Flower farms enable rural vitalization

Southwest China's Guizhou province is not known for traditional flower plantations. However, suitable climate and fertile soil, coupled with immense scope for agricultural innovation, are igniting the business instincts of people near and far, and attracting them to start up floral businesses.

For instance, Annie Leung, hailing from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, visits Hezhang county in Bijie, Guizhou, to collect flowers her startup grows for sale in Hong Kong.

During a trip to Hezhang county with her mother in 2017, Leung was deeply impressed by the purple leek flowers all over the mountain, and decided to start up a floral business there.

Up on Wumeng Mountain, at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, Leung established flower farms. Within three years, she built 517 greenhouses and 400 flower cultivation bases. She had over 30 chrysanthemum varieties — such as white fan chrysanthemum and olive green — planted successfully, and also introduced foreign breeds such as Hokkaido lavender and cherry blossom.

At present, there is a wide variety of high-value, precious flowers planted at the base, including over 5 million cherry blossoms and over 200,000 Annabelle hydrangea bulbs. But, from the market's perspective, demand is so high that floral products from Hezhang are always in short supply.

Through independent research and development, Leung and her team developed a series of products, including automobile aromatherapy, household aromatherapy and air fresheners. The team is striving to expand its product portfolio.

The flower plantation bases employ or involve over 2,400 farmers, generating a collective income of 12 million yuan for 796 poor families in Hezhang.

Leung also established a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao youth program to aid the Guizhou entrepreneurship base, creating employment or internship opportunities for young people from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

"I want to serve as a bridge for them to better know about and contribute to our country," she said.

Even micro-level businesses, or cottage industries, are thriving on local floriculture and the related deep processing sector, which are helping increase the incomes of village farmers.

Wulidun village, located at an altitude of over 1,000 meters in Huangping county in Guizhou, boasts a cool climate, loose soil and sufficient sunlight, all of which make the place suitable for the development of floriculture and horticulture. Roses planted here give off a splendid aroma.

Yang Zaiying, a villager in Wulidun village, said, "During the rose bloom period, we climb mountains to pick roses and can earn around 120 yuan ($17.3) per person per day."

Wu Zhigang, Party secretary of Wulidun, said that rose picking comprises two tasks: picking rose buds, which are used to make rose flower tea, and picking flower petals, which are used to make rose fluid.

"Roses here bloom in May. Every day, more than 30 farmers pick roses. The roses collected are used to make related products, which enjoy great popularity among consumers," Wu said.

He said Wulidun is home to over 380 families whose adult members total 1,600 farmers and rose plantations provide livelihoods to nearly 1,200 farmers.

Liao Qiwen, who is in charge of an agricultural cooperative in Wulidun, said the agricultural cooperative in the village he heads picks over 30 kilograms of roses annually. These are made into 1.5 kg of rose tea and 5 kg of rose hydrolat. In 2020, the agricultural cooperative received a dividend of 74,800 yuan, and the village's annual income per capita reached 9,880 yuan. In the past, the number was 4,800 yuan. People's living standards were greatly improved.

In the past, when Wulidun did not have a pillar industry, the village was poor. In 2017, the village started to try planting roses. The head of the village invited botanists to provide guidance.

Later on, they found that the soil and climate of Wulidun are suitable for planting roses. The first batch of 100 mu (6.67 hectares) of roses grew well and there was a considerable harvest. Then, the villagers increased the plantation to 400 mu to earn higher incomes.

Liao said: "At present, the rose harvest is good. During the May Day holiday every year, the mountains and fields are filled with refreshing rose fragrance. Unfortunately, I can't find more distribution channels, so I am also considering developing tourism alongside, in the form of flower appreciation tours.

"At the same time, the local government is actively searching for merchants to conduct on-site research or expand sales channels through online platforms."

He noted that recently, they found a retailer who is willing to participate in joint ventures to expand the planting scale by 1,000 mu.

Wulidun has been developing rose-related products as well. Existing products include rose hydrolat and rose tea. To ensure the natural quality of roses, the base strictly controls every production process, including rose planting, picking and production, and prohibits the use of pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides and other harmful materials.

In order to improve the quality of rose tea and rose hydrolat, farmers pick them before dawn and well before the roses bloom fully, as the flowers have the highest nutritional value around that time and exude their best fragrance. If they miss the picking time, the quality of the roses will be affected.

In the next step, Wulidun will continue to expand the scale of its rose plantations and also explore a business format that can combine rose plantations and tourism in more novel ways, Liao said.

Such formats, the villagers believe, can closely integrate the rose business with its cultural and creative aspects. In turn, that can drive more villagers to participate in flower cultivation, increase their respective family income, and promote the development and growth of the village's collective economy, thereby deepening rural vitalization.

Wu Tao, Party secretary and vice-chairman of the federation of trade unions of Huangping county, said, "We should grasp the business opportunity and take advantage of the good vibes that roses create, to further expand the plantation scale of roses and introduce more breeds.

"Meanwhile, we should actively build a rose industrial park that integrates industrial development with ornamental tourism, and continuously expand its scale and efficiency.

"It is also crucial to seize important festival time, increase flower planting in industrial parks, extend the flower industrial chain, increase the added value of flowers, attract more tourists in the form of ecotourism, and further drive the development of rural tourism in the entire region."