Liu Zhipeng: Proud to Join Poverty Alleviation

Liu Zhipeng who works for the Hainan subsidiary of China South Power Grid (CSG) was sent to support poverty alleviation in Guangcun village of Baisha Li autonomous county in South China's Hainan province more than a year ago, specifically on Feb 25, 2019.

"I'm proud to have a chance to contribute to the grassroots work," Liu said to his friends circle on WeChat, a widely used communication mobile application in China.

A Doctor of Engineering, Liu was born in the 1980s and graduated from South China University of Technology. He went on to further study in the United States. Given his background, people find it surprising that he applied to work in a village.

He explained that he would like to contribute to China's rural revitalization.

Pandemic prevention, top work in early 2020

Facing the COVID-19 outbreak, Liu returned to the village on Jan 26, the third day of the Chinese New Year, to help with pandemic prevention and control.

Liu said, "When the pandemic had just broken out, the villagers didn't believe it could be that serious. They often gathered together, chatting and playing chess. It's still hard to persuade them to stay at home."

Therefore, Liu found himself a loudspeaker and shouted "No dropping-around, no new year visits and no parties" repeatedly right into the villagers' ears.

Unable to bear the noisy sound, the villagers went back home and shut their doors.

Later, they said they understood that Liu's words were good for them.

"The anti-pandemic work is very hard to carry on in a village and calls for patience and care. Liu has all the characteristics," said Liu Jianrong, a village head.

Liu Zhipeng gives out masks at the village entrance. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Liu gives out information about pandemic prevention and control to the villagers. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Poverty alleviation never stops

Fortunately, the pillar industries in Guangcun are rubber, sugar-cane and passion fruit, in which were all harvested by January. The pandemic's impact on the village's economy has been quite limited.

To ensure this year's poverty alleviation target is not impacted by the pandemic, Liu summarized developments in the farming and breeding industries and participated in spring farming with the locals.

Liu helps a villager harvest sugarcane. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Promoting local industries

Guangcun is an extremely poor village with nearly half of its households listed as poverty-stricken.

Villagers were struggling to develop some industries but often failed for a variety of reasons. Wei Weidong was among those failing.

He used to plant rubber trees and breed chickens. However, just before rubber harvest the rubber price plunged and when 2,000 chickens were to be sold bird flu broke out.

Later, Wei learned grafting skills and started to plant oranges and cultivated jack fruit seedlings. Liu was inspired by Wei's stories.

To encourage more villagers to join in local industry development, Liu made a three-step plan: constructing a five-kilometer road to improve connectivity between the village and the outside, building seven reservoirs to relieve a plant water shortages and inviting experts to promote agricultural technologies. He hoped also to convince rural credit cooperatives to offer interest-free loans to poverty-stricken families.

Now, oranges are another star product of the village and are sold both online and offline. Picking-activities are also held each year when the oranges are mature.

In addition to oranges, Liu initiated a passion fruit planting project and helped villagers master the planting skills. The fruit has also become a source of income for the village.

According to Liu, the village has sold 1,833.5 kilograms of passion fruit valued at about 40,660 yuan ($5,754.24) and 415 kilograms of oranges valued at 10,370 yuan.

Liu examines passion fruits as they grow. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Pushing forward infrastructure construction

Liu majored in electrical power system and electrification and was responsible for adjustment of grid protection facilities, stable and safe operation control studies, generator unit parameter modeling and generation and transformation device management.

He took advantage of his major to push forward construction of power infrastructure in the village.

Coordinating with CSG's office in Baisha, Liu helped some poverty-stricken households to renovate their dilapidated houses and remove the poles. He also repaired four lighting lines and installed a low-voltage switch which eliminated hidden electric risks.

As a typical engineering talent, Liu has a thinking pattern of discovering, analyzing and solving problems. He often visited families in the village, learning about their demands and difficulties and making suggestions. All the records were included in the 2019 report of his work in Guangcun village.

He said that he hoped that Guangcun's passion fruit industry will grow stronger and Baisha county will escape poverty in 2020.

(Executive editor: Zhang Tianyuan)