Veteran farmer Du Guobao, 67, knows little about modern economics, but he does know that diversification means fewer risks for his family business.

Since he and his fellow villagers were relocated to the Pinghu village of Zhijiang in eastern Yichang, Hubei Province, in the summer of 1996, Du has managed to earn a steady income for his five-member family by running a food processing factory, planting fruit trees and cotton and breeding chickens and pigs.

Du, who used to live in Xintan of the Quyuan Township in Zigui County of Hubei Province, moved to Pinghu, along with Zigui's other 178 farming households, to make way for construction of the Three Gorges Dam project.

At first Du, like most of his fellow villagers, said he did not know how to start again from the very beginning. Especially because his family resettled in an area with a different soil, climate and market.

But "I never think myself a faintheart who gives up trying and accepts defeat easily," said Du, for decades the dragon-boat race champion of Zigui County.

"A wise farmer always knows how to arrange the limited resources he has in hand."

Back in Zigui, Du's family used to make a living by planting fruit trees. But Du was not as content as the older generations with their lives.

With the influx of tourists from home and abroad in the early 1980s, when China adopted the reform and opening-up policy, Du saw a new way to make money.

With his personal savings as well as money borrowed from relatives and friends, Gu built a four-story building on a bustling street of Zigui in 1982.

There he ran a hotel, a restaurant, and a drugstore with five employees.

But he did not give up planting orange trees and cotton crops in the terraced fields to the south of the Yangtze River.

Back then Du earned at least 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) each year.

Now, Du earns about 20,000 yuan (US$2,400) per year.

"Things have been more complicated for us ever since we moved out of the mountain regions," Du said. "We fruit farmers have found there is so much to learn, especially about the market. A farmer must understand that only knowing how to sweat on your lot is far from enough; knowing what may sell well in the market is vital. My creed is 'never put all your eggs in one basket'."

Of course, not every fellow farmer in the Pinghu village is as lucky and shrewd as Du.

Some relied too heavily on their fruit orchards instead of developing sideline businesses to reduce risks, according to Liu Fengping, 45, the village head.

As a result, the average family in the village earns only about 5,000 yuan (US$604) per year.

Liu said the local government has given each of the 180 households a subsidy of about 2,000 yuan (US$241), encouraging the farmers to raise various kinds of vegetables in greenhouses.

Frequent training programs on new agricultural techniques are offered with support from agricultural experts from Yichang and Wuhan, Liu said.

Planting and selling vegetables such as onion, cabbage and sweet potato in addition to planting fruit trees has ensured a more stable income for the farmers over the past few years, Liu said.

But Liu added that not all farmers stick to their land all the time. Some are eager to seek bigger fortunes.

Each year in the off-season when not much can be done in the orchards, about 90 percent of the young and strong fruit farmers go out to work as transient laborers in big cities, such as Wuhan and some coastal cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou of South China's Guangdong Province.

Farmers in Chongqing

While the central government and local authorities are trying different ways to help, the grass-roots level officials in the relocated villages and townships should take initiative to guide their fellow farmers in the right direction, said Yang Fuchang, 61, head of a group of 400 relocated farmers in the village of Changling Township, in Wuqiao of Wanzhou Prefecture, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

However, Yang sometimes finds that it's hard for his fellow farmers to keep a long-term point of view when it comes to what should be planted to secure a decent, steady income.

In 1996, Yang and about 1,000 fellow villagers moved from Tailong village to the small town of Changling, 13 kilometers from Wanzhou, one of three prefectures under the jurisdiction of Chongqing Municipality.

Officially designated as a township, Changling is actually no more than a well-planned village, with farmers accounting for two-thirds of the families.

The Tailong village will be under water by next June after the level of the artificial lake there -- the world's largest -- rises 135 meters higher.

After being relocated from the reservoir area, Yang found that some fellow villagers gave up planting time-consuming but high-yielding, high-profit fruit trees such as navel orange trees as they used to do in their old village. They turned to planting vegetables that provide smaller amounts of money year round.

Others simply left their land and launched small businesses such as running beauty parlors or restaurants in big cities.

But Yang believes that, at least for the time being, a piece of land is essential for people raised as farmers.

Yang said that his village is going through a difficult transitional period, waiting for all the newly planted fruit trees to grow enough to yield adequate fruit.

"As a village head, I am responsible for the well-being of this huge family of 1,000 members. I want every household in my village to lead a rich and comfortable life," said Yang, who has been in grass-roots level village leadership since 1962, working in different posts such as warehouse keeper and accountant.

"The job market is so tough in urban areas, but it is relatively easier for us to earn a living because we still have a piece of land," observed Yang.

On that score, Yang has shown he has a broad vision.

Three years ago, thanks to their partnership with East China's Zhejiang Agricultural University, Yang's villagers planted 10,000 pear trees which bear fruit four or five years after they are planted.

But some resettled people still complain.

"Our field is smaller than the previous one," said 40-year-old Xiong Daoquan, who is raising a big family.

"Although it does not take too much time for me to do the farm work, it is not easy to find a part-time job in town as I did before to earn extra money for the family," he said.

However, Xiong said that he believes what the village head told them and hopes to have a bumper harvest in his orchard in the next few years.

Xiong is also satisfied with his three-storey house which he said is more comfortable than the old, shabby cottage situated near the Yangtze River.

The whole village's new houses are built with supporting funds from Shanghai, where some large companies have formed partnerships with the newly resettled villages.

Altogether, about 250,000 rural and urban residents have been relocated to Wanzhou, according to statistics from local relocation authorities.

Tan Hongbin, an official with the Wanzhou Resettlement Bureau, said: "The rising reservoir has brought Wanzhou both great losses and great opportunities at the same time."

(China Daily November 27, 2002)