Tilling a field of dreams

What Xing Jianxin saw frightened him, and the former country boy made a decision to return home and start rehabilitating land 'addicted' to pesticides and chemical fertilizers. He tells Fan Zhen how he and his partner started their toughest assignment.

Xing Jianxin worked as a full-time photographer in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province, and he often accompanied journalists when they covered agriculture-related issues.

He witnessed first hand how excessive use of pesticides had taken over the natural way food is grown, leaving farmers no choice but to keep using the artificial additives because they had become caught in a vicious cycle.