Barren lands turned into thriving tea plantation

Zhai Chaofu is a migrant worker from Zhoujiaqiao village, Qingzhen city, Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province. He returned home in 2014 only to find that most of their peers had left, leaving behind a community of older adults. The annual income of the villagers was meager, and the land lay barren.

Eager to change the inhospitality of the village, he and other migrant workers determined to start a new business. They formed a rural cooperative focusing on the planting of high-mountain white tea.

"The government has supported our business, and helped us solve capital issues.  In addition, technicians were assigned to offer us planting skills. In my view, planting tea is much more profitable than growing corn," Zhai said.

Guiyang features a karst landform with many mountains and few farmlands. The Guiyang afforestation engineering service center guided people in the village to adjust their agricultural structure and make full use of slopes.

Since 2015, Guiyang has successfully implemented the reforestation of over 1.4 hectares of land, benefiting more than 32,000 households and approximately 140,000 farmers. This initiative has cultivated 167,800 acres of economic forests, harmonizing ecological, economic, and social benefits.