"The villagers of Dazhai can drink healthy water from now on." Recently, Yang Fan, a young teacher from the College of Economics and Management (CoME) of Tianjin University (TJU) and the head secretary of Dazhai Village, Tanchang County, Longnan City, Gansu Province, excitedly told the reporter that just in this week, the drinking water in the new water supply room of Dazhai Village had obtained the test results and reached the drinking standard. The villagers no longer need to buy the tap water from the neighboring village.
Dazhai Village is located in Tanchang County, which used to be a state-level deep poverty county and one of the most difficult "hard bones" for poverty alleviation in Longnan City. Due to the special terrain and the constraints of natural conditions in mountainous areas, source water quality is prone to turbidity and microbial growth of bacteria and other problems, which bring challenges to the safety of rural drinking water quality.
Yang Fan introduced that, in order to solve the problem of water stoppage due to substandard water quality during the flood season for nearly 100,000 people in the urban area of Tanchang County, water purification experts from the School of Environmental Science & Engineering of TJU developed the "Zhenxing"water purification system in cooperation with the County Water Bureau. The first set of water purification system, "Zhenxing No. 1", was officially put into use in Dazhai Village in November 2022, which has solved the problem of substandard water quality in local water sources, such as turbidity, chromaticity, excessive E. coli andtotal bacterial count, with remarkable effect of water quality improvement. In the future,water purification systemswill be gradually installed in all villages in the county, so that more villagers have chance to drink high-quality drinking water like the people in Dazhai Village, which means the villagers' drinking water safety can be guaranteed.
Dazhai Village was once a key poverty-stricken village, in short of "people, land and resources". Under the leadership of the first two head secretaries of TJU, it was completely out of poverty in November 2020. In the past two years, thanks to the leadership of Yang Fan and the joint efforts of the villagers, the industry of Dazhai Village has realized the strategic transformation of product diversification with core brand positioning. The product market has been broadened, the industry has been optimized and upgraded, and the most important thing is that the village collective income has increased.
Professor Zhang Hui-ying from the CoME of Tianjin University investigated the industry of Dazhai Village. Photo provided byTianjin University.
It’s introduced that, the poverty alleviation workshop of TJU has been running until November this year, and the total sales income of the cooperative has exceeded 2.72 million yuan. The village collective accumulated dividends reached 144,000 yuan, the dividends of the shareholding farmers were 273,000 yuan, and the average household dividend was more than 1,900 yuan.
In October this year, the industrial development case of TJU in Dazhai Village was selected as the "typical case of social assistance helping to consolidate and expand poverty alleviation achievements and effectively linking rural revitalization" by the National Rural Revitalization Administration. It is known that there are 36 work cases selected nationwide, including 18 cases of designated assistance from central units, and only 3 cases from national universities.
Before Yang Fan came to Dazhai village, the first two head secretaries of TJU developed the fine dried noodles industry in Dazhai Village. From manual workshops to modern production lines, through employment and dividend sharing, the villagers have increased their income and become rich. Yang Fan found that Dazhai Village Collective Cooperative, as the main body offine dried noodles industry operation, needed continuous improvement in terms of management level, added value of products, and branded operation as the market changed and the industry iterated.
On the basis of foundation laid by the predecessors, Yang Fan made up his mind to lead the whole village on the road to happiness.
Yang Fan turned his eyes to the CoME of TJU, and began his journey to get the experience. He consulted experts on corporate management, marketing and other aspects of expertise to improve the management level of the collective cooperative. Later, in order to better promote the brand and enhance the competitiveness of products, Yang Fan investigated enterprises or places with prosperous and distinctive industries, such as "Longnan E-commerce Business Card" Longxiaonan Company in Chengxian County, and "China's Peppercorn Capital" Hancheng, Shaanxi Province, to learn how to tap the value selling points of different agricultural products, integrate farmers' resources, and use the Internet to sell. He has always been thinking about how to help farmers increase production and income and successfully shape the brand image.
Focusing on "high-quality products" and "modern management", Yang Fan has initiated a series of reforms. Yang Fan contacted the teachers and students of the industrial design major of theSchool of Mechanical Engineering of TJU to design the packaging of Chinese peppercorn, which has upgraded the brand image of Tanchang's high-quality "Chinese geographical indication product". Yang Fan also learned from the experts of the CoME of TJU to reform the management system of the cooperative with reference to the modern enterprise management system, so that the poverty alleviation workshop of TJU can become a sustainable industry for the development of Dazhai Village, and Dazhai Village cooperative can maintain and enhance their vitality through internal adjustment.
In addition to making villagers become well-off and live a good life, Yang Fan also contactedSchool of Mechanical Engineeringand College of Intelligence and Computing and other schools in TJU to create wall paintings with the theme of rural revitalization, dressing up the village. Also, cooperated with School of Architecture to plan and build village squares and small parks to promote rural civilization.In the past two years, Yang Fan wanted to "move" all the colleges of TJU into the village to empower the development of Dazhai village.
"With the support of Tianjin University's“Lighting Project”, more than 40 solar street lamps were purchased and installed, illuminating the way for villagers to go home at night. The Haitang Square, built with 750,000 yuan invested by TJU, was officially completed in Dazhai Village, providing a good place for villagers to have leisure and entertainment" As Yang Fan introduced, there are still many good events in Dazhai Village.
In the two years that Yang Fan has devoted himself to rural revitalization in Dazhai Village, such big or small events that quietly changed Dazhai Village often happened. Dazhai Village, a "livable demonstration village", has become a "Exemplary form " in the eyes of the farmers in the neighboring villages.
"I hope that time will pass more slowly. There are still many things I want to do here that I haven't had time to do yet. I want to create more possibilities. I hope that Dazhai Village can be built into a demonstration village of 'rural revitalization for farmers'," Yang Fan said.
By College of Economics and Management
Editor: Sun Xiaofang
