Straw helps lift villagers out of poverty in Jilin

Common, unassuming straw has become the big star in Panshan village -- in Dongming town of Shuangliao city in Northeast China’s Jilin province -- after it boosted the incomes of villagers and helped lift them out of poverty, according to local officials.

They said that compared with corn stalks, processing rice straw is far more difficult. Corn stalks can be crushed and returned to the field, but rice straw can’t be returned. Dongming town is a main rice producing area of Shuangliao city. In the past, villagers either took rice straw home for firewood, or burned the straw in the fields.

But Yu Jianping, Party secretary of Panshan village, wanted to find a sustainable way to deal with the straw.

After discussions with Liu Xinghua, a local entrepreneur once engaged in the export business, as well as other villagers, the locals decided to process the straw and export it to Japan as fodder for cattle.

A straw processing plant was built in December 2019 and started buying straw from the villagers. Now, after processing, straw bricks are transported to Dalian Port in Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning province and then shipped to Japan.

Liu said that due to climate and quality of the soil, the straw in Panshan village is rich in fiber, high in minerals and various nutrients and is now popular among purchasers in Japan.

He said that straw produced from one hectare of rice can be sold for more than 1,000 yuan ($141.17).

As a result, Panshan village is now able to offer a number of jobs -- including cleaners and road maintenance personnel -- and also gives dividends to poor households.

The straw processing project has greatly improved lives of poor villagers, according to the Party secretary Yu Jianping.

Local officials now plan to purchase straw from other local  villages and sell it Japan, enabling villagers to live a better life.