New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'
Random header image... Refresh for more!

China: “Farmland adoption” harvests wealth, joy for rural, urban participants

“To develop agriculture, we must focus on solving the following issues — who will farm, what to plant, and how to manage the farmland,” said Cen.

Editor: huaxia
Xinhua
2022-08-08

Excerpt:

Launched in early June in the provincial capital Guiyang, the program invited urbanites to “adopt” a piece of farmland in Wayao Village on the outskirt of the city to have a taste of idyllic farming life as well as food grown by themselves.

After signing a contract with an adopter, Luo rented out one mu (about 0.07 hectares) of red rice fields. After the harvest, the adopter will purchase the rice at the rented field, at the price of 20 yuan (2.96 U.S. dollars) per kg.

“Red rice was not easy to sell. In the past, most of the harvest was consumed by my own family,” said Luo.

Wayao Village has a registered population of around 600. One-third of them have become migrant workers in cities, leaving the village with many elderly people and children.

Local officials tried several ways to increase people’s income, such as developing vegetable plantations, a few years ago. However, the community was not able to market itself well.

“The program offered us solid market channels. Farmers are now more motivated,” said Wang Zhenghua, Party secretary of Wayao Village.

According to Wang, 28 households in the village have joined the program so far, with the rented farmland area totaling about four hectares.

As written in the adoption contracts, adopters, in the forms of individuals, families or groups, can experience farming activities such as sowing, fertilizing, watering and harvesting on the adopted field, while the “landlords” provide guidance and farming necessities such as organic fertilizer and agricultural machinery.

Read the complete article here.