Shaoguan’s construction of ecological agriculture industry benefits its people
The statistical record of forestry production in 2021 of Shaoguan city shows that the area that develops under-forest economy has reached 2.1 billion square meters, with about 2.7 million square meters of newly cultivated area for the plantation of tea, fruit, traditional Chinese medicine and camellia tree. The output value of forestry industry is 23.07 billion yuan.
The statistics clearly show that Shaoguan city has not only made great progress in afforestation, but also brought betterment and more income to its people by protecting its clear water and green mountains.
Chebaling National Nature Reserve
New mindset leads to better income from developing under-forest economy
If you stand in the Lingtou Village, Daqiao Town, Ruyuan Yao Minority Autonomous County, and look far away, you can see rolling green mountains under the blue sky and white clouds. For Lingtou Village, where the rocky desertification was so severe that trees could only be planted in between the rocks, it has not been easy to make such an achievement now.
The municipal Forestry Bureau vigorously promotes the plantation of specific kinds of economic forests such as camellia oleifera, bamboo and Chinese herbal medicine, while the intensive processing of bamboo has become the impetus for the further development of the understory economy.
At present, there are ten kinds of under-forest agricultural industries, namely Chinese medicinal herbs, fungi, tea, fruits, vegetables (bamboo shoots), flowers, poultry, honeybees, livestock and forest tourism.
Among them, the city has a camellia plantation farm of 180 million square meters, two breeding bases of high quality camellia, with an annual output of 18,000 tons of camellia seeds and 3,768 tons of camellia oil. Three agricultural companies-Baohua Agricultural Science, Youfeng and Bi Chunhui have camellia plantation base of 6.67 million square meters respectively.
Camellia plantation on rocky desertification mountains.
There are 48 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines planted under the forest area, such as fructus evodiae, sarcandra glabra, beautiful millettia root, dendrobium officinale, pericarpium citri reticulatae and etc., covering an area of 42 million square meters, with an annual output of 24,200 tons and an output value of 271 million yuan.
Under-forest sarcandra glabra plantation
The city is also the largest bamboo plantation base and one of the the main bamboo production areas in the province, with a total bamboo forest area of 1.6 billion square meters, widely distributed in counties of Renhua, Nanxiong, Shixing, Lechang, Wengyuan and other places, with an annual output of 37.15 million large bamboo and 736,000 tons of mixed bamboo.
In addition, the municipality has also made full use of woodland to plant 50 million square meters of tea trees and 435 million square meters of fruit trees. The total developed understory economic area is 2.8 billion square meters, effectively promoting the revitalization of rural industries.
Integrated development of under-forest economy leads to a boom in the whole industrial chain
Developing wood processing industry, especially bamboo deep processing industry is an important means to increase the added value of forestry and strengthen forestry economy.
In recent years, the Municipal Forestry Bureau has adopted the method of government taking the lead to issue guidance on industry development and upgrading to curb the outdated and low-efficiency wood processing and production and encourage the development of refined and deep processing of wood, so as to make better use of the mountain forests.
Bamboo deep processing production line
To this end, the Municipal Forestry Bureau vigorously brings in investment and business to promote the development and upgrading of its forestry economic industry chain. There are 459 bamboo and wood processing enterprises including artificial wood panel, rosin, furniture, bamboo paper making, bamboo composite materials, bamboo crafts, and 5 camellia oleifera processing enterprises in the city.
Shaoneng Group bamboo paper production
Among them, some leading enterprises keep improving their production capacity and market competitiveness through technological innovation, equipment updating and process innovation, such as Aoda Plywood Company, which introduced a new bamboo production line, and Hongwei Wood Company, which introduced the whole bamboo and bamboo composite strand board production line , and Baohua Agricultural & Science Company, which developed new products like the 25-degree organic camellia oil, camellia facial mask and camellia essence by introducing a deep processing production line. All these production lines and products are at the leading level state wide.
At the same time, forest tourism and forest-based wellness and care industry and other forest- related tertiary industries are booming. The city has 3 national forest-based wellness and care bases, 8 provincial forest-based wellness and care bases, 1 base included in the first batch of provincial forest-based wellness and care bases, 29 municipal forest-based wellness and care bases, 30 home-stays and tourism companies included in the the first batch of Nanyue(Southern Guangdong) forest-based leisure bases; 3 provincial forest ecological parks; 11 forest tourist routes and 12 forest tourist spots being selected in the list of the 100 Forest Tourist Routes and 100 Forest Tourist Spots in Guangdong Province, ranking first in the province.
People get better income from under forest economy
In mid-May, on the Huangzhutang Ganoderma farm under the Xiangyuan Cooperative in Aizi town, Shixing County, villagers are busy with planting the last few batches of ganoderma which is cultivated in logs.
Shixing County is vigorously promoting the plantation of ganoderma under forest
Shixing County is a well-known county for its forest industry in China, with its rich forest resources covering a total area of 3.198 million hectares and a forest coverage rate of 77.74%. While carrying out ecological protection, Shixing County gives full play to the favourable policy of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on collective forestry comprehensive reform pilot zone, and actively promotes its rural revitalization through professional cooperatives of forest industry.
Xiangyuan Cooperative is one of them, which leads 103 farmers in Mantang village of Aizi town to plant under-story edible fungus.
Shixing county is a microcosm of Shaoguan city’s development of under forest economy, which takes under-story industry as the "new engine" of economic development and a “good helper” to increase farmers’ income.
In recent years, the Municipal Forestry Bureau has deeply promoted the reform and development of forestry, effectively stimulated the vitality of the forestry industry, and the number of new forestry industry operators ranks at the forefront of Guangdong province.
It is reported that Shaoguan city has 1 national understory economic demonstration base, 5 provincial understory economic demonstration counties, 30 provincial understory economic demonstration bases and 13 provincial special economic forest subsidy projects. There are 6 state-level leading forestry enterprises, 51 provincial-level leading forestry enterprises, and 243 farmers' cooperatives engaged in understory economy, with 232,800 farmers participating in the industry.
Development of various industries is an important way to improve people’s livelihood. "Livelihood Forestry Industry " has become one of the key words of ecological construction in Shaoguan city, and farmers are living a well-off life by engaging in the development of forestry industry.
