Photo shows the aerial view of Gerze County, Ngari Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. [China Tibet News/Losang Tenzin]

Gerze County, Ngari Prefecture of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, has combined rural revitalization with poverty alleviation in recent years. A poverty elimination method of pursuing rural industrial development by pastoral areas' reform has come into being, which enhances rural civilization, motives poor people to get rid of poverty and increases their income.

Qianggu Village of Gerze County piloted the reform of pastoral areas in 2015. To standardize small cooperatives, boost profits, reduce product costs and increase income, it established a farmers and herdsmen's cooperative by unifying local individual cooperatives. 256 people from 71 households in the village became its members. With complete fundamental norms that identify the organization form and members' responsibilities and rights, it has strengthened personnel cultivation and improved its management.

Under the guidance of local government, villagers who are willing to join the cooperative will be selected through village meeting and discussions among members of the village's "two committees". The cooperative adopts an operational mode of "unified management in six fields" (unified management in labor force, grasslands, sales of husbandry products, revenue, assistance for people without working capability or the elder who live alone, and recording scores for those in schools). The livestock production has been transformed from a traditional way of extensive growth to a scientific intensification way of large-scale growth.

As for the improvement of financial service in pastoral areas, Gerze County has endeavored to rise loan amount for cooperatives by actively discussing with financial departments. Qianggu Village established a sand washing plant with the subsidies of 300,000 yuan RMB for grassland ecological conservation. 800,000 yuan RMB were invested in the marketing of Shangshung semi-wool lambs. Now, number of this kind of sheep has reached 1,016.

Thanks to a series of poverty alleviation measures combined with pastoral areas' reform, now, the per capita disposable income of villagers in Qianggu Village has amounted to 15,547 yuan RMB, realizing a year-on-year increase of 15.4%. With the expanding scale of village's cooperative, the number of yaks raised in local breeding base has grown from 74 in 2012 to 341. The number of Shangshung semi-wool lambs has increased from 403 to 1,016. The circulating capital of village's cooperative store has risen from 150,000 yuan RMB in 2014 to 500,000 yuan RMB. The area of artificial grassland has increased from 130,000 ㎡ to over 660,000 ㎡.

86 surplus rural workforces have been transferred from husbandry production field to construction and service sectors. A breakthrough has been made in a more diversified income channel. Annual income of the transfer of labor force has reached 1.28 million yuan RMB. The implementation of distribution according to one's performance has motivated more farmers and herdsmen to take part in working and enhanced their sense of generating profits. A harmonious landscape featuring equality and mutual benefits has formed. The annual dividend of each household taking part in the work of village's cooperative is 59,856 yuan RMB.

With the mode of "unified management in six fields", each of 21 aged people gets an annual dividend of 6,088 yuan RMB. Among 66 students, everyone gets an annual dividend of 1,600 yuan RMB, realizing villagers' access to education and elderly care. The implementation of grassland transfer has achieved win-win results. Through grassland transfer and the identification in grassland preservation, spare grasslands are effectively used, which greatly enhances the efficiency of livestock production and achieves income growth. Each household gets an annual dividend of 3,196 yuan RMB. With stable income growth, local herdsmen have been lifted out of poverty.