Jasmine farming enriches Guangxi’s Tanwen village

p.china.org.cn by Sun Fang, August 13, 2021
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Suffering from difficulties with irrigation, reliance on single-crop agriculture, a weak industrial foundation, and a large outflow of its labor force, mountainous Tanwen village, Xiaoyi town, Hengxian county, Nanning city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was impoverished until years ago.


In May 2019, supported by Nanning’s Water Resources Bureau, Tanwen village implemented a farmland water conservancy irrigation project, which resulted in an additional 106.7 ha of land in the village being irrigated in an efficient manner.


The irrigation infrastructure that was constructed formed a good foundation for Tanwen’s industrial development. Hengxian has a long history of jasmine cultivation, so the local government began implementing a comprehensive collection of measures to create a complete industrial chain around the plant. In 2019, the county began subsidizing farmers who grow new species of jasmine at the rate of 9,000 yuan (US$1,393) per ha, which caused many of them to adjust their production structures.


“You can make 300 to 400 yuan (US$46 to US$62) of income a day during blooming season, which is from April to October, if you work hard,” Tanwen jasmine grower Meng Yuehua mentioned recently.


Many processing companies have been purchasing Hengxian’s jasmine plants as its industry grows. Xiaoyi town has also taken the opportunity to create a jasmine-themed townlet . An average of more than 100 tons of the crop is currently traded per day in the county, and prices are rising as demand increases.


“The fragrance of jasmine flowers has been getting stronger in our village over the past two years as more and more are planted,” Meng noted. “I am able to earn more than 150,000 yuan (US$23,220) per ha per year.”


“My family is currently growing the flowers on 0.13 ha of land,” Tanwen resident Deng Guiying said with a smile. “There are so many that it’s hard to harvest them all sometimes. No one in Hengxian will live in poverty anymore as long as they are willing to get involved.”


Tanwen is currently pursuing a long-term development plan in order to promote the healthy development of its jasmine industry. A poverty alleviation-oriented potted jasmine cultivation demonstration park that takes advantage of transportation improvements that have been made in the village in recent years was established in the village, and e-commerce is being vigorously pursued.


“Some very artistic potted jasmine Penzai (the ancient Chinese artform involving the creation of aesthetically pleasing plants and landscapes in miniature) sell for 200,000 to 300,000 yuan (US$30,960 to US$46,440),” a local businessman named Yu Ziqian noted. “The plants were used as firewood in the past but experience a lot of demand now.”


The Tanwen native used to sell household appliances in Guangdong province but returned to his hometown in order to get involved with the industry when it began to expand. He is very optimistic about its future and the positive role that e-commerce is playing, and his business has been doing very well.


More than 300,000 potted jasmine Penzai have been cultivated and sold at the village’s demonstration park thus far, which has helped farmers in Tanwen and the surrounding areas increase their incomes and the hamlet’s cooperative achieve 88,000 yuan (US$13,622) of additional income per year at present.