Breaking the Vicious Cycle between Illness and Poverty: Empirical Actions on Land Use in an Oasis Agricultural Area

Illness and poverty have been identified to be mutually influential, thereby forming a vicious cycle. Cutting off this vicious circle will be of great significance in the long-term planning of rural poverty reduction. Most of the existing studies have been conducted in proposing medical policies. Thus, these policies neglect the ability of the poor themselves. In oasis agricultural areas, the land is the critical resource, and improving land-use efficiency has been proposed as the key entry point for breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and illness. This article summarizes the success achieved in fighting health-related poverty in South Xinjiang, China, which can be attributed to a three-pronged approach that addresses the construction of the living, production, and ecological spaces. (1) Construction of the living space should be the first step in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and illness since it can improve the medical and basic living infrastructure. (2) Construction of the production space is critical for breaking the vicious cycle since it can directly increase the income of the poor. Specifically, the profit can be improved by increasing crop yields, developing animal husbandry, and participating in land circulation and rural cooperatives. Additionally, the construction of township enterprises can provide employment to the poor. (3) In regard to the construction of the ecological space, preventing and controlling desertification, as well as renovating the village environment, is essential for providing a good living environment that is conducive to the improvement of physical fitness. Constructing the multi-spaces of “living–production–ecological” has important implications in terms of transforming the vicious cycle into a virtuous one, which is crucial for designing national poverty reduction policies.