He Rong, first Secretary of Huaili village in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has been committed to lifting the local people out of poverty since March 2018. As he is often seen walking with a crutch, he is earned the nickname the "village secretary with a crutch".

He Rong (Photo/People's Daily Online)

He Rong was assigned by the Guangxi Agricultural Vocational College to Huaili village, Lutong town in March 2018. During his more than two years in the village, he often used a crutch so that he could "walk faster on these three legs!"

In order to better get along with the villagers, He Rong took the initiative to go to the farmers' homes and chat with them after supper every day. After a certain amount of time, he was seen as one of the villagers.

After carrying out some field investigations, He Rong discovered the root causes of farmers' poverty: first, a large area of cultivated land had been abandoned; second, farmers only planted conventional crops such as rice, corn, and miscellaneous grains and beans; third, transport was inconvenient and there was no road for automobiles.

He Rong, a landscape professional, decided to use his professional knowledge to accelerate local economic development and make use of Huaili village’s unique natural land resources to develop characteristic industries such as mulberry sericulture, citrus planting, high-quality rice planting and pig breeding.

He Rong (left) and a villager check mulberry saplings.  (Photo/People's Daily Online)

In May 2018, under He Rong's efforts, Huaili village established a planting and breeding cooperative, registered the trademark for advantageous agricultural and sideline products, and uniformly promoted the village's agricultural products on the market.

Huaili village has also been linked with several newly opened paved roads. Some villagers said, "The secretary with a crutch is the lucky star of our village. In the past, it took us at least two hours to get out of the mountains, but now we can get home in ten or twenty minutes by car!"

At the end of 2019, the collective economic income of Huaili village reached more than 70,000 yuan (about $9,975), and the incidence of poverty dropped from 17.2 percent to 1.9 percent, bringing about poverty alleviation in the entire village.