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Lanxian County is one of the areas most hit by water loss and soil erosion in north China's Shanxi Province. The precipitation there is low, thus the vegetation has quite a low survival rate. Given these conditions, the villagers there grow sandthorn, as it can improve the soil, block the wind and fix the sand. And it is by working in these sandthorn fields that many households were lifted out of poverty.
Since 2017, sandthorn industry cooperatives have been set up in the county and over 5,000 people who are able to work and from poor households were recruited. Lanxian County was no longer a national poverty stricken county in 2019. By 2020, more than 1,300 hectares of sandthorns were planted on the reclaimed farmland, and the average annual income of the villagers has reached 10,000 yuan by participating in the sandthorn-related industries.