Become employed at home
Longshan is located in the hinterland of the Wuling Mountains. Due to the area’s unique soil and climate conditions, the lily planted there is pristine and organic and of high-quality. The plant was listed as a national geographical indication protection product in 2018.
The lily industry is now the largest agricultural sector in Longshan, involving 12,000 households in which about 45,000 people are registered as living under the poverty line. All relevant families are expected to earn nearly 20,000 yuan (US$ 2,814) from the special industry on a yearly basis.
Yu Xiaolong, who returned to Longshan several years ago, founded an agricultural development company and built a special park with 595 varieties of lily flowers. The annual output of his enterprise reached 16 million yuan and the firm provided local residents with 457 employment opportunities in 2020.
With a total planting area of 100,100 mu (about 6,673 hectares) of lily flowers, Longshan ranked first in the country in terms of both its yields and sales revenue in 2021.
Meanwhile, the development of the lily industry has also driven the growth of the local transportation, processing and storage sectors.
During the past few years, Longshan has intensified its efforts to promote the standardized plantation of lily flowers, reduce the utilization of fertilizers and pesticides, and make its soil more fertile in a move to further raise the quality of its lily flowers and achieve sustainable development of the lily industry.
The local government has organized scientific and technical workers in the agricultural sector to conduct provincial-level research & development projects on the scientific and standardized cultivation of lily flowers and aid farmers in lily planting.
So far, the county has built demonstration parks for lily planting in Shipai Town and Xiluo Town and made innovative approaches to strengthen cooperation between enterprises, planting bases and farmers and collaboration among professional cooperatives, planting bases and farmers in a move to further enhance the quality of local lily production.
Foster leading lily brands
Longshan has built a partnership with a Shanghai-based company for sale of lily flowers to the city and inked a cooperative deal with Hunan Airport Industrial Co on promoting the the lily industry.
During the China (Longshan) High-level Conference on the Lily Industry in October 2020 over 200 experts got together in Longshan for in-depth discussions over the development of the lily industry, industry-driven poverty reduction and rural revitalization.
In addition, Longshan has established a comprehensive industrial chain of lily flowers, which covers planting, sorting, packaging and cold-chain delivery and sets up sales channels in over 20 domestic cities in collaboration with professional associations and large farmers.
This May, a plantation base of lily flowers in Longshan attracted many visitors. Over 8,000 bunches of lily flowers were sold per day on average in a span of two months.
Longshan has also made great strides in the integrated development of its lily industry with homestays, rural tourism and research & development of lily-related products.