DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Friday, July 17, 2020 | 7 CHINA

Clockwise from top left: A worker weighs and packs dried goji berries into a jar at a processing plant in , Hui autonomous region, on June 11. Villagers pick goji at a plantation in Tongxin county. Chick­ ens wander at the Yongjin goji plantation in Hongsibu district, Wuzhong. PHOTOS BY CHEN ZEBING / CHINA DAILY Plucking and clucking to goji wealth

Plantations of the small red berry are diversifying to include chicken farming

By CHEN ZEBING [email protected]

At the Yongjin goji plantation in Hongsi­ bu district, Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui autono­ mous region, villagers are busy picking goji berries. Workers then weigh the berries and put them on trucks that take the harvest to a nearby packaging plant. There are hundreds of such plantations in Ningxia, which cover an area of 66,700 hectares, accounting for one­third of the country’s goji growing area. The planta­ tions produce about 140,000 metric tons of dried goji berries every year. The small red berries have become a popular specialty of the region and nur­ ture an industry that employs thousands of people who have been able to shake off poverty. The Yongjin plantation also raises more than 10,000 chickens as part of its business growth model. The chickens are fed on corn and goji berries and are highly prized A villager weighs goji berries she harvested at a plantation in Tongxin on June 15. by customers. A farmer picks goji berries at the Yongjin plantation in Wuzhong.

An employee of a goji production company sells its products through live­ streaming.

A worker tends to chickens raised at the Yongjin goji plantation. Workers pack dried goji berries at a processing plant in Yinchuan on June 11.