March toward "Xiaokang" (2) Bee-keeping enriches Yao village in S Yunnan

Editor's note: A xiaokang society, or a moderately prosperous society, has been the dream of Chinese people for thousands of years. Our reporters travel around Yunnan province to cover the arduous efforts being made in order to realize the dream.

Na’metian is a Yao village in south Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. To help the poor villagers, the provincial taxation officers joined hands with the Dianyunmiyu bio-company, offering them beehives and technical training in apiculture.

"Thanks to beekeeping, the villagers have been lifted out of poverty and they’re now willing to let their children go to school,” said Yan Wen, secretary of the villagers’ Party committee.

The Yao Village used to be a shabby place, without the basic means for beekeeping. Under local poverty-relieve projects, the village has been turned into a clean Yao ethnic settlement, with sound facilities for living, working and animal breeding. Diversified vegetations in the village are resources for bees to produce quality honey.

Most villagers would sell their honey to the Dianyunmiyu company for it offer them good prices. So far, beekeeping has brought an income of 26,000 yuan to 13 poor families in the Na’metian and Manzhuang villages. The two villages have each gained 129,000 yuan out of beekeeping. 

Source: Yunnan Daily; trans-editing by Wang Shixue and Yuan Yingcen