Individuals Awarded for Contributions in Promoting Rural Economy

The selection campaign for awarding exceptional individuals who made outstanding contributions to the development of China's rural economy and agriculture in the year 2014 came to a conclusion with 21 individuals awarded at the awards ceremony, held on February 7, 2015 in Huaxi Village — in Jiangyin, a city in east China's Jiangsu Province — which is renowned as one of the richest villages in China.

Each year, different titles have been awarded to the exceptional individuals who have played significant roles in the development of the sannong (the "three rural issues": economy, agriculture, and farmers). And this year, 21 individuals have been selected and awarded for their innovative undertakings, excellent entrepreneurship or outstanding work in public charity in 2014.

Among the 21 individuals, there are two female winners respectively named Hu Xiaoyun and Yasidraga who are particularly notable. Hu, director of the China Agricultural Products Brand Research Center of Zhejiang University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), won an award for her excellent research work on promoting China's agricultural-product brands. Yasidraga, a female entrepreneur from Naidong County in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region and specializing in comestible products for farming, won an award for her great contributions to charitable causes.

The annual selection campaign, which was first launched in 1994 by the newspaper 'Farmers' Daily' and other mainstream media outlets in Beijing, is aimed at publicizing individuals who have made outstanding contributions in promoting the development of the sannong  and for creating an environment that supports the development of the sannong.

 The initiative has been featured as a social charity campaign to address the great demand for the development of the sannong in China, a demand that has also been addressed by the annual first policy document issued by China's State Council for the 12-year period of 2004 to 2015, all themed on promoting of the development of the sannong. These undertakings have greatly highlighted the fundamental status of rural economy and agriculture in China's overall economic framework.

 (Source: cnwomen.com.cn/Translated and edited by Women of China)