ASIA!

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China has some excellent agricultural universities. Such institutions as Nanjing Agricultural University and China Academy of Agricultural Science have excellent programmes in Agricultural Science. Chinese plant breeders are renowned for outstanding achievements in some crops. And what China does not have locally, it sources from abroad. Improved varieties in some crops are being imported from the US, Australia and the EU. One example is in the area of grass seed. As the demand for red meat and dairy products grows in China (a trend that happens as developing countries become more Westernised), farmers need to find more efficient ways of feeding animals. Improved forage grass seeds are able to improve animal production by 200% to 300%. This results in more meat and more milk!

Corn, sunflower and soybean farmers are able to access the latest developments in plant breeding technology. Hybrid crops have the potential to double yields, and there are many national and regional seed companies that are marketing advanced products. In the area of crop agronomy, Chinese scientists have a wealth of knowledge on optimum fertilisation techniques, and China produces massive amounts of fertiliser. But can the average village farmer afford this technology, and is he getting the information that he needs? Unfortunately, Chinese agricultural extension programmes are very weak. There is excellent information available to the farmers in the public domain, and in the Agricultural Institutions, but getting it out to the farmer is another story. And information and research is absolutely useless unless it is disseminated to those who need it.

It was a hot steamy day as we squatted beside the soybean crop in a village in Southern China. The crop should have looked better than it did. I was puzzled. It was irrigated, the soil was good, and the farmer had used fertilizer. What was wrong? I had a theory. "Did you innoculate the seed?" I asked the farmer through an interpreter. Puzzled, he looked blankly at me. I pulled up a plant and had a look at the roots. Instead of the masses of little nitrogen producing nodules that enable the soybean plant to maximise production, there were hardly any. Bacteria stimulate these nodules, and if there are not enough suitable bacteria in the soil, the seed needs to be treated with them before planting. This is called innoculating the seed, and this was not being done. Basic soybean production technology was not being given to the farmers by their local Departments of Agriculture. I arranged for the village to receive some innoculants for their next soybean crop, and the results were very significant: rows of big, green, strong, happy soybean plants! And smiling farmers, too.

But how can farmers ever afford to pay for the new technology that is available to them? Village farmers are poor. We sat huddled around an open cooking fire inside a yurt in north-west China. There were eight of us: an Aussie, a Brit, two Americans, and a family of four. The family was poor. Their entire worldly possessions strung around the walls of their felt (compressed goat wool) round house. A house that was smaller than my bedroom. They didn’t speak any English, and we didn’t speak Chinese, but they had invited us in to have a meal with them. What amazing hospitality. The food was basic but tasty, a sort of vegetable stew. The farmer’s goats bleated in the cold open pasture surrounding the yurt. There was no meat in the pot, just some eggs. How come? I had seen no chickens. Through sign language we determined that they had traded the eggs at a local market for some of their products. I thought about the countless banquets that I had experienced in China with government and industry officials, tables groaning with food, 16-course meals, the bottles of fiery Chinese spirits, and the plates of leftover food. Those leftovers could have fed this family for at least a week. And I felt sad about the disparity between the rich and the poor. We paid for our meal; how could we not?

 

Unless new ways of doing business are developed for the Chinese village farmer, change will be slow, and poverty will remain. Radical change is needed to give the farmers better access to markets, to make technology more available, more affordable, and to better educate them. Micro financing programmes need to be put into place to allow them to purchase better inputs. But there are some refreshing new approaches that are being tried. One such programme is that of the ecovillage network.

The ecovillage (sheng tai cun in Chinese) is a vehicle for establishing partnerships at a grassroot level, for the economic development of rural communities in China and the preservation of the environment. The ecovillage network provides systems that enhance the ability of farming communities in China to create both economic and environmental benefits. The basic building block of the ecovillage network is the Chinese village, and the strategy is designed to accommodate the trade of services and goods both into and out of the network of member villages. The network operates on a commercial basis. It controls its own brands, market channels and intellectual property. Members of the ecovillage network share market information, supply and distribution channels, a common business management system and an international development and research programme.

One example of ecovillage in operation is a project in South China for the production of vegetables and cattle. This project is centred on Pozai Village in Southern Guangdong Province. Pozai has approximately 1,000 residents. Starting four years ago, Pozai was selected to develop a pasture/livestock/vegetable production model suitable for the far southern regions of China. The idea behind the Pozai model is to provide a balance between short- and long-term cash flows to the village farmers, together with rebuilding of badly degraded soils that had been overworked in sugar cane production.

Concurrently, in Beitian Village, Shanxi province, work commenced to develop a village-based pasture seeds production industry, to produce seeds suitable for planting forage crops in Pozai and elsewhere. Whilst the two production projects have been developing, the ecovillage marketing network has been seeking out markets for likely output products and feeding this information back to the villagers. Pozai is now negotiating with a Malaysian company to produce live cattle for export and several food companies who want certified chemical-free vegetables. Beitian is selling seeds to Pozai and negotiating supply contracts with other companies. In both locations, the condition of the soil is improving.

It is a bold, sophisticated and clever approach that can give Chinese villages access to more global markets, and suppliers of agricultural inputs access to a massive market. If successful, the ecovillage network could revolutionise the way that agricultural business is conducted in China. It has a long way to go, but baby steps can lead to marathons.

Water. How much we take it for granted. It has been estimated that it takes 1,000 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of wheat. And China is running out of it. In fact China’s Ministry of Water Resources has publicly stated that China’s water shortages will hit a dangerous limit by the year 2030. And the fact is that like its arable land distribution, China’s water resources are not balanced between the northern and southern parts, creating severe shortages in certain areas. Statistics show that more than 80% of the country’s water resources are distributed in the Yangtze River valleys and areas south of the Yangtze. But to the north of the Yangtze is 59% of the country’s arable land, and 44% of the population. Clearly these imbalances will need to be addressed. At the farmer level, there must be rapid and significant change. The common practice of flood irrigation is extremely inefficient with major losses from run-off and evaporation. Farmers will need to introduce new techniques such as sprinklers or drip irrigation. Drought tolerant crop varieties will need to be introduced. At the urban level, excess water charges need to be increased, and industries forced to become more water efficient. But these things come with a cost, and somebody will have to pay the price. Perhaps the city dwellers need to start paying more for their food? Paying what food is really worth could help alleviate poverty at the farmer level.

I sat drinking tea with Liu Haidong. His wife had used their best teacups. We sat hunched around a small table in his humble village home. Liu was the village head. We were chatting through my interpreter.

"What do you want, more than anything else, for your village?" I asked him. "Clean water", he said without even thinking about it. His answer surprised me, because farmers anywhere else in the world would say "more yield and higher prices".

"What about improved yields?" I asked him. "Of course," he said, "but without clean water there will be no future for our children." I nodded slowly.

Unfortunately, apart from the water issue, village agriculture is being faced with a new set of problems. The next generation is getting itchy feet as they see the opportunities to get better-paying construction jobs in Shanghai and Beijing. And farming is hard work and underpaid. The sons are leaving the villages seeking greener pastures elsewhere. Sometimes they come home disillusioned and still unmarried. But much of the burden of farming is falling on an older generation as it is in most countries of the world. Traditionalism and a lack of market access and market intelligence are additional problems. I asked one farmer why he always planted corn. "Because we always have," he replied

But regardless of the problems facing the villages, village agriculture will continue to feed this hungry nation. Of course there will be imports. Some years there will be more than others. But the little blue trucks, groaning with their loads of rice, corn and potatoes, will continue to make the trek from the villages to the buying stations. Sadly, the village farmer will remain poor, and the rich will get richer.

There aren’t as many little red taxis in Beijing anymore. Fancier green and gold ones have replaced them. But they are far outnumbered by the privately owned cars, many of them Audis, Mercedes-Benzes and other high-dollar items. The growth in this city, and in Eastern China in general, is enormous. Affluence is everywhere. Tastes are expanding as the city dwellers get a desire for dairy products and better quality beef. But the little restaurants are still there. And so are the girls. "Come inside, Sir — our food is the best. It’s made in China."

 

Don't just eat it, talk it!

Food has never been far from the minds of the Chinese, who not only love to eat, but talk about food incessantly. Here are some quotes.

“Filling the stomach is the most important thing for the people of China.”

– Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), founding father of modern China

 

“The are three elements essential in the matter of the State: Food, Military Equipment, and Confidence of the People in the ruler. Of these three, Military Equipment is the least important, Food being the second most important, and Confidence of the People being the MOST important. All men would rather die of starvation than in war, but nevertheless all men do die of old age. Lacking in Confidence of the People, a state cannot survive.”

– Confucius (551 -479 BCE), sage, philosopher, frustrated political consultant

 

“It is human nature to seek food an intercourse.”

– A quote which is widely and mistakenly attributed to Confucius but was actually uttered by another philosopher, Guo Tze.

 

“Food and wine are rotting inside the red doors, while the streets outside are lined with starved and frozen bodies.”

– The great poet Du Fu (712-770), famous for his work on the plight of the ordinary people. Red doors were used by court officials and rich merchants in ancient China.

 

“Have you eaten?”

– A common greeting in China, an indirect form of asking, “Do you have enough to eat?”