Peppers add touch of spice to tale of recovery

"It felt like the end of the world. I almost lost all hope in life," says Dong.

But a glimmer of hope came when he was included in the local government's poverty-relief program.

"I felt overwhelmed when I received a 6,000 yuan ($850) poverty-relief subsidy. I held it tight on the way back home to make sure I wouldn't lose it," he remembers.

With that amount of money given to him by the local government, he started to grow peppers, the main source of livelihood in the township.

Dong soon became an expert on how to apply fertilizer, irrigation, and how to maintain the greenhouse, and it was the bumper harvest that same year that helped him cast off poverty.

He then poured all of his earnings, totaling 15,000 yuan, into growing the business. His company now has 35 pepper greenhouses, covering an area of 4 hectares and raking in almost 1 million yuan last year.

Dong hires up to 50 rural residents during the busiest picking season in May and September, and those jobs have provided impoverished households with a steady income.

The farmer-turned-entrepreneur is willing to share his secret to success with his fellow villagers who are also interested in the pepper-growing business as this particular plant has helped lift many people in the county out of poverty for years.

Funan was officially removed from the country's list of impoverished counties in late April, according to the provincial government.

By the end of 2019, over 200 hectares of greenhouse vegetables had been planted in the village, mostly peppers, says Wang Meng, Party chief of the Yanmiao village.

"I plan to build a four-story house next year, with an elevator, also a first in the village," says Dong.