On November 1, the early winter sun slanted through the Chinese bayberry trees at the Guanbaodu Chinese Medicinal Herb Industry Demonstration Base in Jingzhou Miao and Dong Autonomous County. Beneath the canopy, farmers bent over to plant young yuzhu plants and cover them with soil, with more planting material neatly arranged at their feet. Operated by Hunan Qingjing Biotechnology Co., Ltd., this is China’s first yuzhu farm certified under the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standards for Chinese medicinal materials. Yuzhu, or fragrant Solomon’s seal, is grown for its medicinal rhizomes. With winter planting under way and processing in full swing, intercropping beneath the trees and rotating crops on staggered schedules are turning these woodlands into a steady source of income—a “green bank” for local residents.
Yuzhu Beneath Bayberry Trees Brings Three Income Streams from One Plot
Zhen Heying, a resident of Guanbaodu Village, crouched beside a furrow, her fingertips muddy and her trouser legs rolled up to her ankles. She deftly laid out young plants, covered them with soil and pressed it down. Having just finished a two-week harvest, she had moved straight into winter planting, with no shortage of work.
Straightening up to wipe the sweat from her forehead, she smiled. “I used to work away from home all year, always worrying about my family. Now I have work right on my doorstep and can look after both the young and the old at home.”
Her family has leased two mu (about 0.13 hectares) of hillside land to the farm, securing an annual rent regardless of harvest conditions. Work on the farm is paid by the day, and a diligent worker can earn more than 10,000 yuan a year. The bayberry trees still belong to her family, who keep all the income from the fruit. The hills and the people are the same; a different farming model has simply created three income streams from one plot.
Previously, the village’s hillside plots were scattered, making large-scale farming difficult, while produce fetched low prices. The village’s Communist Party general branch stepped in as an intermediary, bringing the plots together and improving them as a contiguous area before leasing the land to the company. This gave the company access to the land it needed for farming at scale and provided the village collective with a stable income. The difference between the rent paid to landholders and the rent received from the company, together with workforce management fees and dividends from an equity stake, now brings the collective more than 200,000 yuan a year.
Today, more than 60 residents of Guanbaodu alone work at the farm year-round, while the operation helps more than 130 households in the surrounding area earn a steady additional income.
Production Standards and Crop Rotation Keep Yields Steady
The farmers’ reliable earnings rest on clear production standards and dependable output.
The 500-mu (about 33-hectare) core growing area developed by Hunan Qingjing Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is China’s first yuzhu farm to receive GAP certification. Uniform production standards apply across six stages: site selection, planting material, field management, agricultural inputs, harvesting, and processing, storage and transport. Every plant is traceable from sprouting to dispatch.
“Yuzhu takes three years to grow, and getting winter planting right is crucial to both yield and quality,” said Tu Haibo, the farm’s production manager, as he walked along a furrow inspecting the plants. The company has developed a system of growing medicinal crops beneath bayberry trees and rotating poria, a medicinal fungus, with yuzhu on staggered schedules. Each year, 300 to 500 mu (20 to 33 hectares) enter the rotation, with harvesting in one plot followed by planting in another. Mature rhizomes go to the workshop for processing, while young shoots are transplanted on site. The system maintains soil fertility while keeping the land productive and yields stable from year to year.
As planting continues in the fields, workers in the processing workshop are busy filling orders. Freshly harvested yuzhu is washed, sorted, sliced and steamed on the day it arrives. The products are supplied directly to more than 150 pharmaceutical companies, including Kangmei Pharmaceutical and Yunnan Baiyao. This year, the company secured 70 percent of the volume of yuzhu orders under the national centralized procurement program for prepared Chinese medicinal materials. Its production schedule is already booked through January next year.
Recognized as a national high-tech enterprise, Hunan Qingjing Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has more than 60 research achievements to its name, including 16 patents relating to poria and yuzhu. It has developed products such as soup ingredient packs, herbal wellness teas and powdered drink mixes, expanding further along the value chain. General Manager Jiang Fan said the company would continue investing in research and development and expanding into higher-value processing, working with local residents to build a stronger industry.
A Forest Farming Model Takes Root Across the County
The experience gained at this one farm has produced a model that can be replicated elsewhere.
Jingzhou has made Chinese medicinal herb production a leading local industry in its rural revitalization efforts, with more than 90,000 mu (6,000 hectares) under cultivation across the county. Local authorities continue to enforce cultivation standards and strengthen the industry’s reputation. Both poria and yuzhu production have now received GAP certification, raising the profile of Jingzhou’s medicinal materials, which are prized for their regional provenance and quality.
Yao Xihuang, deputy director of the county office coordinating the traditional Chinese medicine industry chain, said the next step was to extend the GAP cultivation standards and the ecological forest crop rotation model across the county. The aim is to encourage more producers to follow standardized practices, strengthen the reputation of Jingzhou’s poria and yuzhu, and turn woodlands throughout the county into sources of income.
As the winter sun falls on the bayberry branches, newly planted yuzhu lies in the moist soil, ready for next year’s growth. With demonstration plots giving rise to more medicinal herb farms and standardized practices gradually replacing scattered small-scale cultivation, Jingzhou’s forest farming industry is building a firmer foundation for the long term.
(Translated by Feng Tao)