Farmers in central China's Hunan Province are capitalizing on the non-timber forest-based economy, transforming verdant hillsides into tangible wealth while charting a green development path that delivers both ecological and economic benefits.
On Oct. 20, at the bamboo shoot processing workshop of Hunan Green Land High-tech Agricultural and Forestry Development Co., Ltd. in Huitong county, Huaihua city, company head Yang Peiru was busy inspecting production lines.
Workers work at the bamboo shoot processing workshop of Hunan Green Land High-tech Agricultural and Forestry Development Co., Ltd. in Huitong county, Huaihua city, central China's Hunan Province, Oct. 20. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
Automated equipment hummed at high speed as workers moved methodically through their tasks. Fresh bamboo shoots were processed into diverse products to supply not only local markets, but also Shanghai, south China's Guangdong Province, and other regions.
"Currently, our company has leased 50,000 mu (about 3,333 hectares) of bamboo forests, supported by 10 primary processing plants for bamboo shoots and one advanced processing facility. We've also partnered with Hunan Agricultural University to establish a national-level science and technology backyard for bamboo shoots," Yang said.
With strong orders this year, sales are expected to reach 80 million yuan (about $11.23 million), he added.
Yang's success owes much to Huitong county's innovative measures. In 2021, the local government integrated three separate rights—forest land use rights, forest ownership, and forest use rights—into a single tradable "immovable property rights certificate." This certificate can be used as collateral for bank loans, enabling enterprises and farmers to benefit from policy incentives for the non-timber forest-based economy.
"The measure has delivered real benefits to enterprises," Yang said, noting that his company used the loan to purchase four fully automated packaging machines, and build a large-scale sterilization system, a quick-freezing production line and a 10,000-cubic-meter cold storage facility, boosting daily output from 10,000 packages to 100,000.
"Huitong Bamboo Shoot" has been certified as a national geographic indication product, said Li Chao, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China Huitong County Committee.
Since 2024, the county has added 25 new bamboo shoot-related market entities and 10 enterprises, working to build a 10-billion-yuan bamboo shoot industrial chain.
On the morning of Oct. 21, villagers began their work early in the greenhouses of a breeding and seedling base for horny goat weed, a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, in Huoshenpo village, Lianshan township, Huitong county. The base is operated by Zhongxin Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd.
Su Zexiang weeds in a greenhouse of a breeding and seedling base for horny goat weed, a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, in Huoshenpo village, Lianshan township, Huitong county, Huaihua city, central China's Hunan Province. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
"I'm from nearby Xuanshui village. I've transferred my land to the base, and I collect rent while working here with fellow villagers during the slack farming season. I can earn around 10,000 yuan in wages a year," said villager Su Zexiang while pulling weeds.
Photo shows the horny goat weed cultivation base at the Guangping state-owned forest farm in Dapo village, Huitong county, Huaihua city, central China's Hunan Province. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
Cai Yemao, general manager of the company, said the Huoshenpo base features 240 mu of standardized breeding greenhouses built in 2024, producing 10 million horny goat weed seedlings annually—enough to plant 3,000 mu of commercial cultivation bases.
"We expect comprehensive output value to reach 20 million yuan this year," he said, noting that the base has created jobs for over 50 local villagers while generating 50,000 yuan in annual revenue for the village collective economy.
On Oct. 21, at a poria cocos base in Huaihua's Jingzhou Miao and Dong Autonomous County, Wang Xinzhi, general manager of Jingzhou Guoling Technology Co., Ltd., skillfully dug into the soil beneath waxberry trees and extracted a piece of poria cocos, a medicinal fungus used in both food and traditional Chinese medicine.
Workers process poria cocos at the production workshop of Jingzhou Guoling Technology Co., Ltd. in Jingzhou Miao and Dong Autonomous County, Huaihua city, central China's Hunan Province. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
"The model of planting poria cocos under waxberry trees saves land resources and reduces land transfer costs by 80 yuan per mu. After harvesting, the poria cocos also provides organic fertilizer for the waxberry trees, achieving a win-win for farmers and enterprises," Wang said.
Currently, Jingzhou county has 30,000 mu of poria cocos cultivation, with 15 enterprises above the designated size, 33 high-tech enterprises, 12 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products, 261 processing cooperatives and family farms, and 3,564 individual processors, directly supporting employment and income growth for over 70,000 people.
A farmer shows freshly harvested Siberia landpick, a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, at a cultivation base of Hunan Xinzhu Ecological Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd. in central China's Hunan Province. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
Hunan Xinzhu Ecological Agriculture Technology Co., Ltd. has established a cultivation base for Siberian landpick, a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, in Hecheng district, Huaihua.
"The first 150 tonnes of Siberian landpick from this year's harvest season have already been fully pre-ordered," said Bao Yangde, general manager of the company.
The company has built a system integrating processing and sales and developed six product categories. Its sales channels include offline partnerships with seven traditional Chinese medicine wholesalers and 18 chain pharmacies, supplying about 150 tonnes of dried products annually. The company sells around 1,500 tonnes yearly through e-commerce platforms and livestream sessions. It also provides customized raw materials to three food enterprises.
Today in Hunan, "small herbs" like poria cocos, Siberian landpick, and horny goat weed are bringing wealth to villagers, enterprises, and local governments, contributing to the province's non-timber forest-based economy, which now has an annual output value exceeding 67 billion yuan.
Photo shows an oil-tea camellia fruit at an oil-tea camellia tree planting base in Banshan town, Liling city, central China's Hunan Province. (People's Daily Overseas Edition/Yang Junfeng)
As of 2024, Hunan's non-timber forest-based economy had utilized 36.1 million mu of forest land, produced over 12.7 million tonnes of forest-based food products, directly supported employment for more than 3 million people, and increased farmers' per capita income by over 2,800 yuan annually.
Data shows that as of 2024, Hunan's total area of oil-tea camellia trees—a vital source of edible oil obtained from their seeds—reached 23.71 million mu, with an output of 440,000 tonnes of tea oil and a comprehensive output value of 94.3 billion yuan. This placed Hunan first in the nation across all four categories: planting area, output, value, and research capacity.
Source: People's Daily Online
