Leaders Guide and Share Wisdom: Ruitai's Poverty Alleviation Sets Clear Direction

In the practice of targeted poverty alleviation, grassroots exploration needs guidance from the top. In November 2014, Liu Yongfu, Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, and Zhao Yong, Deputy Secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, made a special trip to the predecessor of Chengde Ruitai - Xinglong County Ruitai Fruit and Vegetable Farming Cooperative, to preside over a field meeting on targeted poverty alleviation. This research and guidance session served both as an on-site review of the cooperative's previous poverty alleviation work and provided practical pathways for the hawthorn industry to help fight poverty.

◄ Director Liu Yongfu of the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office and Provincial Deputy Secretary Zhao Yong holding a targeted poverty alleviation field meeting at our cooperative in November 2014

In the core hawthorn planting area of the cooperative, Director Liu Yongfu and Deputy Secretary Zhao Yong walked into the fields, carefully examining the hawthorn fruit conditions and engaging in face-to-face discussions with cooperative leaders and representative farmers involved in cultivation. "How many impoverished households have joined the cooperative? How much more money can one acre of hawthorn earn compared to before?" "Is technical guidance keeping up? Is there guaranteed market access?" The leaders raised these questions that concerned the farmers. Upon learning that the cooperative had already attracted over a hundred farming households but some impoverished households still had concerns due to lack of cultivation experience and insufficient investment capacity, Director Liu emphasised, "The key to industrial poverty alleviation is connecting 'small farmers' to the 'big market,' and the cooperative must effectively help farmers resolve their concerns about technology and market access." Deputy Secretary Zhao added that they should leverage Xinglong's advantages as a hawthorn production base and implement poverty alleviation measures in specific cultivation and processing stages.

During the field meeting, the cooperative detailed its initial assistance approaches, including "contract farming" and "unified purchasing." Director Liu approved of the cooperative's commitment to a "guaranteed minimum purchase price" for fruits while offering specific improvement suggestions: "You can explore a model of 'land shareholding + labour income,' allowing impoverished households to earn both rent and wages." Deputy Secretary Zhao instructed local relevant departments to provide necessary support for the cooperative's technical training and infrastructure construction. After the meeting, the cooperative quickly sorted through the leaders' suggestions and optimised its assistance plan: addressing the technical shortcomings of impoverished households by joining with the county agricultural bureau to form a basic technical service team for regular rural training in pruning and fertilisation; addressing investment challenges by introducing flexible policies like "seedling credit + repayment after income" to lower participation barriers.

The leaders' on-site guidance made the cooperative's poverty alleviation approach clearer. With policy coordination and departmental support, the cooperative secured special poverty alleviation funds to upgrade irrigation facilities and build small sorting sheds, solving the problem of hawthorn spoilage after harvest. Old Li, an impoverished farmer participating in cultivation, said: "Previously, when growing hawthorn independently, we couldn't get good prices and worried about sales; after joining the cooperative, we have technical guidance and guaranteed purchase prices, which gives us peace of mind." This visible change is a vivid manifestation of the field meeting's results - the leaders' requirements transformed into specific measures benefiting every participating impoverished household.

This field meeting became a crucial turning point in the cooperative's development. Following the leaders' guidance to "build a solid industrial foundation," the cooperative gradually expanded its reach from the initial hundred-plus households to eventually involving over 1,400 impoverished households, accumulating over 5 million yuan in increased income for farmers through share returns and dividends. From simple cultivation cooperation, it gradually extended to processing operations, transforming hawthorn from "fresh fruit" to "products," further increasing the industry's added value.

Today, Chengde Ruitai, which has grown into a provincial-level poverty alleviation leading enterprise, continues to uphold the "practical poverty alleviation" concept advocated at the field meeting. The leaders' instructions in the hawthorn orchard that year have been transformed into the enterprise's operating principle of "developing together with farmers," making Xinglong hawthorn truly become a "prosperity fruit" that drives stable income increases for the masses.

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