Changlin and several members of the cooperative went to Guilin city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to learn the skills of planting passion fruit trees and marketing models in April 2020.

After they returned, the village began to promote the planting of passion fruit trees. In 2020, the cooperative's passion fruit output hit 250,000 kilograms and yielded nearly 4 million yuan. A total of 1,853 villagers from 383 households in the village received dividends from the cooperative.