Medicinal herbs bring cash ingredient to farmers in Shandong

At a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) planting base in Juancheng county in Shandong province, broad stretches of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge plants unfold on Feb 20, as a gentle breeze blows, sending a faint medicinal fragrance in the air.

Danshen, the dried roots and tubers of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge grown in Juancheng due to its rich soil in the Yellow River basin in southwestern Shandong, has a high content of effective ingredients and is widely received in the market as a famous TCM.

At the township of Lijinshitang (the Hall of Senior Scholar Li Passing the Highest Imperial Examination), the Party branch of Jiangudui village has actively followed the country’s call for rural vitalization and helped develop a characteristic TCM planting industry, seeking large-scale and industrialized development.

Li Zhanjun, a member of the Party branch committee at Jiangudui, said to ensure the steady development of the TCM seed planting industry, the township has played a coordinating role, establishing contact with higher-level agricultural departments and professional agricultural institutions, and inviting experts to come to offer guidance on seed selection, seedling cultivation, field management and pest control to growers.

The vigorous development of the TCM industry not only helped farmers to increase their income, but also offered a large number of jobs for farmers in surrounding villages, said Liu Zhuo, a township resident.

During the TCM harvest season, the planting base is crowded with people, who cooperate to harvest the medical herbs and earn their respective income, he said.

The vigorous development of the characteristic TCM planting industry in Lijinshitang, as a vivid practice of rural vitalization strategy at the grassroots level, offers the local farmers a new road toward rural industrial vitalization, said Liu.