Wenshan Sanqi: Cultivation, Forest and Processing

Sanqi, also called notoginseng, is identified in provincial materials as a characteristic medicinal crop of Wenshan. Its regional identity comes from more than a name on a packet: government reporting describes an industry chain involving cultivation, processing, research and trade. The crop links agricultural production to research institutes, processing sites and markets across the prefecture. A 2025 prefectural plan set out a program for research, greener cultivation, processing, markets and cultural work. A separate national forestry report in 2026 described the transition in more tangible terms: standardized GAP bases, cultivation beneath forest cover and a processing center for fresh roots. These are different kinds of record—a policy plan and a later account of reported practice.

The forestry report gave a 2026 snapshot of 15,000 mu of GAP cultivation bases and more than 8,000 mu of forest-grown sanqi. Under the forest, it described physical pest-control methods including color traps, light traps and shade adjustment. At a standardized processing center, fresh roots were cleaned, trimmed, graded and dried before entering the market. The steps connect cultivation to the form in which a buyer encounters the crop. These figures belong to the report’s date and its account of a changing industry. They do not make products interchangeable or establish medical effects. What they reveal is a regional economy being reorganized around seed stock, cultivation standards, processing and trade. In Wenshan, sanqi is both a crop grown in particular conditions and a product whose movement from field to market is increasingly described through institutional systems.