Rapid improvements

The rapid improvements in Bulenggou highlight the nationwide resolve to end extreme poverty－defined as living with less than 2,300 yuan in annual income－by the end of this year. Eight years ago, the per capita net income of Bulenggou farmers was recorded at 1,624 yuan, significantly lower than the provincial average, while poverty rates hit up to 96 percent.

By the end of 2018, the per capita disposable income of villagers reached 6,815 yuan, more than four times the figure in 2012.

Dongxiang itself is one of the 23 counties in Gansu which has experienced severe poverty. It has a population of more than 310,000 distributed across 1,510 square kilometers. Impoverished Dongxiang residents numbered 109,100 at the end of 2013. That figure dropped to 12,800 by the end of 2019, with 114 villages shedding their poverty label and the county's rural residents achieving a per capita disposable income of 5,906 yuan, according to local government figures.

Pillar industries marked out to further tap water-supply projects and fuel "high-efficiency" agricultural development zones include cattle and sheep breeding facilities, Chinese medicinal plant sites, and forestry and fruit farming belts, with township tourism demonstration hubs helping to complement the economic growth. Animal husbandry drives cover 1.68 million sheep, adding more than 1,100 yuan to the income of every poverty-hit household.

Bulenggou villager Ma Jianying, 47, has been heading a sheep breeding cooperative for the past five years. With the help of government loans, grants and subsidies, his 500-square-meter facility can hold more than 300 sheep that help rake in over 200,000 yuan a year.

It is a vast improvement from his life before the anti-poverty measures, when his five-member household had to subsist on corn and potatoes grown on a 0.27-hectare plot.

"Our sheep, famous for their quality meat, are a major part of our lives here," Ma said. "Together with the roads, logistics networks and other improved infrastructure, they have now given us a firm way to move ahead."

Similarly, potato production forms a large part of the county's agriculture push, involving more than 20 million yuan of investment and covering 18,667 hectares of cropland and processing plants along the Tao River economic belt.

Dongxiang's medicinal honeysuckle industrial chain projects included 247 hectares of trial planting sites last year. A 0.67-hectare plot reaps about 150 kg of the flowers; at 24 yuan per kg, average profit per plot can exceed 3,000 yuan. Another 35 million yuan will be invested this year to promote the crop covering 667 hectares in 13 townships, according to local poverty alleviation plans.

The county is also banking on emerging and new industries to further improve the livelihoods of its residents. During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), Dongxiang invested 620 million yuan to implement photovoltaic projects generating more than 101 megawatts of power, build 35 village-level photovoltaic power stations, and power more than 100 poverty-hit villages.

The projects are expected to help generate more than 113 million yuan in income, boosting household incomes by at least 3,000 yuan and helping to sustain related wages spanning two decades.

Similar projects are being carried out in nascent sectors ranging from e-commerce to tourism.