One of the momentous achievements of China this year has been the elimination of extreme poverty in the country. It's been a challenging task that involved many facets. This picture below shows one of them.

The chickens from the Dabieshan mountain in Susong County, southeast China's Anhui Province, are an example of the multiple strategies required. Dabieshan was one of the poorest regions in eastern China, so many young people moved to the city to find jobs. Elderly people stayed behind and were plagued selling their farming produce. So, they joined a cooperative that was formed specifically to help low-income families.

The cooperative provides the know-how to raise healthy chickens and then uses e-commerce platforms to sell them across the country. This model is just one part of the local efforts to alleviate poverty.

In 2014, there were still 70 local villages there that were deemed impoverished. In 2018, they were all stripped of that title.

The western part of China has for a long time been less developed than the east, so the government focused its efforts in those counties.  

The Sichuan provincial government has been using e-commerce too. They have an online store called Sichuan Poverty Alleviation, selling a range of farming produce. In 2019, they sold some 16 billion yuan in goods.

In 2020, e-commerce provided 7.7 million Chinese farmers with employment. Officials say future poverty alleviation works in the 14th Five-Year Plan will put more focus on the power of market economy.