Chinese Medicinal Herbs Drive Rural Prosperity in Keyouqian Banner, Inner Mongolia

In Xinlong Village, Bairigasitai Township of Keyouqian Banner, Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia, farmers are busy harvesting Chinese medicinal herbs. Robust Atractylodes lancea roots break through the soil, filling the air with a slightly bitter yet fresh herbal aroma, a scent local farmers associate with a better life.

Nestled at the southern foot of the Daxinganling Mountains, Xinlong Village boasts large temperature differences between day and night and deep humus soil, making it a natural habitat for medicinal herbs such as Atractylodes lancea, Platycodon grandiflorus and Saposhnikovia root. Ten years ago, the village decided to develop the medicinal herb industry after villagers learned planting techniques in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province, with strong support from local government.

Xinhua News Agency reports that after a decade of development, more than 170 households in Xinlong Village have increased their income by over 10 million yuan by planting medicinal herbs including Atractylodes lancea, Dictamnus dasycarpus, Scutellaria baicalensis and Paeonia lactiflora. The village has become a well-known "ten-million-yuan medicinal herb village" in the region, with the per mu income from herbs reaching over 7,000 yuan, eight times higher than that from corn planting.

The prosperity of Xinlong Village has driven the development of the medicinal herb industry in surrounding areas. In Baiyinh Gacha, Ergetu Town of Keyouqian Banner, 82 mu of low-efficiency forest land has been revitalized to build a high-standard medicinal herb demonstration park. Adopting the "Party branch + resident work team + cooperative + farmers" model, the village collective provides unified seedling supply, technical guidance, market connection and sales channels, eliminating farmers’ worries about planting and selling.

The demonstration park also integrates planting with leisure tourism, equipped with windmills and waterwheels to attract visitors. It has driven 24 households to develop courtyard planting, increasing their annual income by over 2,000 yuan per household, and employed more than 130 laborers with an average annual income increase of 2,000 yuan.

Today, the authentic medicinal herbs produced in Keyouqian Banner are favored by the market for their excellent quality. The banner’s total planting area of medicinal herbs reaches about 38,000 mu, with an annual output of over 110,000 tons and a comprehensive output value exceeding 10 billion yuan. More than 20,000 households in 10 towns and sumus are involved in the industrial chain, with an average annual income increase of about 5,000 yuan per person.

Merchants from Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong and other regions come in droves during the harvest season, ensuring the high-quality medicinal herbs are sold across the country. The medicinal herb industry has truly become a "golden industry" for farmers to increase their income and get rich.

Looking ahead, Keyouqian Banner will further expand the planting scale of authentic medicinal herbs, relying on its unique geographical advantages. It will focus on optimizing the industrial chain, improving product quality and exploring integrated development models of planting, processing and tourism, to inject more impetus into rural revitalization and help more farmers live a better life.