Rain brings sunshine to village in Southwest China

You Chengying, a resident of Tangyue, transferred 1.2 hectares of land to the Golden Land Cooperative owned by the village at the end of 2015. She received about 11,510 yuan ($1,816) as a shareholder last year, she says.

Agricultural production has helped the development of related industries. A cold storage facility and a transport team were set up for sorting and packing vegetables and selling them in markets outside the village.

"More jobs are available now and many villagers who worked in cities are returning to the village. My son and even my elderly mother have found jobs," You says, adding that her family of four now has an annual income of 100,000 yuan.

Data shows that with the help of reform, the average annual income of villagers increased from less than 4,000 yuan in 2013 to 14,685 yuan in 2017.

The rapid increase in income is not the only change in the village.

A series of activities, including free health checks and distributing Spring Festival couplets, were held at the Tangyue Cultural Square ahead of Chinese New Year this year.

Huang Guoyuan, a teacher of Honghu Senior School near the village, came to write couplets for the residents along with nine other calligraphy amateurs. He says every year the Anshun Calligrapher Association sends its members to different villages in the area during Spring Festival.

He says he is surprised to see many young people returning to the village these days.

"I wrote 50 couplets for the villagers in two hours," Huang says.

As to the future development, the village officials are aiming even higher.

"By 2020, Tangyue's agricultural output value will increase from 5 million yuan to 20 million yuan and the per capita net income of the villagers will reach 20,000 yuan," Zuo says.

Agricultural development will also get a new look as the villagers plan to set up a system using automatic intelligence for watering and fertilization through big data, says Tang Congfu, the head of the Golden Land Cooperative.

"We are also building an e-commerce platform to increase sales channels for our agricultural products," Zuo says.