Green agricultural solutions promise fun, profit in China's fields

Can farming be made fun and profitable for farmers? Yes, if the latest efforts of both multinational corporations and domestic companies in China are any indication. They are trying to tackle challenges like effects of climate change and pressures on natural resources by offering customized solutions to farmers that will promote regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative agriculture, which helps in pollution reduction and ecological restoration, has emerged as a leading frontier in the global agricultural industry. With customized solutions offered to farmers, regenerative agriculture improves soil health, enhances productivity, increases farmers' incomes and boosts the economic well-being of communities.

Additionally, it enables efficient water resource utilization, mitigates climate change and restores biodiversity.

On Sept 6, Bayer Crop Science officially welcomed the Shanghai Guaguajiao Cooperative, a local farm in Pudong New Area, to the Bayer ForwardFarming network.

At the cooperative, direct-seeded rice trials, which combine water conservation, soil improvement and emissions reduction technologies, demonstrate how farmers can grow crops more cost-efficiently while preserving water and soil. Microbial degradation technology-enabled systems adopt user-friendly devices for growers to treat pesticide waste.

The cooperative also offers measures to conserve biodiversity, such as flower strips and insect hotels.

"We need to make a radical shift in farming — digging even deeper to unlock more sustainable solutions and bringing them all to scale. This shift is regenerative agriculture. To boost the low-carbon and high-quality development of Chinese agriculture, we look forward to collaborating with all parties in China," said Leo Hu, chief operating officer at Bayer Crop Science Greater China.

The first Bayer ForwardFarm in the Asia Pacific — Yinhuang Farmwas carried out in 2019 in Beijing.

During the partnership from 2019 to 2022, the annual income of the farm increased by 10 percent, with 20 percent cost savings and about 4,000 liters of wastewater-contained spray residue, data from the farm showed.

"The idea is not just about being eco-friendly. We are tailoring solutions to benefit farms economically, environmentally and socially," said Patricio Gunning, global director at Bayer ForwardFarming of BCS.

Domestic companies are taking similar actions. For instance, Beijing-based China Tiegong Investment and Construction Group Co Ltd, won a bid at the beginning of this year to build certain facilities for an agricultural ecosystem at a development zone in Zhongshan, Guangdong province. Worth 8.1 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), the project includes water treatment engineering, agricultural and ecological tourism, and comprehensive management of ecological farmland.

On July 6, Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based Zhonghe Mangrove Technology Co Ltd signed a strategic partnership with the Guangxi Mangrove Research Center of the Guangxi Academy of Sciences, to build a zero-carbon farm. The upcoming farm will take advantage of mangrove ecosystems in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

In recent years, issues of food security and climate change have become increasingly serious, exacerbating the pressures on agricultural ecosystems. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations showed that by 2050, climate change is projected to reduce harvested yields by 17 percent worldwide.

On top of this, there will be 20 percent less farmland. For consumers, by 2050, an additional 2.2 billion people await being fed. Combined with climate change impacts, it is estimated that food and feed output need to be increased by 50 percent.

At the international level, the United Nations Environment Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization jointly launched the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30), advocating the protection and restoration of millions of hectares of ecosystems for the benefit of both humanity and the natural world.

In China, developing eco-friendly, low-carbon agriculture has become a crucial strategy for promoting green agricultural development under the context of the country's dual carbon goals.

Last June, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs successively issued implementation plans for agricultural and rural emission reduction and carbon sequestration.

These plans guide the promotion of low-carbon circular agriculture in China and create a favorable environment for the development of various technology-based approaches, including regenerative agriculture.

Taking Shanghai as an example, the Shanghai Rural Revitalization 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) states that the city's agricultural sector needs to maintain its ecological conservation functions, relying on various natural resources in rural areas and harnessing their roles in soil and water conservation, environmental purification and biodiversity protection.

"We hope to pilot and promote a series of operational models that lead the future development of agriculture in the Guaguajiao Cooperative, making it a showcase and training base for sustainable agricultural development in Pudong," said Li Yonghang, deputy head of the Shanghai Pudong New Area Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

"We also look forward to deepening collaboration with more globally outstanding agricultural enterprises to jointly advance the development of sustainable agriculture," Li said.

To promote the development of regenerative agriculture in China in future, greater efforts should be made to leverage corporate technological capabilities, cooperate deeply with academic institutions, establish demonstration projects and utilize finances to support a transition toward green, low-carbon and high-quality practices, said Qin Xiaobo, a researcher at the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Wang Yunhao, vice-president and researcher of the China Green Food Association, said: "Regenerative agriculture emphasizes the health of the soil and focuses on creating an ecosystem centered around soil health. Green food production also emphasizes the ecological environment of the soil, including productivity, carbon sequestration and overall biodiversity.

"In this regard, regenerative agriculture and green food production should develop in synergy while possessing unlimited vitality."

With solutions customized to farmers based on actual conditions, Bayer ForwardFarming plans to offer customized solutions to more farms in China in the future, Gunning said.