Organic agriculture helps farmers in Northeast China increase income and protect the environment

“In the past, when a whole mu of land was planted with corn, the income was at most 500 yuan, and after deducting the cost of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, almost nothing was left. Now that organic blueberries are grown, each mu of land brings in at least 2,000 yuan more per year.” said Wang Peng, a villager from Guanghua Village, Tonghua County, Jilin Province.

The village where Wang Peng lives is located in the mountainous area of eastern Changbai Mountain. In order to reduce agricultural non-point source pollution, the local area strongly promotes the cooperative method of company + cooperative + base” to grow organic blueberries. This brings tangible benefits to local farmers, and more and more farmers want to join the cooperative.

“I only have a little more than six mu of land that has been included by the company in its land transfer and operation scope. If I had more, I would want it all planted with blueberries.” Wang Peng said.

The reason Wang Peng is so eager to grow blueberries is that Tonghua Heyun Modern Agriculture Co., Ltd. built an organic food base at his doorstep, letting many villagers enjoy the benefits. Because blueberry cultivation does not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, it effectively reduces local agricultural non-point source pollution.

It is understood that this project has significantly increased the income of farmers in Guanghua Village, with an average annual income increase of 35,000 yuan per household. It has now absorbed more than 200 local idle laborers for employment, with farmers' monthly wage income reaching more than 1 million yuan, an increase of 3.8 times compared with traditional crops.

Take organic rice as another example. Lin Kui, a villager from Jiushaping Village, Jingxin Town, Hunchun City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, told reporters that after his rice is processed, the relevant enterprise is responsible for transport and sales. The purchase price reaches about 11 yuan per jin, and part of the income is returned to farmers. Calculating it out, one jin of rice is about 17 yuan, far exceeding the price of ordinary rice.

Organic agriculture refers to a method of agricultural production in which chemically synthesized pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth regulators, feed additives and other substances are not used in the production process of plants and animals, ionizing radiation technology is not used, and genetic engineering technology and its products are not used. Instead, a series of sustainable agricultural production techniques are adopted to coordinate crop farming and livestock farming and maintain the sustained and stable development of the agricultural ecosystem.

As Chinese people's living standards and health awareness improve, demand for organic green products is growing rapidly, driving the rapid development of organic agriculture.

The China Organic Industry Development Report estimates that in 2013 China's organic product sales were about 20 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan, accounting for about 5% to 8% of the global market, making it the fourth-largest organic product consumer country after the United States, Germany and France.

Wu Jingyu, general manager of an ecological technology company in Beijing, told reporters that at a time when the whole society attaches great importance to food safety, green food “private customization” is gradually becoming a trend in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, with huge market potential.

Data from the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China show that China's organic planting area is currently about 1.28 million hectares, accounting for 0.95% of the agricultural cultivated land area, higher than the global average of 0.86%. In developed countries, this ratio is generally above 5%. This means that China's organic planting potential still has a lot of room for development.

Some analysts believe that developing organic agriculture can not only increase farmers' income, but also effectively reduce agricultural non-point source pollution, thereby protecting the ecological environment. It is a direction for China's agricultural transformation and development.