Agricultural Entrepreneur Dedicated to Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Xu Yongmei

Xu Yongmei got involved in agriculture by accident. In 1999, one of her husband's former classmates passed away. The classmate had operated a fruit garden, which covered 3.33 hectares, in Lingao, an impoverished county in South China's Hainan Province. To help the classmate's family, Xu and her husband took over the fruit garden. Prior to that, the couple operated a foreign-trade business.

In 2001, Xu established Hainan Tiandiren Ecological Agriculture Co. Ltd. Now, the plantation area is 1,667 hectares.

As the leading company in agricultural industrialization in the province, the company participates in poverty-alleviation efforts in four towns in Lingao County. "I want to do something good for local villagers, and to help them solve problems in their lives," Xu says.

Xu's company has built roads and bridges, drilled wells, built water-supply towers and constructed 12 primary school classrooms. It has also employed impoverished villagers and sponsored more than 50 university students from poverty-stricken families.

In December 2016, the company invested more than 20 million yuan (US $2.85 million) to help villagers in Duoxian Village plant pomelos and pineapples. The village — all of the residents — escaped poverty within two years.

Xu has developed three modes of targeted poverty alleviation. The first mode involves the company signing contracts with impoverished families, and each family receiving an investment of 6,000 yuan (US $857). The term of cooperation is 15 years. The annual fixed income is given to each family at the rate of 12 percent.

The second mode involves the "pooling of land as shares plus dividend." Says Xu: "After the impoverished villagers become our shareholders, by pooling land as shares, they will receive an annual dividend of 8 percent of the company's output value." By the end of 2018, the villagers had received a combined dividend in excess of 16.45 million yuan (US $2.35 million).

The third mode involves organizing free training for villagers. To date, the company has invested more than 1.6 million yuan (US $228,571), which has funded 231 training classes. The classes have benefited more than 50,000 people, including 7,895 from poverty-stricken families.

By the end of 2018, Xu's company had helped lift 3,801 people, from 858 households, out of poverty. Xu has never stopped helping people in need. She says her goal is to lead all of her employees in helping all local households escape poverty. 

Photo supplied by Fan Wenjun

(Women of China English Monthly March 2020 issue)