Answering the nation's call to promote the preservation and innovative development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Juye county in East China's Shandong province is helping local farmers to make TCM cultivation become a big cash earner.

Following a concept of "cooperatives + companies + farmers," the county has vigorously bolstered the cultivation of TCM materials and extended its TCM industrial chain, optimizing the industrial layout and widening channels for farmers to increase their income as a way to boost rural vitalization.

Inside a cultivation base of Banlangen — dried root of Isatis indigotica Fortune, a biennial herb with a plant height averaging 50 to 100 centimeters — in Longgu town, large machines were shuttling back and forth in the fields to harvest the medicinal herbs on Nov 26, while workers were busy sorting and packing them into baskets.

Seeing the bustling scene, Bi Yanhui, a farmer from Mengtong planting professional cooperative, said: "I have leased over 300 mu (20 hectares) of land here this year, and now I am harvesting the herb. On average, one mu of land can produce more than 300 kilograms of dried goods, which can be sold for 3,000 yuan ($422) to 4,000 yuan — much better than growing grain crops."

As the land in Longgu is predominantly sandy and muddy, with deep and loose soil layers and high organic matter content, making it very suitable for planting TCM herbs, the town has fully utilized this resource advantage in recent years, expanding the cultivation of TCM plants.

The town authorities helped to offer local growers guidance throughout the entire process — from land preparation, sowing, fertilization, harvesting, to processing, warehousing and sales — and safeguard the quality of TCM plants from the source, thus attracting many merchants to purchase medicinal materials in the area.

Guo Niankun, general manager of Shandong Haiguang Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Development Co Ltd, said: "Today, when I went to the field, I found that the quality of this Banlangen plant is very good, as its main root is thick and robust while there are no capillary roots. When it is dried and processed into slices, the medical benefits will be even better."

By sticking to a strategy of "develop an industry to enrich the farmers," Juye county has promoted standardized planting and deep processing of TCM in its multiple towns and sub-districts through this operation mode of "cooperatives + companies + farmers," leading to the local TCM industrial chain constantly improving, and a cluster of integrated tertiary industries emerging.

The county has developed more than 15,000 mu of TCM herbs, seeing an average yield worth over 6,000 yuan per mu.

Li Qinghua, senior agronomist at the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau of Juye county, said: "Juye has vigorously developed the standardized planting of TCM herbs, and improved the quality and production efficiency of TCM plants in a bid to up their planting scale and technical standardization."

He added: "All these steps will help speed up the ecological and standardized development of TCM cultivation, solidifying the healthy development of the county's entire TCM industry and meeting the nation's call for an innovative development of TCM."