-Three Belts- in Dong’an, Hunan Unlock the Code to Strengthen Villages and Enrich People

Upon entering the processing workshop of the Haoyouduo Food Company in Tongzishan Village, Baijia City, Dong’an County, Hunan Province, one can see boxes of freshly cooked and sealed Dong’an chicken pre-made dishes being loaded for distribution across the country.

“We leverage our company, village-level cooperatives, and local farmers’ resources and advantages to seize the new opportunities in the pre-made dish industry. We’ve identified Dong’an chicken as our village’s primary industry,” explains Li Guosheng, the Party Secretary of Tongzishan Village.

Inside the processing workshop, chefs are busy preparing Dong’an chicken. Since 2016, the village collective economy has grown from less than 10,000 yuan to over 200,000 yuan by 2024, continuously creating job opportunities for around 100 workers. Tongzishan Village serves as a model for the transformation of collective economies among Dong’an County’s 344 villages and communities. This success can be attributed to a threefold approach: organizational leadership, guidance from the Party Secretary, and initiatives led by Party members.

The “One Village, One Strategy” approach fosters unique and diverse products for each village. Qunli Village, a poverty alleviation success story, has actively planned for the garlic and vegetable industries. By adopting a model of “Party branch + cooperative + farmers,” they have effectively organized the community around production and development.

Qunli Village has turned its former village activity center into a vegetable pickling processing plant, purchasing equipment and introducing technology to transform purple garlic, chili peppers, and green beans into uniquely flavored pickled products. These are packaged and sold through e-commerce channels to major cities.

“This year’s market is booming; we’ve already sold all 3,000 pounds of purple garlic to buyers,” says Tang Xianwei, the village’s first secretary assigned to enhance local development. After the garlic harvest, they will continue to plant vegetables, maximizing land use and providing employment opportunities to villagers to boost their incomes.

The Qunli Village vegetable planting cooperative oversees the entire process from planting to harvesting and further on to processing and sales. They are actively extending the purple garlic industry chain, encouraging farmers to engage during off-seasons with management and packaging tasks, thereby creating 50 job positions and increasing the village’s collective income by 80,000 yuan.

In Xinhua Village’s navel orange planting base, Jiang Pingxiang is helping villagers with water and fertilizer management and pest control. As the Party Secretary of Xinhua Village, Jiang previously ran a business before returning to her hometown to start a new venture, managing 600 acres for navel orange cultivation.

“One person’s wealth isn’t complete unless everyone benefits,” Jiang states. After being elected Party Secretary in 2021, she seized the opportunity to develop agriculture, leading the entire village toward collective prosperity. She encourages villagers to invest their land as shares in the cooperative, which oversees the navel orange planting, management, and sales, therefore strengthening the village’s collective economy and increasing villagers’ incomes.

Under Jiang’s leadership, Xinhua Village has seen a dynamic growth in its collective economy, with the cooperative generating over 6 million yuan in annual sales. The green industry chain has provided 150 employment opportunities and added over 60,000 yuan to the village’s income.

In recent years, Dong’an County has been actively implementing the “Party Building to Strengthen Villages and Enrich People” initiative, encouraging village cadres and Party members to lead the establishment of more than 400 new types of cooperative farming entities and family farms. Over 12,000 farmers have received land transfer payments and dividends totaling more than 3.1 million yuan, while 315 villages have increased collective income by 1.26 million yuan through service fees.