Poverty Alleviation Through Industrialization: Henan businesses help rural farmers earn more money

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Poultry farming is common in Tangyin County, in central China's Henan Province. But what was once free-range has now been industrialized. And new factory farms, created with the help of a local company, are bringing in higher incomes. CGTN's Cui Hui'ao reports.

Adding fodder, and distributing it in the trough, 43-year-old Ma Heyin now spends most of his day with the 25-thousand chickens at his farm.

MA HEYIN TANGYIN COUNTY RESIDENT "The chicken business started 17 years ago. At that time I could only raise 3,000 chickens. I didn't have much space for it and had to raise them on the ground. And now I have my own poultry farm, and I raise about 150,000 chickens a year."

A local frozen poultry firm was behind this improvement. In the early 2000s, the Yongda company started sending technicians to farming villages in the county. Farmers like Ma received chicks, fodder, and immunizations free of charge. The farmers were also taught how to raise chickens more effectively.

CUI HUI'AO TANGYIN COUNTY, HENAN "Since local enterprises started to participate in poverty alleviation work, more than 200 rural families here at Tangyin County are not only lifted out of poverty, but make really good livings for themselves."

Ma now owns a passenger car and lives in a two-story house. It was a far cry from two decades ago when survival was his main concern.

MA HEYIN TANGYIN COUNTY RESIDENT "I never thought that one day I could have my own car. When I was farming on the land, I only made a couple thousand RMB a year, and sometimes I'd go hungry. Life has been much changed."

Not everyone in the county has the fortune of owning a poultry farm like Ma. Many of these landless folk now work in the factory, earning decent wages.

DIAO XIUJUN, WORKER HENAN YONGDA FOOD GROUP "My husband died several years ago, and I had to take care of his mom and two children on my own. It was nearly impossible. It was until I got this job here at the factory that my life finally improved."

Diao earns about 3-thousand yuan a month, which is 12 times more than what people under the poverty line earn.

WANG GUANGCAN, VICE CHAIRMAN HENAN YONGDA FOOD GROUP "At the moment we plan to use micro-financing to help those without any labor ability, which means, we subsidize each of those households 3,200 yuan a year, for 10 consecutive years. And in exchange the company can borrow low-interest loans from the China Development Bank."

Wang says everybody benefits in these types of arrangements. The company grows, and others prosper. Cui Hui'ao, CGTN, Henan Province.