College graduate returns to hometown in S China's Guangxi to boost local development

Yang Ning, a college graduate from Jiangmen village, Anchui township, Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, Liuzhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has boosted the development of her hometown after returning to the village.

After graduating from Guangxi University in 2010, Yang became an official in Jiangmen village. Over the past years, she has devoted herself to bringing prosperity to villagers. She currently serves as the village's Party chief and head of the village committee.

Yang Ning (left) and her colleague prepare for a live-streaming session on Oct. 18, 2023. (Photo/Xinhua)

After much trial and error, Yang has succeeded in promoting watermelon planting in the village thanks to the suitable climate conditions and sound management.

Zhang Haihui, a farmer in the village, is in charge of sales of villagers' watermelons. "Last year we saw a bumper harvest of watermelons. The income per mu (one mu is 667 square meters) quadrupled from previous years," Zhang said.

While leading villagers to develop distinctive planting industries, including watermelon planting, Yang has also introduced modern management concepts to the village. As a result, the village has an e-commerce service center for agricultural products, a planting cooperative, and an eco-agriculture company.

When Yang learned of the prospects of the passion fruit industry, she went to Lingshan county in Qinzhou city of Guangxi to conduct a survey, and invited agricultural technicians from the county to teach planting techniques in the village.

Zhang planted 420 passion fruit seedlings this year. "Last year, villagers planted the fruit on 100 mu of land and earned money from it," Zhang said. He added that Jiangmen village provides seedlings for free to villagers, who planted another 100 mu of passion fruit this year.

The construction of an industrial park for rural revitalization is underway in Jiangmen village.

To help villagers find jobs near their homes, Yang surveyed several places, secured financial support, purchased production equipment, and introduced processing companies.

Jiangmen village established a construction team to advance the building of the industrial park. "This can provide new employment opportunities for villagers and reduce costs. According to calculations, the construction costs are 7 percent less than by outsourcing," Yang said.

At the industrial park, the workshop of a textile factory has been operating for one month. Nearly 100 villagers work at the production area of the workshop, and over 10 people are being trained.

The production line of a water factory and that of a cured meat factory are also under construction, which will start production two or three months from now. Yang said the industrial park is expected to offer over 300 jobs.

In the past three years, Jiangmen village has solicited 117 opinions and suggestions from villagers, helping them solve 31 difficult problems.

During a recent meeting with villagers, Yang realized that the village had the potential to develop tourism by leveraging its long history and picturesque scenery. The village hopes to improve the local ecology to develop tourism, utilize the village's livestream room to boost e-commerce sales, and explore new paths for the integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries.

The annual collective economic income of Jiangmen village has increased to 252,000 yuan ($34,813) from less than 1,000 yuan 14 years ago when Yang had returned to her hometown.

In 2023, the per capita disposable income of the village stood at 18,032 yuan, an increase of 12.7 percent year on year.

"My biggest wish is that my hometown boasts a better ecology and becomes more prosperous, with people having a greater sense of happiness," Yang said, adding that she will continue to contribute to the villagers' happiness.