Success in the air for Pingshan beekeepers

"Promoting entrepreneurship and employment are important tools in consolidating poverty alleviation and in linking it to ongoing rural vitalization. As a result, villagers get a boost to their lives," explained Cao Xiaoguang, head of Guyue town, who added that because Pingshan is mountainous, residents often had difficulty finding stable work at home.

Since 2020, the incubator has provided jobs to more than 2,000 Pingshan residents and has made cumulative revenues of over 6 million yuan ($897,000).

Gaowa village resident Gao Wenyan, 51, has gone from poverty to owning a store and living a well-off life thanks to the incubator.

With a disabled wife and a daughter at school, he was unable to leave home to find work and could only do odd jobs nearby. "Five years ago, I only earned a few thousand yuan a year, which barely covered living expenses," he said.

In 2016, he began planting sweet potatoes with the help of an agricultural cooperative that gave him free seedlings and advice on planting as part of the policy to help people overcome poverty themselves.

When the incubator was set up, Gao received training and also learned how to make vermicelli out of sweet potatoes, which he now sells from the exhibition center. "By selling vermicelli, I can earn more than 30,000 yuan a year, much better than before," Gao said.