For more than 30 years, Lan Nianying, a Party official from the hinterlands of southeast China, has been battling unfavorable farming conditions.

As a deputy to the National People's Congress, she has been seeking a path at the annual session that could improve the lives of the 100 or so families in her village.

Lan, 57, the Party chief of Xinyue in Zixi county, Jiangxi province, is one of the country's lowest-level officials. On March 6, she met the top Party official, President Xi Jinping, and was thrilled to learn that plans to boost environmental protection will create opportunities for farmers in her village.

The measures will involve planting large numbers of trees, and the villagers will be able to benefit from the greatly increased demand by cultivating tree seedlings as their primary means of making a living.

The land on which Xinyue stands is stubbornly resistant to the growing of crops. The farmland is separated into uneven terraced plots that create backbreaking challenges for farmers and make it difficult for them to use even rudimentary technology such as tractors to ease their workload.

Many years ago, Lan came up with a possible solution: The farmers should switch from crops that yield low financial returns to ones with high added value.

This, she reasoned, would reduce the burden of intensive labor. In addition, the farmers' lives would become much simpler if they did not have to worry about selling their crops individually.

Lan began planting different kinds of seeds on her farmland in the 1990s, and her crops were bought by a nearby market for good prices. In 2000, she signed contracts with the villagers that meant she would supply seeds for them to plant, and she would then take care of selling the crops.

A year later she announced to the villagers, who are members of the She ethnic group, that their crops had brought in 870,000 yuan ($139,000) at market. Within seven years, villagers were each earning 5,000 yuan a year - a sevenfold increase from 1995.

In 2008, Lan was elected to the NPC. She is one of only a few deputies from the She ethnic group, which numbered 709,000 in 2010, according to the national census.

The cares of Lan's village 1,600 km away have never been far from her thoughts during the session. She has been in constant phone contact with villagers to dispense advice on farming matters.

Such matters were at the forefront of her mind when she had a chance to meet and talk to Xi during a panel discussion in the Great Hall of the People.

"I was thrilled when he called for better environmental protection in my province," Lan said. "I believe the policies on this issue will be adopted soon, and this will point the way forward for the 510 people in the village for whom farming is the primary livelihood."

That total has fallen, partly as a result of an exodus from the village after a disastrous flood in 2011. For many, this was the final straw as they struggled to make a living, and they left to find work in towns.

Lan said that she, too, had opportunities to abandon the land in favor of employment in urban areas, but she remains committed to life on the farm.

After reading the Government Work Report delivered at the opening session of the NPC, she is convinced that the seedlings industry is just beginning to develop.

"As the government takes tougher measures to improve the natural environment in Jiangxi, it is clear to me that in the next few years there is going to be huge demand for seedlings," she said.

"Since the talk of such measures began, I have received several phone calls a day from people from my village. Some have said they want to return to the village and help to maintain the traditions of the She ethnic group."

zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn