TCM crops help reduce poverty
Print Edition
BY offering their lands to a herb planting cooperative, more than 400 farming households in Chongqing have received a total of over 200,000 yuan (US$30,000) in dividends so far this year.
The farmers live in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County and are anticipating more dividends from the cooperative. They are looking forward to the money, and earning more, at the end of the year so that they can celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has a history of thousands of years. Despite the controversy in western countries, it is very popular in China and is helping cut poverty in southwest China.
Shizhu is a mountainous and poverty-stricken place, and more than 70 percent of its population are Tujia people, an ethnic minority in China.
In the village of Huangshan, where the farmers live, there is much poverty, and due to the terrain and poor land quality, there are few crops.
Among the 1,741 people of 510 households in the village, 230 villagers of 73 households live below the national poverty line.
Young people usually leave the village to become migrant workers in cities, leaving the elderly and weak to stay in the village. This leads to a vicious cycle where more farmland is left uncultivated.
The Tujia people have long suffered from poverty.
“There aren’t many electric appliances at my home. The old television was bought when I got married in 1995. It hasn’t been changed for over twenty years,” said Qin Tinglan, a villager.
However, since the beginning of the year there have been positive changes.
A professional TCM cooperative was started, which is closely connected with the TCM planting enterprise.
A total of 416 households provide 62 hectares of farmland for the planting of herbs, and the farmland has been evaluated by a third party on the basis of four classes of fertility. This land was converted into a 775,000-yuan share of the cooperative.
In addition, 500,000 yuan of funds from the village have also been invested as a share of the cooperative.
“Cultivated land is so scattered in the mountainous area. We have to collect them so as to attract enterprises to develop this place,” said Huang Wanneng, deputy head of Daxie Township.
“To develop TCM planting and produce in the village was not a hasty decision,” Huang said. “Experts came to the village and carried out several rounds of surveys and finally confirmed that Huangshan Village was able to plant herbs and develop the TCM industry.”
“The environment, weather and vegetation here are fit for herb planting,” said He Zengfeng, president of the cooperative.
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