Maoyun township harvests camellia seeds

Camellia oleifera is a key industry for raising farmers' incomes and a core component of the cropping system in Maoyun township, Kaiyang county, and its plan to build a specialized grain-and-oil town.

In recent years, the township has optimized cultivation practices, standardized purchasing procedures, and strengthened benefit-sharing mechanisms to address difficulties in selling camellia seeds and unstable marketing channels, while improving orchard management.

The township now grows camellia over an area of more than 6,000 mu (400 hectares) under a model combining unified collective management with household-level planting.

Some orchards are managed and harvested by the village collective, while others are grown by individual households and purchased at a guaranteed floor price by the collective purchasing station. Workers in collective orchards are paid 120 yuan ($17.99) per person per day, with wages paid on the same day. Household orchards are harvested by the growers themselves, then sold to a purchasing station, which sells the seeds at 2.4 to 2.8 yuan per kilogram.

The township expects to harvest 150 metric tons of camellia seeds, of which more than 90 tons have already been collected, with a total output value estimated at over 300,000 yuan.

A designated camellia seed purchasing station has been set up at the Boji village committee to deal with out-of-province buyers. On site, seeds are weighed, registered, and paid for immediately. The stable sales channel and prompt payments strengthen the village's collective economy and create local jobs for surplus rural labor.

A farmer at the camellia oleifera garden. [Photo/WeChat account of Kaiyang county]