In recent years, NanJian County has firmly established and practiced the concept of green development, relying on its unique mountain forest ecological resource endowments, continuously revitalizing under-forest space and tapping forestry value, innovatively promoting diversified under-forest economy development models such as forest-medicine, forest-livestock, and forest-tourism, steadily driving the transformation of ecological resource advantages into industrial development advantages and income growth advantages for the people, injecting strong ecological momentum into comprehensively advancing rural revitalization and boosting high-quality county economic development.
In the golden autumn season, abundant fruits herald a bountiful harvest. Walking into Mubanjing Village of Xinzheng Village Committee in Wuliangshan Town, heavy walnuts hang on branches swaying in the wind, and fruit farmers are swinging bamboo poles to harvest walnuts. Under the vast walnut forests, Chinese medicinal herbs are growing vibrantly, and villagers are taking advantage of the clear weather to inspect and tend to the crops, presenting a scene of ecological planting and breeding with a promising harvest.
Mubanjing Village is located on the northern slope of Wuliang Mountain, with an average altitude of 1,900 meters, humid air, fertile soil, and suitable climate, making it a high-quality area for imitating wild cultivation of Chinese medicinal herbs. Relying on unique natural conditions, coupled with policy support and technological empowerment, local people have turned to developing under-forest Chinese medicinal herb cultivation on their own walnut lands, forging a path to prosperity of "one mu and three fen of forest, income growth in all four seasons." Villager Chen Huaizhong's 10 mu of walnut forest has been intercropped with Dian Huangjin for ten consecutive years, and after meticulous management, this year's crops are growing well with a promising harvest.
To address problems such as low output value of inefficient forest land and resource waste, in 2025, the NanJian County Forestry and Grassland Bureau focused on improving forest land quality and efficiency, implementing a special project for transforming inefficient forests in Mubanjing Village and Langanjing Village of Xinzheng Village Committee in Wuliangshan Town. Through methods such as top pruning of walnut trees and thinning and spacing, the forest planting structure was optimized and the forest growth environment improved. At the same time, high-quality Chinese medicinal herb seedlings and fertilizers such as Dian Huangjin, Dian Chonglou, and Dian Longdan were distributed free of charge to the public, with full-process planting technical guidance and on-site management consultation services provided, precisely guiding the public to develop standardized under-forest Chinese medicinal herb cultivation. The entire village has cumulatively developed 57 households and over 500 mu of under-forest Chinese medicinal herb industry, transforming former inefficient forest land into "prosperity treasure land."
"Last year I only planted a small amount of Dian Huangjin and earned over 3,000 yuan. The benefits of under-forest planting are truly tangible. This year, with the help and guidance of the county Forestry and Grassland Bureau, I have utilized all 10 mu of walnut forest to intercrop Dian Huangjin. The growth is particularly good now, and there will definitely be a good harvest by year-end," said Li Yongbiao, village head of Mubanjing Village, beaming with joy as he spoke of the tangible benefits brought by under-forest planting.
Forest-medicine symbiosis improves quality and efficiency, while forest-livestock breeding increases income and prosperity. In Fada Village of Wuliangshan Town, local people rely on vast mountain forest resources, breaking away from a single-industry model and simultaneously developing under-forest black pig ecological breeding and pine cone wild food collection industries. The diversified under-forest economy has become a new growth engine for people to steadily increase income and fill their pockets.
As early as 2014, villager Xiong Jinhua recognized the development prospects of mountain forest ecological breeding, introduced high-quality black pig seedlings, and built an ecological breeding base relying on his own mountain forest. Throughout the breeding process, natural coarse grains such as corn, barley, buckwheat, and wild pig feed leaves were used exclusively, with no artificial feed added, ensuring the black pork's firm texture and ecological health. Today, Xiong Jinhua's ecological black pigs, with their excellent quality, are deeply favored by the market, not only consistently topping local farmers' market bestseller lists but also selling through online channels to cities such as Beijing and Kunming, with sales channels continuously expanding.
"Now the market recognition of ecological black pigs is getting higher and higher, and breeding speed is far from keeping up with sales. On one hand, we self-breed and self-raise to ensure quality while moderately expanding breeding scale. On the other hand, we absorb surrounding villagers for contract breeding, unify breeding standards, and unified recovery and sales, strictly controlling source quality to fully guarantee that consumers can eat authentic, safe ecological mountain forest meat," introduced breeder Xiong Jinhua.
Industrial prosperity relies on leadership, and diversified development expands pathways. In recent years, Fada Village has adhered to Party building leading industrial development, based on mountain forest resource advantages, and explored and promoted new composite under-forest economy development models such as forest-medicine, forest-livestock, forest-grain, and under-forest collection according to local conditions. Through large-scale development of under-forest breeding of black pigs, Wuliangshan black-bone chickens, and black goats, large-scale cultivation of characteristic crops such as Panax notoginseng, Dian Huangjin, Dipsacus, white kidney beans, and early broad beans, and regular harvesting of mountain forest specialties such as Huashan pine nuts, wild mushrooms, bracken, and treehead vegetables, the under-forest economy value has been comprehensively activated, with formats continuously enriched and chains constantly extended, effectively driving people to increase income locally and achieve prosperity independently.
From single-point pilots to full-area rollout, from single planting and breeding to diversified integration, NanJian County's under-forest economy industry scale continues to grow and development quality and efficiency steadily improve, having become the core pillar of the county's forestry economy and a characteristic industry for rural revitalization. Data shows that in 2025, the county revitalized and utilized over 1 million mu of under-forest land resources, with total under-forest economy output value reaching 2.08 billion yuan, accounting for 50.4% of the county's total forestry output value. Among these, under-forest planting industries such as forest-medicine, forest-tea, forest-mushroom, forest-vegetable, and forest-fruit developed approximately 83,000 mu, achieving output value of 530 million yuan; under-forest ecological breeding industries such as Wuliangshan black-bone chickens, cattle, and sheep reached a scale of 72,500 mu, with output value of 65 million yuan; wild mushroom, Chinese medicinal herb, wild vegetable, and pine nut collection and processing industries covered over 900,000 mu of forest land, with output value of 340 million yuan. At the same time, relying on characteristic ecological scenic areas such as Wuliang Medicine Valley, Cherry Blossom Valley, and Tibetan Tea Valley, under-forest ecological resources were deeply integrated to develop rural ecological tourism, receiving 585,600 visitors annually, with tourism output value reaching 1.14 billion yuan.
Boundless prospects, promising future. NanJian County will continue to deepen its efforts in the under-forest economy track, continuously optimize industrial structure, improve support policies, strengthen technical support, and extend industrial chains, further promoting bidirectional empowerment and virtuous cycle between ecological protection and industrial development, turning under-forest "small spaces" into people's income-increasing "prosperity fields," and continuously polishing the county's characteristic名片 of ecological prosperity and green development.