HAIKOU /China/, December 18. /TASS/. Authorities in Sanya city on the southern coast of China's Hainan Island held a conference on the development of shared farms, which is a new promising direction in agriculture that allows to effectively fight poverty. According to the Hainan Daily newspaper, the event focused on the issues of building, furnishing and efficiently operating rural buildings.

"The experience and practice of the past five years proves that the shared farm development program organically combines efficiency and [the principle of social] justice," Li Jun, Deputy Secretary of the Hainan Party Committee, told the conference. "It benefits farmers, villages and companies. It is a path to joint enrichment that plays an important role."

According to the official, Hainan will actively engage qualified professionals to promote relevant projects. "This is a key part of the new development concept," he stressed.

According to data released at the forum, such farms helped the province attract more than 2 million tourists since 2017. The industry's income has exceeded 850 million yuan ($133 million at current exchange rates).

In recent years, about 200 shared farms have been established in Hainan for tourists who prefer a leisure holiday in the countryside. These are usually abandoned houses that have been renovated and rebuilt to modern architectural standards with the support of the authorities and businesses. Due to rapid urbanization of the province, where the proportion of urban residents in 2020 exceeded 60% of the total population, and due to the mass outflow of labor from the village, the problem of preserving the infrastructure of agrarian areas has become especially pressing. The new form of tourism has been proven to significantly improve the welfare of people living in rural areas.