The grape harvest season this year was a hard time for Teng Zhifei, a 28-year-old grape grower in east China's Anhui Province. Teng,
a farmer in Gaoguan village in Hexian County, suffered losses as
incessant rains earlier this summer had damaged his grapevines and
slashed the grape yields. Teng's
family was listed among poverty-stricken families in 2014. Teng returned
from the southern metropolis of Shenzhen to his hometown to take care
of his parents in 2017 and the family shook off poverty after taking up
grape plantation that year. The family faced the risks of returning to poverty this year, but a local non-profit e-commerce platform helped Teng out. "I
used to sell grapes in the countryside. This year, I started selling on
an e-commerce platform. The prices are higher and I can sell more
quickly," said Teng. He has earned over 10,000 yuan (about 1,445 U.S.
dollars) by selling 1,700 kg of grapes on the platform, which helped to
boost his confidence. Zhu Ping, head
of the local e-commerce platform, said the platform helps place orders
for farm produce from local poverty-stricken households. "Through
concerted efforts, we believe that they can finally get over the
disaster." Local authorities have
dispatched officials to visit all poverty-stricken households to assess
their losses from the rain-triggered disasters, said Li Ancheng, head of
the county's poverty alleviation office. Authorities
have offered free crop and vegetable seedlings to poor families, and
helped 278 households tackle problems in their businesses, said Li. Anhui
was affected by severe floods this summer. In order to prevent
residents from slipping back into poverty due to the floods, the
provincial government has rolled out a spate of policies in terms of
industry development, employment and consumption to cushion the impact
of the floods and lift all remaining poor households out of poverty by
the end of 2020. The number of rural
poor people under China's current poverty line dropped from 98.99
million at the end of 2012 to 5.51 million by the end of 2019. The
government has vowed to eradicate absolute poverty by the end of this
year. After the floodwaters receded
in a flood diversion zone in Anhui's Funan County, local agricultural
authorities have handed seeds and vegetable seedlings to farmers for
free and provided them with farming technology guidance to help mitigate
economic losses. In Changlinhe Township in the provincial capital of Hefei, 14 residents of Luojiatuan village are listed as poverty-stricken. The
local government hands out a monthly living allowance of 724 yuan to
each of the 14 poor people and the allowance keeps rising each year,
said Chen Zhen, a township government official. The township has sent workers to check houses of the poor and make timely repairs if there are any safety risks, Chen said. "We
have also created public service jobs and helped flood-affected
residents file insurance claims and apply for disaster-relief funds to
prevent them from slipping back into poverty," said Chen. Enditem
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