Ningjin, Shandong: "Wealth-Bringing Peonies" Help Farmers Increase Income and Get Rich

Just as the peach, apricot and pear blossoms have faded, the peony, long known as the "king of ten thousand flowers," has entered its peak blooming season. Walking into Li Jinglong's peony garden, the fragrance of flowers fills the air. More than 1 million oil peony plants covering over 500 mu (about 33.3 hectares) are blooming in competition, and a vast expanse of white flowers, under the sunlight and set off by green leaves, looks like a white ocean.

Visitor Cao Yangyang said: "They said the flowers here have bloomed and are quite beautiful, so I wanted to bring my child to see them. After coming, I feel very relaxed and happy, and the child is having a lot of fun too."

This beautiful sea of flowers in the eyes of visitors is even more of a treasure in the heart of Li Jinglong, the owner of the peony garden.

Li Jinglong said: "The petals and stamens of the peony can all be steeped in water and drunk. The seeds that form below after the flowers bloom are pressed to make edible oil. It is currently the edible oil found to have the highest nutritional value. Its unsaturated fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid are many times higher than those of olive oil. Another thing is the root finally extracted from the peony. It is a traditional Chinese medicine - Danpi (peony root bark). The main ingredient of Liuwei Dihuang Wan is made from this peony root."

Li Jinglong had always been engaged in the nursery stock planting industry. Because the nursery stock market has been sluggish in recent years, he began to consider transforming his business. A chance opportunity led Li Jinglong to form a bond with peonies.

Li Jinglong said: "After contacting President Liu of Qilu University of Technology, he recommended that I could plant oil peonies. Their prospects are quite good, because oil peonies were only established as a project in 2013. As for the edible aspect, including later deep processing and some technologies, they can all provide us with help. After he said this, I went to various places across the country, especially the main production areas such as Heze, Bozhou and Luoyang, and conducted on-site inspections there. I inspected all stages of the peony's growth cycle on site."

After continuous consultation and investigation, Li Jinglong became optimistic about the market prospects of oil peonies, and this also strengthened his confidence in planting oil peonies.

Li Jinglong said: "In growing this thing, what I care about most is how many seeds it can produce and its economic value. The seeds are mainly used to make edible oil, a high-grade edible oil similar in nature to olive oil. Its unsaturated fatty acids are above 98 percent, so its nutritional value for all aspects of the human body is still very good. I actually saw that the 5-to-7-year-old peonies planted by local people there can definitely produce 250 kg of seeds per mu from seeds alone. The demand for seeds is very large, and there are very few seeds. If we sell them here, I estimate the lowest price will not be less than 10 yuan."

In 2014, Li Jinglong began planting oil peonies. Because oil peonies only enter the harvest period in the third year of planting and the profit period in the fourth year, that is to say, for the first three years, Li Jinglong was in a state of "only investment and no return," so the villagers were not optimistic about him. But Li Jinglong persisted, and he also figured out the tricks of managing peonies.

Li Jinglong said: "In the first two years they grew relatively slowly, and the weed problem was quite severe. Over these two years, through my own exploration, I now combine manual weeding with biological weeding. Some nearby villagers raise sheep. When workers throw out the weeds and toss them by the roadside, there are certainly peony leaves and flowers among them. The sheep only eat the grass and do not eat this stuff. This inspired me a lot. Why don't they eat it? In the end, I took a leaf and tasted it myself. The taste was very bitter and astringent. I wanted to see whetherraising geeseand raising chickens would also avoid eating this stuff and only eat grass. As a result, when I put the chickens and geese into the field, the effect was ideal."

Once the weeding problem was solved, managing these oil peonies became much easier. Because peonies do not like water, watering is also relatively easy. This year, Li Jinglong's peonies entered the harvest period, with fresh flower output exceeding 50,000 jin. In order to allow this peony garden to produce more high-quality flower seeds in the fourth year, too many fresh flowers cannot be kept, but throwing them away for nothing would be too wasteful, so Li Jinglong started thinking hard about how to use the fresh flowers.

Li Jinglong said: "The batch of products we have now is being sent to Qilu University of Technology, one part to make floral water and one part to make enzyme products. Today's fresh flowers should be around one ton. If making floral water, it should come out in June. The initial experiments for a series of peony floral water products have already succeeded. Now we are making some products and debugging the equipment a bit more. The next step is to put the equipment directly here and process it from our side."

Li Jinglong said: "This beer equipment came in a while ago. After debugging is completed, in half a month we can produce our own brewed peony flower beer. Our products are at Qilu University of Technology, and the equipment, technology and raw materials are all the same. Several batches of samples have already been produced there, and the flavor and taste are both quite good."

During these 3 years, Li Jinglong not only gained profits from peonies himself, but also fully drove a change in the thinking of nearby villagers.

Li Jinglong said: "At present, about four or five households are actually planting peonies, with an area of about 60 mu. Now those who have reached a real intention and want to plant after autumn this year should cover an actual area of about 600 mu. After the peony garden was set up, it absorbed some surrounding poor households and gave them priority in arranging work here, including weeding and some daily management, and later flower picking and harvesting. Poor households were all considered first."

Li Shenglin, 76 years old this year, is a poor household in Xinji Village. In previous years, his income relied only on his own 2 mu and 3 fen of land. Since Grandpa Li transferred his land to Li Jinglong in 2014 for planting oil peonies, his income has increased quite a lot compared with the past.

Li Shenglin, a villager from Xinji Village, Zhangguan Town, Ningjin County, said: "At that time, one mu of land could leave me six or seven hundred yuan. With this peony garden, I stopped farming it. One mu gives 1,000 yuan, and 2 mu gives more than 2,000 yuan. Not farming is easier. I am getting older, and when I have nothing to do I can come here to do odd jobs. Isn't that an extra layer of income?"

Li Jinglong said: "I personally am full of confidence in this industry. I will strive to complete the entire series of deep production and processing within the next five years, mainly including deep processing of flowers, deep processing of seeds, and oil pressing. I want to develop and drive the surrounding villagers to reach a planting area of more than 2,000 mu. I hope peony flowers will open up an even bigger world in Zhangguan Town and even Ningjin County."