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Back to Their Roots
Chinese farmers return home from the cities and help boost rural economy By Cui Xiaoqin
By Cui Xiaoqin | VOL. 8 February 2017 ·2017-02-20
Liu Zhencheng promotes his tea with traditional tea performance
As the Chinese say, after the bitter comes the sweet. For migrant worker-turned-entrepreneur Zhang Liangfan, the saying rings especially true.

Originally from Gaokeng Village in south China's Guangdong Province, Zhang had to leave his family behind to find work in the province's capital of Guangzhou after graduation from senior middle school. Working long and strenuous hours as a courier, he lived a frugal life and saved whatever he could from his modest salary.

In 2015, after years in the city, he saw a chance to literally enjoy the "fruits" of his hard labor. Zhang took his savings and experience back to his home village of Gaokeng, and taking advantage of the region's abundant fruits, launched his own online fruit shop. "I found the opportunity while working as a courier in Guangzhou and my working experience has taught me the knowledge of managing an online store," he said.

Zhang's story is not an isolated case. He is part of the thousands of migrant workers who have returned to their home villages to become their own boss. This rising phenomenon in China is called chenggui (literately "those returning from the city"), who, as of last year, numbered 4.5 million, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

With the support of government measures, these former migrant workers return home with luggage filled with their rich professional experience and know-how, and have become an important engine driving the development of the rural economy.

New kind of dividend

In recent years, the production of many originally made-in-China products, such as shoes and clothing, has been moved to countries with lower labor cost like Vietnam and Indonesia. Some observers even announced the decline or even the disappearance of China's demographic dividend.

However, Li Yining, Economist at Peking University, disagrees, noting the rise of a new kind of demographic dividend. "China has entered a period of heightened economic transition, and as China's labor market reform is gaining momentum, a new demographic dividend is emerging in rural areas," he said at the Annual Conference of China's Economy, which took place in Beijing in December last year.

According to Li, the chenggui are important for this new demographic dividend. In the late 1980s, a large number of farmers in China left the countryside to earn a living in booming cities. But starting from 2010, more and more of them are finding their way back to the countryside while chasing their entrepreneurial dream.

Liu Zhencheng, 34, is such a chenggui in Wulian County, Shandong Province. Three years ago, he came back from Jinan, capital of Shandong Province, and launched his own tea company, which quickly gained an excellent reputation in the region.

"Even though our tea factory is not very large, we still strictly follow the European CE standard, which is very strict in terms of product quality," he told ChinAfrica. "My parents have been trading tea for years, but due to our traditional production methods, the volume of production is very limited. I hope that more consumers will be able to enjoy our high-quality tea in the future."

Liu Zhencheng checks his products

Today, Liu's company produces not only different varieties of tea, but also jujube juice, vegetables and other local specialties. The workforce comes from neighboring villages. To help lift some villagers out of poverty, Liu also hires people living with disabilities. He plans to build a hotel and a restaurant near his factory to further develop green tourism.

Qi Qiuzhong, a farmer from Kaixian County in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, left his family to work as a construction worker in the big city. Now back in Kaixian, he established his own mushroom-growing business. His entrepreneurial bet has paid off: Qi now exports his produce to regions and countries such as Hong Kong and Japan, recording annual sales worth more than 40 million yuan ($5.7 million).

Liu and Qi are just two examples among many others of chenggui that made it big. "Half of high-end agricultural projects in China have been put in place by chenggui," said Cui Chuanyi, an agricultural researcher at the Research and Development Center of the State Council of China.

Challenges to overcome

With this new type of entrepreneurs making their place in the countryside, the number of new small and medium-sized businesses is increasing at a rapid pace, ranging from motorcycle repair shops around tourist areas to bio-product farms or nurseries on the outskirts of cities. But this image of booming prosperity hides many thorny challenges.

Lack of access to finance is a stumbling block for rural entrepreneurs. In some regions, a young farmer who launches his/her own business can only get loans if an official or employee with a stable income agrees to act as the guarantor. For many farmers, finding such a guarantor has proven troublesome.

How to deliver produce to the consumers has been another challenge. "For me, money is not the biggest problem," said Liu. "But I need more distribution channels. People in China are used to consuming local tea, but it is difficult to promote our tea in other provinces."

Liu exhibited his products in several trade shows in Zibo and Jinan cities, Shandong Province, and managed to attract a local following of loyal customers. But his efforts to break into the national tea market have yet to yield any results.

A helping hand

Faced with these difficulties, China's Central Government has adopted a series of measures to encourage these migrants-turned-entrepreneurs. In June 2015, the State Council issued a guideline that allows rural entrepreneurs who meet certain conditions to receive subsidies or apply for preferential loans.

Liu directly benefited from these measures. In 2016, he rented the use right of a large plot of unused land on a mountain near his village to produce new varieties of tea and develop green tourism. This expansion entailed several construction works, including building a road and repairing a lake dam.

"This project will bring benefits to the local people. When all the work is done, the government will grant us subsidies if we meet the required standards," he told ChinAfrica.

As for Zhang Liangfan, his fruit business is growing fast. His team now has more than 20 people, most of them young people in their 20s. Using their e-commerce platform, they sell locally-produced fresh and sweet fruits throughout China, while fueling the local economy.

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