Financial thrills from the blueberry hills

Hailing berries

So far, blueberry planting has helped 6,710 families out of poverty, with each family on average earning an additional 16,100 yuan per year, the local government said.

"In the past decade, the planting areas of blueberry in Guizhou have been continuously growing," said Wang Zhenyi, secretary of Majiang county committee. "Agricultural reform has driven the increase of cash crop cultivation."

Wang said the region is hoping to benefit from tourism related to blueberries via planting demonstrations and fruit picking, scenic tours, ecotourism and bed-and-breakfast stays.

Guizhou has a large concentration of impoverished families. As of last year, it had 2.8 million farmers in urgent need of poverty alleviation and another 20 million who would like to be better off.

The rural revitalization plan issued by the government last year aims to improve villages, ecology, the environment and the lives of farmers.

Besides blueberries, Guizhou has achieved remarkable growth in several other agricultural sectors, including tea, mushrooms and bamboo production.

The province plans to set up a poverty alleviation fund of 120 billion for green sectors. So far, nearly 28 billion yuan has been spent supporting related enterprises and farmers.