Thanks to the local government’s supportive policies for the development of the daylily industry, it has become a cash cow in helping locals get rid of poverty in Yunzhou district, Datong city of north China’s Shanxi province.
Workers dry daylilies at a poverty alleviation workshop of Huaqingtian Agriculture Co., Ltd. in Yunzhou district, Datong, north China’s Shanxi province. (People’s Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)
The district established a department responsible for the daylily industry, inviting agricultural experts to instruct farmers on how to grow daylilies, a kind of edible flower used in traditional Chinese medicine. “Our agency is a one-stop shop for the daylily industry,” said An Yiping, director of the department.
Yunzhou has built irrigation facilities for all of the daylily fields, provided places for growers to dry harvested daylilies in the sun, taken out insurance against risks for them, offered loans for growers, and introduced enterprises to help them sell the flowers.
Now growing daylilies is very popular in the district, with the total area of daylily plantations increasing from about 1,120 hectares in 2011 to the current 11,333 hectares in 109 villages.
Believing that the daylily industry in Datong will enjoy great prospects, the official said processing would significantly increase the added value of the flowers and daylily farms could be attractive destinations for tourists during their blossoming seasons, helping increase farmers’ income.
Photo shows a poverty alleviation daylily workshop in Yunzhou district, Datong, north China’s Shanxi province. (People’s Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)
Major enterprises and cooperatives have also been engaged in the development of the industry and poverty alleviation.
Datong Sanli Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. is a local private company engaged in the purchase, processing and sale of daylilies. According to the company’s general manager Pang Naidong, the company sells about 2,000 tons of dried daylilies nationwide each year, generating an annual sale volume of more than 60 million yuan ($8.89 million).
Relying on the advantages of Yunzhou as a production base of daylilies and coarse cereals, the company has signed contracts with 210,000 farmers in 10 townships of the district to purchase daylilies.
Huaqingtian Agriculture Co., Ltd., founded in June 2020, is another daylily processing enterprise in the district. It is committed to formulating management standards for growing and for the products to make sure that people maintain a peace of mind about what they eat, according to Huang Fei, head of the company.
Daylily products made in Yunzhou (People’s Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)
Companies represented by Sanli and Huaqingcheng are launching highly processed goods such as daylily sauce, extending the industrial chain and improving the added value of daylilies.
Yang Qi, a 52-year-old man with dark skin and of medium build in Xiayujian village in Yunzhou, has been engaged in the daylily business for 27 years.
When the district decided to develop the daylily growing and processing industry, while introducing supportive policies for impoverished people in 2011, Yang encouraged over 50 poor households to transfer more than 33.3 hectares of land and established a cooperative to standardize the growing and processing of daylilies. As a result, the high quality flowers have helped farmers increase income of more than 1 million yuan (roughly $148,000) as the unit price per 1 kilograms increased by 8 yuan.
The cooperative also set up a daylily supply base and has provided farmers with free planting technology training and pest control, effectively enhancing the production efficiency of the base. This year the cooperative has contracted more than 33.3 hectares of land from 108 impoverished households in neighboring villages to build an organic daylily base. On average, each household can earn an income of 15,000 to 20,000 yuan per year from the annual rent of 500 yuan per mu (667 square meters) of land and the subsidy of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan for daylily seedlings.
