Poverty Alleviation and Development in Guizhou Province

　　【Overview】 Located in the southeastern part of Southwest China, Guizhou Province covers a land area of 176,000 square kilometers and has a population of more than 39 million. It has nine cities (prefectures, regions), 50 national key counties for poverty alleviation and development and a poor population of 5,853,800. 5,198 poverty-stricken villages have not started entire village advancement in the province, accounting for 1/5 of the total in China

　　In 2009, there was a reduction of about 500,000 in its poverty-stricken population. The province launched entire village advancement projects in 1582 poor villages; promoted the construction of 33 demonstration counties for grassland animal husbandry; mainly supported the development of tea-oil tree, vegetables, fruit, medicine and bamboo industry, respectively selected five counties to plant vegetables of 28,300 mu, 7 counties to develop high-quality oil-tea camellia bases of 32,000 mu, 8 counties to develop dry fruit and 55,000 mu to develop traditional Chinese medicines; supported the contiguous development of featured industries in the impoverished villages of 50 counties, implemented demonstration projects in pilot towns for poverty alleviation by industrialization, 122 virus-free potato seed multiplication and field promotion projects, and 1,269 small pond projects in the pilot towns for poverty alleviation by industrialization under severe rocky desertification and drought; and the “Rain Plan” completed rural labor transfer trainings for 108,500 people in poverty-stricken regions, accounting for 103% of the scheduled task, and transferred employments for 92,600 people, accounting for 111% of the scheduled task.

　　【Review of poverty alleviation】  From 1986 to 2000, the history of overall poverty in Guizhou almost came to the end. Over the past decade, under the care and support from the LGOP and other central state organs, and Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and Shenzhen, Guizhou Province implemented the "China's Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Program" and further increased efforts on anti-poverty work, making a significant contribution to the economic development and social progress in the province.

　　After the three major stages of poverty alleviation and development (1986-1993), "Seven- year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program" (1994-2000) and the poverty alleviation and development in the new stage (2001-2010), Guizhou entered into the new stage of “two-wheel drive” integrating development-oriented poverty alleviation and social relief as other provinces and municipalities in China, the key stage for the transition from “survival poverty alleviation” to “development-oriented poverty alleviation” and an important period for rural reform, institutional innovation and modern agricultural construction.

　　【Investment of anti-poverty funds】 In 2009, Guizhou Province invested a total of 1.484 billion Yuan of anti-poverty funds and raised 142 million Yuan of social relief funds. In the whole year, it issued 1.4 billion Yuan of poverty relief funds, 94.86% of the total, to implement 9,079 projects for villages and households, and the anti-poverty funds from regional and county financial departments also increased over 2008.

　　【Entire Village Advancement】 In 2009, the province launched entire village advancement projects in 1582 poor villages, including 689 “two guarantee” villages in old revolutionary base areas and minority areas, and completed the entire village advancement projects in minority areas, averagely 500,000 Yuan for each village. A total of 400 million Yuan was allocated for the entire village advancement in the province.

　　In 2009, the pilot projects were successfully implemented in four counties, namely Zheng’an, Jiangkou, Changshun and Zhijin according to the requirements of “Regulations for Pilot Projects” and the “Implementation Plan”. According to statistics, the pilot areas in four counties involved 53 administrative villages (45 poor villages); total investment was 180 million Yuan; apart from 10 million Yuan of funds for pilot projects, 140 million Yuan (excluding credit loans) was raised from various departments, with an integrated capital ratio of 1︰3.49; 48.0759 million Yuan was planned to invest in industrial development, 122 million Yuan was for infrastructure construction and 9.7341 million Yuan was for social development.    

　　【Poverty alleviation training】 The “Rain Plan” completed rural labor transfer trainings for 108,500 people in poor areas, accounting for 103% of the scheduled task, and transferred employments for 92,600 people, accounting for 111% of the scheduled task.

　　【Poverty alleviation by industrialization】 In 2009, the province launched 33 pilot county projects for grassland animal husbandry and formulated and issued the "(Interim) Regulations on the Rolling Development Management of Funds for Poverty Alleviation by Technology in Grassland Animal Husbandry in Guizhou Province" to further regulate the behavior of project implementation and financial management. As of December 16, 2009, the 33 demonstration counties’ grassland animal husbandry projects completed artificial grass planting of 396,100 mu, accounting for 102.22% of the plan; built sheds of 584,800 square meters, accounting for 100.60% of the plan; purchased and released 325,900 ewes, accounting for 91.45% of the plan, purchased and released 11,500 rams, accounting for 103.22% of the plan, purchased and released 3124 breeding cows, accounting for 69.42% of the plan, and gradually achieved good economic benefits, social benefits and biological benefits in the project areas. It focused on supporting the development of oil-tea, vegetables, fruit, medicine and bamboo industry, respectively selected five counties to plant vegetables of 28,300 mu, 7 counties to develop high-quality oil-tea camellia bases of 32,000 mu, 8 counties to develop dry fruit and 55,000 mu to develop traditional Chinese medicines, aiming to promote the industrial development by demonstrative areas, continuously sum up experience and gradually expand the scale.

　　Based on local conditions and market-oriented principle, the province developed featured industries in the impoverished villages of 50 counties and launched demonstration projects for poverty alleviation by industrialization in the towns. It arranged special funds for the implementation of 122 virus-free potato seed multiplication and field promotion projects as well as high-yielding pilot projects for virus-free potato seed multiplication, produced 6.062 million small virus-free potatoes and 336,800 virus-free potato plantlets; completed the propagation of original species and Grade I species of 16,040 mu; field promotion of virus-free potatoes of 6.924 million mu, 15% higher than the scheduled task; and completed high-yielding demonstration of virus-free sweet potatoes of 13,169 mu, fulfilling the annual task. In the poor villages under severe rocky desertification and drought involved in poverty alleviation by industrialization, the province launched 1,269 small pond projects to support the entire village advancement and industrialization projects. Meanwhile, the government supported the development of leading enterprises for poverty alleviation by industrialization and formulated the “Interim Procedures for the Identification of Provincial Poverty Alleviation Leading Enterprises in Guizhou” based on the 36 poverty alleviation leading enterprise identified by the state in the province.

　　【Village-level pilot mutual funds】 In 2009, Guizhou launched pilot projects in 60 impoverished villages (including 20 provincial pilot villages) in Sansui, Taijiang, Danzhai, Libo, Zhenfeng, Zheng’an, Jiangkou and Zhijin County and put in 9 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds to help the members develop production and increase income. The pilot projects were under orderly construction according to the “Manual for Mutual Funds in Poor Villages’ and were welcomed by farmers.

　　【Poverty alleviation by science and technology】  From 2001 to 2007, in organizing the implementation of poverty alleviation projects by technology, Guizhou Province fostered and supported Qinglong to construct the poverty alleviation projects through Boer goat hybridization improvement technology, allocated a total of 10.7 million Yuan of anti-poverty funds and summarized the “Qinglong experience”, five operation models and four working mechanisms, providing valuable experience for the large-area extension in Guizhou Province. As of December 16, 2009, the 33 demonstration counties’ grassland animal husbandry projects completed artificial grass planting of 396,100 mu, accounting for 102.22% of the plan; built sheds of 584,800 square meters, accounting for 100.60% of the plan; purchased and released 325,900 ewes, accounting for 91.45% of the plan, purchased and released 11,500 rams, accounting for 103.22% of the plan, and purchased and released 3124 breeding cows, accounting for 69.42% of the plan.

　　【Social poverty alleviation】 The four cities that built partnership with Guizhou donated 142 million Yuan (52.27 million Yuan from Shenzhen, 58.26 million Yuan from Ningbo, 16.4 million Yuan from Qingdao and 15 million Yuan from Dalian) for the province. 23 units directly under the central government continued to support the fixed-point poverty alleviation, sent 31 people and invested in 29.4882 million Yuan (direct cash investment: 21.6032 million Yuan; introduced funds: 7.885 million Yuan) to implement 68 poverty alleviation projects. The members of the provincial standing committee and the vice governor continued to contact 19 key towns for poverty alleviation, the organs directly under the provincial government set up 51 working groups to carry out poverty alleviation through party building in 51 counties and nearly 10,000 organ cadres in the province went to the villages to support poverty alleviation.