Hai'an, a county-level city in Nantong, has been boosting the development of family farms and helping local low-income households work with farms to shed poverty in recent years.

In 2017, Xu Hui, a resident of Ailing village in Hai'an, set up a family farm for rice and wheat cultivation, covering 680 mu (45.3 hectares) of land transferred from locals. Several villagers now work at the farm and receive up to 10,000 yuan ($1,414) per year.

There are five such family farms in Ailing village, and they employ low income people to help them escape poverty. A total of 22 poverty-stricken households in the village have experienced an improvement in their quality of life with the help of the farms.

"Poor villagers can earn a stable income and are encouraged to pursue a better life at the family farms," said Zang Zhong, director of Hai'an's bureau of agriculture and rural affairs. "Also, they can improve their planting and cultivation skills at the farms."

This year, Hai'an put forward a three-year plan focusing on sericulture which aims to increase its mulberry plantation area to more than 20,000 mu and add over 200 family farms specializing in sericulture.

By the end of 2019, all 14,171 registered low-income villagers in Hai'an had cast off poverty, and all 13 poor villages have had earned over 450,000 yuan each in operational income.

Villagers work in the fields in Hai'an, Nantong. [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]