The Fifth Selection Meeting of Ten Typical Projects of Targeted Poverty Alleviation, carried out by universities directly under the Ministry of Education, was held from Sept 9 to 10 at Northwest A&F University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, Northwest China.

The meeting was sponsored by the Department of Development and Planning of the Ministry of Education and was hosted by Northwest A&F University. Representatives of 75 colleges and universities directly under the Ministry of Education, which has undertaken the task of poverty alleviation, attended the meeting.

Li Xingwang, Party secretary of Northwest A & F University, makes a speech at the meeting.

Li Xingwang, Party secretary of Northwest A & F University, told the gathering that since accepting the task of poverty alleviation as designated by the Ministry of Education, his school has attached great importance to poverty alleviation as an important political task and social responsibility. It has actively incorporated poverty alleviation work into the overall deployment of the school, highlighted the leadership of the Party, strengthened scientific and technological support, and brought into play resource advantages, in order to form a situation in which all staff participate in poverty alleviation.

“In order to promote the effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, the school set up a Rural Revitalization Strategy Research Institute, and organized teachers and students to investigate the industry, ecology, culture and other background data of more than 48,000 administrative villages during winter and summer vacations, covering more than 50% of the national land area, and transforming students' feelings towards agriculture, rural areas and farmers,” the Party secretary said.

Heyang County in Shaanxi province, which was supported by Northwest A & F University, successfully lifted itself out of poverty in May last year, Li said.

Yuan Guoyun, student and head of the fifth batch of Northwest A & F University graduate student support groups to go to Heyang County, gives a speech at the meeting.

Yuan Guoyun, head of the fifth batch of Northwest A & F University graduate student support groups to go to Heyang County, detailed the main social and cultural experiences that the school's graduate student support groups took part in. She said that the participation of graduate students in poverty alleviation work not only made positive contributions to helping local people out of poverty, but also gave them experience and improved their skills.

The centralized selection meeting which gathers to choose ten typical targeted poverty alleviation projects carried out by colleges and universities directly under the Ministry of Education has been successfully held five times since 2016. A total of 70 universities have submitted 70 poverty alleviation projects.

As this year is the first year to officially launch poverty alleviation work carried out by colleges and universities jointly, both the standard projects and the joint projects are evaluated respectively through voting, in order to strengthen the cultivation of the joint poverty alleviation projects.