Agricultural facilities' upgrades bring prosperity to locals

Dongping county – located in Tai'an city in East China's Shandong province – continues to do well, in the wake of its moves in 2021 to undertake a thorough upgrade of its agricultural facilities and systems.

That's led its villagers well down the path to prosperity and now its agricultural sector is said to be flourishing.

In particular, Li Yuanhe, Party branch secretary of Mazhuang village – in the Dongping sub-district of Dongping county – helped initiate big moves to improve things.

With the support of Dongping sub-district, Li Yuanhe built 28 greenhouses that nurture and keep the plants warm in winter. Moreover, the greenhouses are run by intelligent operations, giving them a high production capacity.

Subsequently, another 340 winter-warm greenhouses and 2,360 large and medium-sized arched greenhouses emerged in Dongping sub-district, resulting in an average increase of over 3 million yuan ($418,365) in village collective income.

Apart from expanding the collective economy, Dongping sub-district also encourages villagers to acquire shares through land, funds and other means, making them benefit more from all the agricultural industry development.

"The move to building greenhouses is supported by the government and local cooperatives, so we will definitely make a steady profit," said Wu Shizhen, a villager in the sub-district.

Moreover, Dongping sub-district has established a special agricultural Party committee to provide one-stop services throughout the entire chain of greenhouse construction, agriculture planting, management, storage and sales.

The sub-district now so far attracted over 2,000 people to work in the greenhouse industry, who can each receive an average annual income of about 20,000 yuan. (Edited by Chen Chuxuan)

Resident Wu Shizhen picks melons at the greenhouse in Dajing village. [Photo by Zou Cong for chinadaily.com.cn]

Villagers in Dongping sub-district sort out melons. [Photo by Zou Cong for chinadaily.com.cn]