Goat farming is helping Zhongyang village in Hai'an to become more prosperous and to emerge from poverty. [Photo/ntjoy.com]

Dagong town – located in the county-level city of Hai'an in Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province – has really taken off with the development of its specialist horticultural and animal husbandry sectors in recent years.

Armed with the concept of "one village, one specialty", the villages in Dagong town have moved to develop specialist industries such as silkworm breeding, fruit growing and goat farming, to create a better life for locals, according to Jin Shancun, the town's Party secretary.

One of them, Qunyi village, has become a national model for silkworm breeding. The area given over to mulberry fields – mulberries are the primary food source of silkworms – now covers some 166 hectares, accounting for about half of the village's total cultivated area. There are 562 households engaged in silkworm breeding and mulberry growing, accounting for 48 percent of the total households.

Li Yuanjun, Party branch secretary of Qunyi village, said that the village had cooperated with the Hai'an-based Xinyuan Group to build a modern sericulture – or silkworm breeding – farm which had had a major impact on its economic development.

The village was also negotiating with a medical company on interplanting medicinal materials in the mulberry plantations to increase the incomes of farmers, Li added.

Another, Yuba village, has in recent years developed a thriving pear producing industry. The cultivation area in the village has now reached 133 ha and Yuba has held pear blossom festivals on 11 occasions.

Its growers have applied for a geographical indication trademark and are currently applying for geographical indication product status for the Hai'an Cui Li – or Hai'an crispy pear brand. Geographical Indication protection or GI is a protection system – backed by the World Trade Organization – from copying or forging. It is granted by a country or trading block for special products from another country and employs a distinctive label that is used on premium products.

Elsewhere, goat farming is helping locals in Zhongyang village to become more prosperous and emerge from poverty. In 2016, Nantong Dapeng Goat Industry Co Ltd delivered goats to 13 registered poor households there and bought its lambs at a high price, to help the registered poor out of poverty.