Life for 41 poverty-stricken families living in Tonggong village in Nandan county, Hechi is expected to get improved this year, thanks to local government's targeted measures for poverty alleviation, reported xinhuanet.com.

At the beginning of the year, the organizing department of Hechi city in South China's Guangxi directly appointed some cadre to head the village and set up a poverty alleviation cooperative, taking in all the 41 poor households living there.

With 400,000 yuan ($62,500) startup capital supported by Nandan county's poverty relief office, the cooperative started the planting of black fungus on 40 mu (2.67 hectares) farmlands. The total output value is supposed to reach 700,000 yuan in 2015, with a net income of 240,000 yuan.

The Tonggong black fungus planting base features a typical agriculture industrialization mode integrating professional collaboration with poverty alleviation. Impoverished villagers have not only benefitted from the economic payoff, but have also been able to master technical skills to beef themselves up for future improvements in life.

China has adopted a strategy of taking targeted measures for poverty alleviation since 2014. Local governments are encouraged to merge poverty alleviation resources to make better use of them and take targeted measures to ensure that the assistance should reach poverty-stricken villages and households.

Villagers pick up fungus at the planting base in Tonggong village, Wuai town, Nandan county, Dec 2. [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / xinhuanet.com]

A woman shows the ripe fungus at the planting base in Tonggong village, Wuai town, Nandan county, Dec 2. [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / xinhuanet.com]

Tonggong villagers are happy with a bumper harvest of the black fungus they planted, Dec 2. [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / xinhuanet.com]

Edited by Shahnawaz Akhtar