Causes of poverty

Wang Junhong, a 47-year-old farmer, was watering mushrooms in a greenhouse in Minning when China Daily visited. His family of six relocated from Longde county, some 500 km away, in 2014, because both water and jobs were scarce, he said.

"Nobody lives there now. Everyone, or almost everyone, has moved out," he said, adding that his village previously had 200 to 300 residents.

His fellow worker, Qiao Yuxiang, 50, told a similar resettlement story, and said she now earns 80 yuan a day at the greenhouse.

Another female worker, 40, at an adjoining greenhouse where grapes are grown, had a comparable account of why she and her husband, now a construction worker in Yinchuan, moved to Minning from Longde.

A company executive said during a tour of the site that this and other greenhouses, set up to grow chrysanthemums and other flowers used in Chinese tea, are part of a photovoltaic project. The site includes an agriculture makerspace - a place in which people with the same interests can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge.

But despite an area of some 500 hectares for just one phase of the project, few workers could be seen in at least three greenhouses that morning. The roads in Minning were also relatively empty.