BEIJING, March 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For grape growing expert Xie Fuxin, one of the things in his life he is most proud of is seeing grape growers in Nanping City, southeast China's Fujian Province, shaking off poverty and earning more and more income after planting the grapes he spreads.

Born in 1943, Xie has devoted all his career life to promoting grape growing techniques and varieties in villages in Nanping City, and he continued to do so for 12 years after retirement.

As one of the 225 sci-tech experts sent to 215 villages to popularize agricultural science and technology in Nanping in 1999, Xie used to ride a bicycle to grape greenhouses in the countryside of Nanping to offer technical instruction.

In 2002, Xi Jinping, then governor of Fujian Province, appreciated the measure of Nanping in an article, saying it was a useful exploration in innovating rural work.

During a talk with Xie in 2002, Xi knew that one mu (around 0.07 hectare) of grapes has an output value of 7,000 yuan (around $1,014) and told Xie to encourage more villagers to grow grapes.

Nowadays, there are more than 70,000 mu  of grapes in mountain areas in Nanping, said Xie, adding that the grape industry earned an annual output value of more than 600 million yuan, greatly increasing locals' income after shaking off poverty.

The development in Nanping represents China's achievements in poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in recent years.

Targeted poverty alleviation

President Xi put forward the concept of "targeted poverty alleviation" during an inspection tour to central China's Hunan Province in November 2013.

Tailored industrial development, relocation and ecological compensation are among the targeted measures adopted in eradicating poverty.

Since then, 98.99 million impoverished rural residents living under the poverty line have been lifted out of poverty, and all the 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 impoverished villages have been removed from the poverty list, said Xi at a national commendation conference held in Beijing on February 25, 2021.

As the country has eliminated absolute poverty, consolidating  the achievements  in  poverty  alleviation and  rural revitalization have  become two  of the priorities for the country in realizing the modernization of common prosperity.

Rural revitalization in full swing

Noting that the most challenging and arduous tasks China faces in building a modern socialist country in all respects remain in the rural areas, Xi, while delivering the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) last October, vowed to make more efforts to advance rural revitalization across the board.

Rural revitalization also matters much at this year's Two Sessions – the most important event on China's political calendar.

China aims to stabilize grain output and advance rural revitalization this year, according to the 2023 government work report, which was submitted to the national legislature for deliberation on March 5.

The country plans to keep total grain acreage at a stable level and launch a new drive to increase grain production capacity by 50 million tonnes, the report said, and will also invigorate the seed industry and support the development of agricultural science, technology and equipment.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-03-11/China-strives-for-better-rural-living-in-its-modernization-drive--1i5p7ULP2Te/index.html

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