What Are the Prospects for Salvia miltiorrhiza Cultivation? Latest Analysis and Interpretation
Salvia miltiorrhiza, also known as red sage, purple sage, and red root, has the effects of activating blood and regulating menstruation, removing blood stasis and relieving pain, cooling blood and reducing abscesses, clearing the heart and relieving restlessness, and nourishing blood and calming the mind. It is a commonly used bulk Chinese medicinal herb, suitable for cultivation in hilly areas with dry, low-rainfall conditions, scarce water sources, and sandy loam soil. It has stable yields and relatively high returns. Let us take a look below at the cultivation prospects and cultivation returns of Salvia miltiorrhiza!
Cultivation Prospects of Salvia miltiorrhiza
Salvia miltiorrhiza has wide uses and high efficacy, and national demand has grown very quickly, with supply falling short of demand in some years. In the early 1960s, annual national demand was less than 1 million kg; by 1978 it had increased to 6.52 million kg, and over 18 years sales volume grew by more than 5.5 times. The reasons for the rapid increase in demand, apart from population factors, are mainly that scientific and technological development has led to more and more uses for Salvia miltiorrhiza.
Scientific research has found that Salvia miltiorrhiza not only has the function of activating blood and resolving stasis, but also has new therapeutic effects on treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, liver diseases, vasculitis, and neurasthenia, among many other diseases. Nearly 100 kinds of Chinese patent medicines are produced using Salvia miltiorrhiza as a raw material, including Danshen Gao, Danshen Tablets, Compound Danshen Tincture, Guanxin Tablets, Danshen Gegen Liuhu Tablets, Danshen Pills, Danshen Injection, Shuxin Granules, Guanxin Granules, and Compound Licorice Danshen Tablets. The dosage forms produced include more than 10 kinds, such as honey pills, water pills, tablets, tinctures, granules, syrups, and injections.
Especially in recent years, with changes in people's dietary structure and the emergence of an aging society, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases has shown an upward trend. Salvia miltiorrhiza plays a role in clinical treatment and prevention that cannot be replaced by other drugs, thus greatly increasing its value and doubling its usage. Demand stimulates production and also stimulates harvesting. Large-scale harvesting year after year has severely damaged wild resources, with some places on the verge of extinction, production continuously decreasing, and quality greatly declining. The promotion of new artificial cultivation techniques has been slow, per-unit yields are not high, and total output is unstable. In some places, due to severe pests and diseases, large amounts of unscientific application of pesticides and chemical fertilizers year after year have greatly affected the quality of artificially cultivated Salvia miltiorrhiza.
Therefore, mid-to-high-end products on the market, especially export products, have always been in tight supply, and prices have been stable with slight increases. From 1998 to 1999, prices in the national 75 major medicinal materials markets remained at 11-18 yuan/kg. It can thus be seen that currently, in suitable areas, choosing pollution-free and hazard-free plots, selecting excellent varieties, and adopting standardized Salvia miltiorrhiza cultivation techniques to produce green mid-to-high-end Salvia miltiorrhiza offers good returns, and the market potential is still considerable.
Investment Costs for Salvia miltiorrhiza (excluding land)
1. Seedlings: 8000 Salvia miltiorrhiza seedlings are planted per 667 sq m/mu, and the market price of high-quality seedlings is 0.06 yuan/seedling, requiring an investment of 480 yuan per mu.
2. Plowing: generally deep plowing once and rotary tilling once, costing about 80 yuan per mu.
3. Fertilizer: 50 kg of compound fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer, about 150 yuan. Adding topdressing, calculated at about 50 yuan. Total 200 yuan (farmyard manure not included).
4. Pesticides: in ordinary years, Salvia miltiorrhiza has relatively few diseases; during the growing period, diseases occur twice, with prevention as the main approach, and the cost is relatively low.
5. Other: labor costs for planting, harvesting, and drying; due to different factors such as cultivation methods, planting times, and environmental conditions, unforeseen investments are calculated at 800 yuan.
Cultivation Returns of Salvia miltiorrhiza
After Salvia miltiorrhiza is planted in late autumn or early spring, the growing period is one year, and it is harvested in the autumn of that same year. In ordinary years, without major natural disasters, the average yield is 50 g of dried product per plant. With 8000 plants cultivated per mu, calculated at a survival rate of 90%, 360 kg of dried Salvia miltiorrhiza can be harvested per mu.
If calculated at the market price of general goods (regardless of size) of 14-18 yuan/kg, the income per mu is 6000-6500 yuan, and after deducting costs, the profit is 3300-4800 yuan.