Intro: Zhouqu County is located in southern Gansu Province, southeast of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Tibetans account for 96% of the total 5, 565 population. In 2018, the per capita net income was around $1, 000 USD.
Main problems:
With limited natural resource and socio-economic assets in Zhouqu County, the famers lack risk-resilience to natural disasters and market fluctuation. COVID-19 continuously hit the residents in Zhouqu County since the majority of male labour force could not return to cities to seek job opportunities, while women at home normally not participating in labour market. Job slashed and income shrink require adaptation of feasible agricultural technology and exploration on new livelihood method. The planting of Chinese herbal medicine offers a new option for farmers after pandemic. As is proved effective to treat COVID-19, the price of Chinese herbal medicine leaped in 2020. With increased labour force in Zhouqu County, the farmers could therefore increase their income through planting Chinese herbal medicine and make effort on building sustainable forestry ecosystem aligned with the national Returning Farmland to Forest Program. Additionally, the infection risk will reduce given that the farmers stop migrating to cities and began to utilize local resources. Zhouqu County must address the poverty alleviation issue for left-behind women, whose educational attainment are relatively low. Agricultural technologies need to be widely promoted and applied among them through specific training.
Activity:
1) Conduct comprehensive assessment of the current situation, market potential and management capabilities of Chinese herbal medicine in Baleng Township. 2) Build Chinese medicinal material planting management demonstration case, promoting the sustainable development, running planting skills training, harvesting technology training, and processing technology training.
Anticipated outcomes:
1) Plant 135 mu of Chinese medicinal materials in Balang Township to develop a demonstration case for scaling up the Chinese herbal medicine planting without destroying local forest resources. 2) Run 5 training sessions for 600 people in the community to help them master the skills of planting, harvesting and processing Chinese medicinal materials, which will reduce the infection rate of pandemic and increase annual income. 3) Enrich the toolkit and enhance the competitiveness of local women through the sustainable livelihood exploration. 4) Promote the project through report in both Chinese and English after evaluating the effectiveness of the project through third party consulting team.