Wang Chiwang, 56, clad in a white shirt, black pants, and black shoes, was ready to welcome us, as we crossed the vast road from the city of Baoshan in China's Yunnan Province to the village of Xinchhai.
The friends who accompanied me compared Wang Chiwang's look to that of Mao Zedong's, the founder of the People's Republic of China. To me, at a glance, he resembled Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
Clad in a formal attire, Wang warmly welcomed us in China's first coffee village. In the course of learning about China's agriculture and development, we, on October 27, reached Xinchhai, a village that has become popular in China, under his leadership.
After working as an architect-engineer for 22 years, he returned to Xinchhai and has been leading it for 11 years.
Another thing that attracted me, along with Wang's formal attire, was the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) logo he had attached to his shirt. Although we met other leaders of the CPC in Yunnan Province during our trip to China, Wang was the one from a village whose geography is similar to that of Nepal.
He was the local leader of the CPC and was also the pioneer in making Xinchhai village famous for its coffee in China and around the globe.
He is not only known by the villagers of Xinchhai as the secretary of CPC, but also as a planner, visionary, and coffee development manager of Xinchhai village development.
With about 550 households, the Xinchhai village spreads out in a steep terrain under the Gaolinchong hill that extends northward and above the Nuchiyang River (similar to Nepal's Arun) flowing through Tibet. This village took a new lease of life after Wang took charge as the secretary 11 years ago. Prior to that, this village had been suffering for centuries due to lack of competent leadership, shares Wang.
Coffee was cultivated but the local farmers could not even reach the market. The Chinese government did not even build a huge road network in this region, like Karnali of Nepal.
Under Wang’s leadership 11 years ago, Xinchhai has now stolen limelight in China. This village is included in the limited coffee villages of the world.
The geography of this village is akin to the mountain districts of Nepal. The higher one goes, the bigger the mountain. The weather is also similar to that of Nepal (around 25 to 30 degrees Celsius). The higher one climbs, the cooler it is while the temperature is scorching around the Nuchiyang River.
While China is making the village itself the center of economic prosperity when such mountain villages in Nepal are gradually wearing a deserted look due to migration.
Young people are living in every house in the village. They are engaged in farming. The CPC village committee has opened the door to the university for those willing to study. Secretary Wang's children are with him in Xinchhai. The young son is supporting the family with his father by staying in the village. Having completed his higher education, he is now supporting his father's plan to make the village prosperous and is also handling the business.
Along with coffee, local varieties of almond trees, vegetable cultivation, agricultural tourism, and banana cultivation are also other features of this village.
When Wang entered the village and took over the leadership of the CPC 11 years ago, there was no development infrastructure. Tall mountains including Gaolinchong near the village posed a challenge. Since then, President Xi Jinping has waged a crusade to build massive road infrastructure as part of a campaign to connect the countryside to the city.
As the lowest-level secretary of the CPC, Wang, who took command of Xinchhai, initially took the lack of public security, infrastructure development, education and industrialization as the main challenges. However, these challenges also became an opportunity for him to change the identity of the village.
Wang developed Xinchhai village into a coffee village by taking the locals into confidence. CPC planned to invest in roads, electricity, water, internet and schools.
“In the beginning, we faced a double challenge. On the one hand, it was necessary to take the villagers into confidence and proceed with the development plan”, Wang said, “on the other hand, it was necessary to convince the government to establish Xinchhai as a model coffee village. The government also increased the investment by making both immediate and long-term plans for village development. The villagers also joined us to support us.”
After nearly a decade of struggle, coffee is now being cultivated in 1,600 hectares of this village. This village has now become a model village in China in the production of Arabic coffee beans.
Now, 1,000 villagers take care of the coffee plantation here every day. Due to the continuous investment of the government, the income of the village residents has also increased rapidly.
"At one time, the average annual income of the residents of this village was not even 3,000 RMB (about 55,000 rupees). Many people were struggling with poverty. However, within a few years, that income increased to 30,000 RMB," Wang said, "Now the income is increasing at a high speed."
There are nine different ethnic groups in this village. The villagers divided into four small groups are organized by CPC through seven local cooperatives. Cooperatives have been working on capital mobilization for farming including coffee.
Villagers here managed to earn RMB 120 million last year from coffee farming. Secretary Wang said that income will continue to increase.
According to Wang, a campaign for industrial transformation and upgrading is currently underway in this region. Villagers are trying to link coffee production with developed agro-tourism and ethnic tourism.
Coffee consumption is being promoted through cultural activities and various campaigns. Since 2016, Baoshan Municipality has been holding the Baoshan Coffee Tourism and Cultural Festival including a Coffee Garden Tour.
Wang also said that CPC General Secretary Xi announced six different points to revitalize the country's rural areas at the 19th and 20th National Congresses. In line with the same declaration, the journey of prosperity has been started by connecting the villages of China with the cities, he said.
Xinchhai village government is now focusing on quality coffee production. To make this village a center of agricultural tourism, farming has been expanded towards the upper hills. The Nuchiyang Valley looks even more charming when viewed from the hilltops that has been cultivated for farming.
The CPC Village Committee is also working out new ways of marketing along with the expansion of coffee cultivation. According to Secretary Wang, online marketing is now being used along with traditional marketing methods.
He said that the local government managed to earn 10 million RMB last year alone by selling coffee through online marketing. The local government has told the farmers to concentrate on farming with confidence.
The government has given machines to the farmers through cooperatives for processing the coffee beans. Since the government has paid all the expenses and bought the machine, the farmers now can prepare coffee beans for free of cost. On the other hand, the government is also providing free training to farmers who are engaged in coffee business.
Xinchhai, which has engaged most of the locals in agriculture, has given university education to 51 young people of the village along with the expansion of the road network. Wang said that the CPC Village Committee had succeeded in sending the young people from Kunming to Beijing for university education. The coffee model village has also sent coffee technicians to other provinces in China for training. More than 300 technicians are at the disposal to this effect.
The story of coffee
China's Yunnan Province has the largest coffee plantation in the country. More than 98 percent of the country's coffee is grown in this province.
The demand for Arabica coffee, which is considered world-famous for its original and local taste, is increasing. Because of Arabica coffee, the world map has started covering the Baoshan region.
CPC Xinchhai Village Secretary Wang said that coffee dishes have also been used in banquets since 2014. According to him, special dishes including vegetables, pickles, and wine are made from coffee.
The history of coffee in China is about 120 years long. Coffee cultivation is said to have spread to China through Myanmar during the First and Second World Wars.
In 1892, a missionary named Alfred Lietard brought some coffee beans to the Binchuan County of Dali, in today's northwest Yunnan Province, according to Huang Junxiong, a Chinese coffee expert.
He planted the coffee beans in some villages (that) he traveled. The same coffee has now become a specialty of Yunnan Province. Currently, coffee is grown in 130,000 hectares of land in Yunnan Province alone, with 400,000 tons produced annually.
The coffee production has witnessed a substantial boost after the Yunnan province government launched a project in 2018 to promote the consumption of green vegetables with coffee, Wang said.
A systematic industrial project has been established covering coffee cultivation, coffee bean collection, processing, and marketing so as to increase the income of the villagers, Wang added.
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