Greenhouse chili peppers boost poverty relief

Chili peppers grown in greenhouses provide a better way for Shen Anyi, 57, a villager in Wuxi village under Nanchang city's Anyi county in East China's Jiangxi province, to feed his family.

Before he starting planting for a local agriculture company that runs a chili pepper business, Shen earned roughly 7,000 yuan ($1,109) each year by farming his own land.

"Now my annual income exceeds 30,000 yuan, a figure I could not even imagine in the past," Shen said.

The harvested chili peppers are shipped to agricultural wholesale markets in the nearby major cities of Nanchang and Jiujiang.

Gong Desheng, board chairman of the company, said there are two harvest seasons each year for chili peppers at the company's base, and the daily output during harvest ranges from 10 to 20 tons.

Now that there is constant production throughout the entire year, the efficiency of land use has increased by 10 times, Gong said.

"Now the market demand is very steady… and the annual output here is valued at about 30 million yuan," Gong added.