What are the profits and prospects of Sophora flavescens cultivation and the returns per mu?
Villagers are busy harvesting Sophora flavescens in the fields
Right now, the farmers of Chenjiahe Village, Wangshiao Subdistrict, Yintai District, are welcoming the harvest of Sophora flavescens they planted three years ago. In the fields, machinery roars and crowds bustle; everyone rolls up their sleeves and swings their hoes in a scene of bustling harvest activity.
The Compendium of Materia Medica mentions that Sophora flavescens and Phellodendron are bitter and cold in nature. Both the seeds and roots of Sophora flavescens can be used as medicine. It is this very bitter medicinal herb that has borne the "sweet fruit" of prosperity for the villagers of Chenjiahe. "Our village has 112 households in total, and nearly every household grows Sophora flavescens. At present, the whole village has planted 450 mu of Sophora flavescens in total," Hu Xiaolin, director of the Chenjiahe Village Committee, told reporters. Last year, from selling Sophora flavescens seeds alone, some people sold five or six thousand yuan worth; this year the roots will also fetch a good amount of money, and by the end of the year, the impoverished households will basically all be able to shake off poverty.
Chenjiahe Village is located in the transitional zone between the Northern Shaanxi Loess Plateau and the Guanzhong Plain, with high mountains and deep ravines, poor soil and harsh natural conditions. Before 2014, the whole village's leading industry was the cultivation of grain crops such as corn and wheat, but over a year the farmers' income was negligible, and they could never escape the fate of "living at the mercy of the weather." Hu Xiaolin, who was already the village director at the time, saw this and fretted inwardly.
A folk remedy gave rise to a path to prosperity. On the mountains of Chenjiahe Village grow many wild Sophora flavescens plants. When a family's cow had inflammation of the eyes, they would give the cow a little wild Sophora flavescens to drink, and the inflammation would immediately subside. This folk prescription got Hu Xiaolin thinking: the wild Sophora flavescens here has such good medicinal effects, which shows that the terrain and climate here are suitable, so why not lead everyone to cultivate it together? Right after the Chinese New Year in 2014, Hu Xiaolin and his group went to Shangzhou District, Shangluo City, to investigate Sophora flavescens cultivation. After seeing successful cultivation examples, his confidence in leading his fellow villagers to develop Sophora flavescens cultivation grew even stronger. But the villagers, conservative in their thinking and recognizing only traditional crops, were doubtful about Director Hu's bold attempt, and how to persuade them became a hurdle Hu Xiaolin had to overcome. "At the time I called all the villagers together for a meeting, and I did the accounts for them: Sophora flavescens requires little investment, and one mu of land can yield about 800 yuan, while grain crops like corn bring in very little per mu per year. At the same time, Sophora flavescens is cold-resistant and drought-resistant, needs weeding only twice a year, and involves extensive management, which frees up labor so people can go out to work without it getting in the way," Hu Xiaolin said. In the end, more and more villagers came around to the reasoning he laid out and voluntarily joined the ranks of Sophora flavescens growers. Negotiating cooperation, buying seeds, inviting technicians... he made five or six trips back and forth to Shangzhou District. When everything was ready, in April 2014, he led the villagers in planting the "sweet fruit" of prosperity.
Before long, Hu Xiaolin established the "Yaolin Farmers' Professional Cooperative," letting both impoverished and non-impoverished households taste the benefits and driving the development of the whole village's Chinese medicinal herb industry. The cooperative subsidizes impoverished households 150 yuan per mu for seed costs and non-impoverished households 120 yuan, and from time to time invites technical experts from Shangzhou to the village to provide free technical training for herb growers. During last year's and this year's sales seasons, the cooperative fully played its "shop assistant" role, voluntarily building a "communication bridge" between growers and out-of-town buyers from Shanxi and elsewhere, ensuring that the villagers' Sophora flavescens had a market and fetched a good price, achieving a "one-stop" service from planting to sales.
"Last year I sold the seeds for 6,000 yuan, and this year I sold the roots for 5,000 yuan. Getting more than ten thousand in cash all at once is much better than doing odd jobs away from home!" said Yu Zengling, an impoverished household, beaming with joy. Yu Zengling had long worked odd jobs nearby, but could not guarantee work every day of the year, and on top of that the returns from farming were not high, so life had always been hard. Since growing Sophora flavescens, not only has it not held up her going out to work, but her income is also much higher than before. Yu Zengling said with full confidence: "From now on I'll grow Sophora flavescens well. Now I'm full of confidence about shaking off poverty."
Not long ago the village also planted 650 mu of Forsythia suspensa, and Chinese medicinal herb cultivation has become the main card in Chenjiahe Village's fight against poverty and pursuit of prosperity. Next, Hu Xiaolin will lead the villagers in expanding the planting area and taking the path of large-scale cultivation, so that more farming households can embark on the path of shaking off poverty and growing rich through medicinal herb cultivation. He said: "The original intention of doing all this was to motivate the villagers to create a better life with their own hands. Only by teaching them how to 'generate blood' can we change the village's poor and backward appearance."
In recent years, Wangshiao Subdistrict has firmly grasped the favorable opportunity of our city's accelerated development of the modern traditional Chinese medicine industry, supporting and developing Chinese medicinal herb cultivation as a key industry for adjusting the agricultural industrial structure, increasing farmers' income and cultivating local revenue sources, and gradually realizing the transformational development of a resource-based region. At present, the jurisdiction has planted more than ten varieties including Sophora flavescens, Forsythia suspensa, oil peony and Pinellia ternata, involving 5 villages including Chenjiahe Village, Aobei Village and Lijiata Village, and has established 6 Chinese medicinal herb farmers' professional cooperatives. Yang Zhuanyun, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and director of the office of Wangshiao Subdistrict, said: "Using two to three years, we will achieve 5,000 mu of Chinese medicinal herb cultivation, build an exclusive 'authentic Chinese medicinal herb' brand, extend the industrial chain, and strive to build the Wangshiao Chinese medicinal herb cultivation demonstration base."