Bumper harvest of honeysuckle in Yuemaka Village

Villagers were busy harvesting honeysuckle flowers in the 500-mu (about 33.33 hectares) planting base of Yuemaka Village, Changle Township, Huayuan County.

Wu Shuying, a villager from Yuemaka Village who is 60 years old this year, has been working at the base for a long time. In the past few days, she has been busy picking honeysuckle flowers in the base with a bucket. “I can pick honeysuckle flowers of around 50 kilograms a day, and earn about 100 yuan,” she said. Wu Jianjun has planted honeysuckle for 14 years, and has increased the planting area from 5 mu (about 0.33 hectares) to 50 mu (about 3.33 hectares). He said, “The average income per mu (about 0.067 hectares) now is around 2,000 yuan, and around 10 workers are needed per year.”

14 years ago, he returned home and discovered the medicinal and economic value of honeysuckle. He participated in agricultural training and led surrounding villagers to plant honeysuckle together. Nowadays, there are many large growers like Wu Jianjun. The base offers jobs to over 300 villagers during the picking period each year and more than 100 persons all year round.

Honeysuckle is cold and drought resistant, and has a wide range of uses. Because it has the effects of preventing heatstroke, reducing fat, clearing heat, detoxifying, and dispersing wind heat, it is not only a commonly used Chinese medicinal herbal, but also a widely used raw material in traditional Chinese patent medicines. Honeysuckle is in short supply. Whenever there is a bountiful harvest of honeysuckle, merchants will come to make purchases. In recent years, Changle Township has made great efforts to develop characteristic planting and breeding industries such as honeysuckle, vine tea, and squab breeding according to local conditions to promote the development the village collective economy and increase villagers’ income.