For Villagers' Well-Being

Jiang Chi

Jiang Chi was elected Party branch secretary of Fuxiang Village, in Yanshan Town, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, in March 2000. 

At that time, 78 of the 137 households in the village owed the village a combined 870,000 yuan (US $124,285). With the support of the local Party committee and some villagers, Jiang persuaded those 78 households to pay off their debts within two years. 

As the land of the low-lying village is barren, Jiang suggested the villagers transform the dry fields into paddy fields. Now, the village has 267 hectares of paddy fields. By growing crops in those fields, the villagers can earn more than 2 million yuan (US $285,714), combined, annually. 

Jiang also encouraged the poverty-stricken villagers to grow sugar beets, after she learned that growing sugar beets was profitable. She used her own field as the trial base. 

Now, the planting area of sugar beets covers about 133 hectares. The poverty-stricken villagers' annual per capita income has increased by more than 3,000 yuan (US $429), simply by planting sugar beets.

After having coordinated with relevant county- and township-level government departments, Jiang has collected more than 10 million yuan (US $1.43 million) to establish 85 greenhouses, to plant and harvest rice, build paths in paddy fields and set up a workshop to accelerate germination of rice.

"To escape poverty in a real sense, we must establish a modernized, cooperative organization, and we must develop competitive industries," Jiang says. 

Under her guidance, the village in 2009 established an agricultural-machinery co-op, the first of its kind in the town. The village has purchased various agricultural machines, and the area of cultivated land under intensive management is now 1,053 hectares.

Jiang is a warm-hearted woman who always cares for others. She has donated about 20,000 yuan (US $2,857) to needy villagers, and she has helped 13 impoverished university students obtain guaranteed loans, worth a combined 160,000 yuan (US $22,857).

Thanks to the joint efforts of Jiang, her colleagues and villagers, the once-impoverished village has been transformed into a prosperous village, with an annual per capita income of 18,900 yuan (US $2,700).

Jiang has been honored as a national model worker, the most beautiful village cadre and the March 8th Red-banner Holder in Heilongjiang Province for her contributions to the village. 

"In order to make the village more beautiful, I don't care about all the hardships or troubles," she says.

Photo supplied by Fan Wenjun

(Women of China English Monthly March 2020 issue)