Day lilies bring profit growth to farmers

Day lily harvest season, which runs from July to August, is the busiest time for farmers in Yunzhou, a district in the city of Datong in northern Shanxi province.

Tang Wan, 60, a farmer in the village of Tangjiapu in the district, gets up before sunrise every morning to collect the flowers.

The flowers of day lilies, a profitable product, are also known as "worry-free grass" and are used as a popular food ingredient throughout China.

"The best time to collect day lily flowers is before sunrise, when they are not in full bloom," Tang explained.

Datong has a history of growing day lilies that dates back 600 years. The day lily products from the city are renowned for their quality thanks to local farmers' experience and the unique soil, sunlight and irrigation conditions.

In recent years, the local day lily industry has expanded substantially due to authorities' efforts to drive modernization and standardization.

According to the Datong government, the city's area of the crop has expanded to more than 17,000 hectares, accounting for about one-fourth of the country's total. The revenue from the industry, which includes more than 100 product varieties, reached 1.84 billion yuan ($284 million) last year.

Yunzhou district is the most important day lily industry base in Datong. It has an extended day lily-related industrial chain that covers plantation, processing, logistics, sales and farming-themed sightseeing.

The potential of the industry has attracted a great number of entrepreneurs to start businesses in Yunzhou. In return, their businesses have further boosted the industry's development.

Cai Jun is a native of the village of Tangjiapu. He used to work as an executive at a company outside Datong. He returned to his home village in 2008 upon hearing the news that Datong planned to grow the day lily industry into an important pillar of its rural economy.

Building on his experience as an operations officer in his former company, Cai started his business as an agent of day lily sales, purchasing local produce and selling it to clients throughout the country. He later expanded his operations to logistics and processing.

In the neighboring village of Xiayujian, there are a great number of dealers like Cai.

The village of Xiayujian is home to more than 100 dealers, who buy day lily flowers and other produce throughout Datong and sell them to processing enterprises across the country.

For ordinary growers, day lilies are the major source of revenue for their families.

Xie Wen, a farmer in the village of Hedian in Yunzhou district, said his family planted 0.62 hectares of day lilies this year.

"Our income from collecting day lily flowers reached nearly 40,000 yuan to date this season, and there is more to come considering the harvest has not ended," Xie said.

That income is much higher than growing conventional grain crops like wheat and corn, the farmer noted.

He said many farmers in his village have been lifted out of poverty and live a better life by planting day lilies.

"I still regret that I didn't get involved in the industry several years earlier," Xie said. "Otherwise my daughter could be a university student with the support of the revenue."

The harvest of day lily flowers has also attracted many tourists to the farms.

"Every July and August, the continuous expanse of blooming day lily flowers make Yunzhou an attractive destination to visitors," said Guo Yuepu, head of Yunzhou district.

He added that farming-themed sightseeing has also brought additional revenue to local farmers.

"The day lily industry is playing an increasingly important role in rural revitalization," the official said.

Like Datong, various regions in Shanxi province have fostered their own characteristic farming industries to boost rural revitalization and help farmers increase revenues.

For instance, more than 15,000 farmers are engaged in the cultivation of edible fungi in Zhongyang county.

The industry generated a total output value of 250 million yuan last year, bringing a per capita net income of about 8,000 yuan to farmers involved, according to the county government.

Supporting the strong growth are various farming cooperatives and farming experts throughout the province.

Wei Meiling, 41, is a native of the village of Langshuyuan in Pingshun county.

She returned to her home village in 2015 to start a cooperative for millet farming, processing and sales.

Over the past several years, the cooperative has involved the participation of more than 500 households in Langshuyuan and neighboring villages. And the cooperative's millet plantation area has surpassed 130 hectares.

"Farmers here produce high-quality millet," Wei said. "But they didn't know how to market their produce so they couldn't make much from their farming."

The entrepreneur now uses various online tools, including livestreams, to market millet for farmers.

"We have livestreamed the whole process of millet farming, so customers can better understand the quality of our products and are more willing to buy," Wei said.

Local agronomists have played an important role in helping to improving the quality and yield of crops.

The Shanxi Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said it has dispatched a number of expert teams to various areas in Shanxi to guide farmers through farming activities and cultivating new seedlings.

The teams gave about 2,000 lectures to more than 125,000 farmers during the first half of this year. They have also introduced more than 300 higher-quality seedling varieties to farmers during their tours, according to the department.

Chai Zhiguang contributed to this story.