TAIYUAN - Over the past few years, at least 58 mine bosses in Datong city of North China's Shanxi province have abandoned their profitable mining businesses and channeled their money into agriculture and food processing sectors.

"I have successfully transformed myself from a mine boss into an agricultural entrepreneur," said Ren Fu, chairman of a beverage factory in Yanggao county of Datong city.

Datong, the northernmost city in Shanxi province, is known as "the city of coal" in China due to its abundant coal reserves.

Dotted with private mines which lack effective supervision and management, Datong was one of China's most polluted cities and known for its frequent coal mining accidents.

But since 2008, when Shanxi province was chosen as China's first pilot region for coal resources integration project, many of the province's coal-mining companies have been merged and reorganized.

The project aims to reduce the number of small coal mines and thus decrease the number of coal mine fatalities. A total of 200 local coal mines with an annual production capacity below 300,000 tonnes in Datong have been shut down since the project kicked off.

By the end of last year there were 1,953 coal mines and 130 mining enterprises in Shanxi, down from 4,278, and 2,200 respectively before the integration project started.

Like Ren, other mine bosses have recently pulled out of the mining industry and redirected their money and vision into the agriculture and food processing sectors.

"They have become the mainstay of the local agricultural sector," said Liu Jian, deputy director with the local commission of rural affairs.

"At present, about 90 percent of the 135 leading agricultural enterprises in Datong have coal mining-related backgrounds," Liu added.

However, switching industries has not been easy for the mine bosses.

"At the beginning of stepping into the apricot processing industry, my company was operating in the red," Ren said. "Lacking relevant technology, reliable talents, and the latest information, my new business stumbled along with an annual deficit of more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million)."

However, with the help of the experts from Beijing, his business is now prospering and the renowned natural drinks company, Lulu Group Co., Ltd, has invested in it.

"During the hardest period, the head of our county paid a visit in person to the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing to ask for help," Ren recalled.

Having brought in high-class talents and technologies, the Datong city government has also adopted some preferential measures like providing loans and financial subsidies to these newly-founded enterprises, and helped promote sales of their products.

"Though the benefits are not immediate, I am still full of confidence," Wu Wenguan, also a former mine boss, said.

Wu has run a mushroom factory after selling his private coal mine.

"It was very risky working in the coal mining business. I used to worry about accidents every day," Wu sighed. But his new business is very different as it's not only profitable but also sustainable.

Local farmers have also benefited from the newly-developed agricultural companies.

Zhu Chunmin, an employee from Ren Fu's company, said that his annual income surged to 80,000 yuan last year, compared with 2,000 yuan five years ago when the income generated was barely enough to live off.

Due to mine bosses getting out of mining and into the agriculture and food processing sectors, 14 leading enterprises in Nanjiao district of Datong city have created 13,000 jobs and grown farmers' incomes by about 460 million yuan in total.

"However, there are still some challenges those former mine bosses have to face," Zhang Baohua, a researcher with the Shanxi provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said. "How to attract talented people to work in remote places is the key problem."

"Whether more mine bosses are willing to shift to the agricultural sector is still hard to say," Zhang added.