Precious Rhodiola plants help China’s Tibetan people out of poverty

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In 2015, Bama Chho Dzong, a resident of Tibet’s Shannanluo village, learned that a small, flowering plant-Rhodiola could help impoverished residents of the autonomous region improve their lives.

Rhodiola is a genus of precious perennial plants that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. After China’s Tibet began accepting tourists, demand increased sharply.

In 2015, Shanghai Inoherb Cosmetics Co., Ltd., the Tibet Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences and the Qizheng Tibetan Medicine Group established Rhodiola cultivation bases, which made it possible for impoverished people like Bama to return to their hometown and begin working there. During the past three years, three Rhodiola cultivation bases were established.

The first Rhodiola cultivation base was established in Luo village and 60,000 Rhodiola seedlings were planted in 2016. Members of 48 households in the area began engaging in irrigation, weed and pest control, and pruning work at the site.

The second Rhodiola cultivation base was established in Suozhu township, Naidong district and 20,000 Rhodiola seedlings were planted in 2018. The staff compared seedlings that grew from seeds with those that were the results of seed culture projects, grew the plants in various soil environments and have continued to explore various cultivation techniques.

In 2019, the third Rhodiola cultivation base was established in the Shigatse Red River Valley National Agricultural Science and Technology Demonstration Zone and a model involving “gardens + enterprises + farmers and herders” was created and implemented.

The plants that the bases grow currently have a survival rate of more than 80 percent. The results that have been achieved have motivated more and more people to participate in the cultivation of plants used in TCM and the management of the bases. Inoherb pays a management fee based on the survival rate that is attained and bonuses are awarded for high rates which helps to stimulate impoverished people’s intrinsic motivation to escape from poverty.

“We have been growing Rhodiola plants for three years. Our hard work has paid off and our cultivation techniques have been improving. Rhodiola cultivation benefits Tibet’s residents, so more and more people are becoming interested in participating in the industry. We also hope that our techniques can be further promoted,” said Bama Dorje Yudon Yuthok, Rhodiola tissue culture expert from Tibet Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences.