BEIJING: Wang Qin, 59, collects scrap at a demolished residential district on the outskirts of Beijing, working 15 hours a day and struggling on her own to pay for her granddaughter's education.
She worries that her own home, a small illegally constructed shack where she lives with her granddaughter and mentally ill husband, might also be bulldozed by local authorities.
The family lives off the 1,500 yuan ($228) a month Wang makes selling scrap and receives no assistance from the Beijing government.
As migrants from another province, they are not recognized as residents of the capital despite having lived there since 2014. Since she is not registered in Beijing, Wang has to pay more for things like school and medical care — a hardship for migrants in cities, where costs such as housing are also far higher than in the countryside.
“Every month you still need to live, I still need to pay the school fees for the child, and her food and drink every day,” said Wang, who came to Beijing to try escape the grinding poverty of her village in Henan province in central China. “I can't take it, my whole body aches, I can't earn the money.”
Wang's plight is a common one among millions of poor migrants in China's big cities, as well as in the rural areas from which so many of them come, highlighting the challenges of the government's campaign to wipe out extreme poverty by 2020.
President Xi Jinping made the campaign one of his signature policy issues after pledging in 2015 that China would lift the 70 million people living under the poverty level at the time out of poverty by 2020.
The campaign has been ratcheted up as the Communist Party prepares to hold a twice-a-decade leadership meeting on Wednesday.
“The country is placing an unprecedented amount of effort on alleviating poverty,” Liu Yongfu, head of the government's Leading Group of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. “President Xi Jinping is personally in command, and has visited all of the areas of concentrated poverty” in China.
He added: “With the active participation of all parts of society, it can be said that the battle against poverty has achieved significant results.”
Beijing has pledged to spend 86 billion yuan on poverty alleviation this year, 30 percent more than last year, according to the Ministry of Finance. Liu said direct spending by central and local governments on poverty alleviation from 2013 to 2017 totalled 461.2 billion yuan, adding that other types of government spending also had an impact.
The funds are used for infrastructure projects, as well as subsidies for education, health care and rural agriculture.
The government's poverty line is income of 2,300 yuan per year, and by the end of 2016, 43.35 million people were still officially below it.
The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, on Thursday said China's achievement in lifting 800 million people out of poverty since 1990 was “one of the great stories in human history”.
But many researchers and social workers say the campaign doesn't address the most serious problems facing China's poor.
“I personally don't really agree with the government setting this 2020 poverty alleviation target,” said Yang Lixiong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing who has studied the issue. “The supportive policies can relieve poverty in the short term, but from a long-term perspective, they will easily fall back into poverty.”
Central government officials acknowledge the challenges, which they say include poor implementation of policies and misuse of funds at the local level.
They also say the programme is narrowly focused in order to address the most pressing problems of the poorest rural residents, but insist that much effort is going into improving health care and education.
“First we need to win this battle, resolve the current problems,” said Liu, responding to a question from Reuters about whether the programme would continue beyond 2020.
Wu Chen, founder of the Beijing-based Social Resources Institute, which works in Dalinggou, a village in Hebei province, said development of rural areas faced challenges like the emptying of the countryside as people move to cities looking for work, environmental destruction, and lack of capital.
Dalinggou is plastered with slogans calling for the village to win the war on poverty. With that aim in mind, the local government built a new paved road to the village and last month installed solar-powered street lights.
Wu said there had been a huge improvement in rural infrastructure, but a wide information and culture gap between the rural poor and urbanites remained a major challenge.
“Can these villagers not only escape poverty in terms of income, but also information and ability poverty?”
— Reuters
China steps up war on poverty, though some are still being left behind
China steps up war on poverty, though some are still being left behind
Mapping Saudi soils to grow better crops
- Palm trees, root crops, and coastal plants reveal the land’s story
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s land tells stories written beneath the feet. From fertile plains and rugged highlands to vast deserts, the Kingdom’s diverse landscapes shape what can grow, where it grows, and how agriculture can thrive.
Alongside geography and climate, soil conditions play a decisive role in agricultural success. Understanding soil types across the Kingdom helps determine which crops can flourish and what interventions may be needed to sustain them.
In an interview with Arab News, Turki Almutairi, a senior environmental specialist at the National Afforestation Center under the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification, outlined the main soil types found across Saudi Arabia.
“The dominant soil in the Kingdom are sandy desert soils, alongside calcareous soils in the central region. Rocky and stony soils are present along mountainous and hilly landscapes,” he said.
“Alluvial soils are common in wadies (valleys), while saline and sodic soils are located in depressions (Sabkhas) and along coastlines. Pockets of clayed soils can be also found around few sites along the Kingdom.”
The Kingdom’s vast territory gives rise to unique soil characteristics in each region, enabling different crops to grow depending on local conditions.
“Soil is the growing medium for plants. The role of soil includes structural stabilization, providing nutrients and a communication medium for plants,” Basil Nasir, soil lead at engineering consultancy William Sale Partnership, told Arab News.
According to Nasir, assessing soil use is essential before determining whether it is fertile or infertile, as different soils support different plant types.
“The soil used for trees differs from the soil used for ornamental plants and from the soil used for aquatic plants. It varies according to the specific needs of each plant, and based on this, we determine what the soil requires and assess its fertility,” he said.
Nasir explained that soil characteristics are shaped by both physical and chemical components. In addition to water and air, mineral particles such as sand, silt and clay are key indicators of soil health. Organic matter, derived from plant and animal remains, forms the fourth major component.
The balance between these elements determines soil behavior. One important physical trait is water-holding capacity, which influences what types of plants a soil can support.
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“If the soil is like dunes, adding water will cause it to run off, but if the soil is clay, its ability to retain water will be very high. If you add water and return the next day, you will find that the water is still there,” said Nasir.
Chemical properties, such as whether soil is alkaline or acidic, are equally important. Understanding both physical and chemical traits allows for proper assessment and treatment when needed.
“What determines whether a plant is suitable for a particular environment is primarily the plant's nature. For example, some plants have fibrous roots and therefore do not require well-draining soil,” Nasir added.
“A palm tree, for example, does not care whether it was planted in one soil or the other because its roots are fibrous. Therefore, palm trees are strong plants and are suitable to grow in both dry and wetlands, while preferring sandy areas.”
Crops such as potatoes, onions, carrots and beetroots — where the edible part grows underground — typically thrive in sandy soils. As a result, plantations of these crops are commonly found in northern regions such as Hail and in Wadi Ad-Dawasir.
In the eastern region, including Al-Ahsa, wetlands are more common due to climatic conditions. Growing plants in such environments often requires human intervention.
“Plants that are coastal or could be found in lagoons or lakes must have some sort of soil around them, like lotus flowers and mangrove trees.”
“An important parameter to keep in mind is that there is no air in its soil, and they are adapted to this condition. However, the lack of air, along with the presence of organic matter, will create a situation where anaerobic bacteria react with the soil, potentially causing diseases we can easily avoid,” said Nasir.
He emphasized that removing organic matter from such soils is essential to ensure plant survival in aquatic environments.
Mountainous and rocky regions in Saudi Arabia are generally volcanic, resulting in low water-holding capacity and challenging growing conditions. However, volcanic ash contributes to high fertility, allowing certain crops to flourish.
As a result, western regions support tree crops such as coffee, mangoes, some banana varieties and pomegranates.
As development accelerates across the Kingdom, soil improvement efforts are expanding under the National Greening Program.
“Soil is considered fundamental for the National Greening Program’s objectives. Understanding the soil variability along the Kingdom is a precondition for fostering sustainable soil management,” Almutairi told Arab News.
Adding, “In this line, the NGP is working towards the establishment of the Saudi Soil Information System (TURBA-KSA), which consists of mapping soils and its functional properties in the Kingdom using state-of-the-art technology.”
He also noted the creation of the “Land Rehabilitation Watch” to report, verify and monitor land rehabilitation nationwide.
“This milestone allows the Kingdom to understand how soil and land health are progressing against national and international targets of land degradation neutrality. Documenting good soil and land management practices is also important, so that those successful practices could be scaled up along the Kingdom, which is a priority task for NGP,” he said.
Raising public awareness is another key pillar of the program.
“Assessing different emerging technologies and soil amendments is a daily activity of NGP, as it then provides technical support to partners on the selection and application of these technologies.”
DID YOU KNOW?
• Saudi Arabia cultivates around 1 million hectares, mainly in Riyadh, Qassim, Hail, and Jouf.
• Farming follows the seasons: winter brings onions, garlic, and carrots, while summer yields watermelon, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
• The Kingdom is a top date producer, with over 31 million palm trees generating nearly 1.54 million tons, especially in Riyadh and Qassim.
Almutairi stressed that soil is often overlooked because it lies unseen beneath the surface, despite its critical role.
Yet soil produces 95 percent of food, stores water, holds more carbon than vegetation and the atmosphere, suppresses contaminants, regulates water, carbon and nutrient cycles, and hosts microorganisms linked to the human microbiome.
He emphasized the need to engage the general public, particularly urban communities disconnected from nature. Education helps people understand where food comes from and how contact with soil — such as walking barefoot — can support well-being. Healthy soils also contribute to cleaner water and air, he added.
Almutairi also called for stronger advocacy among decision-makers, noting that investment in healthy soils supports climate action, food security and sustainable development.
He concluded that key strategies include officially observing UN World Soil Day on Dec. 5, integrating soil education into curricula, launching annual social media campaigns, using art to raise awareness, and organizing public events that connect soils to everyday life.
