Boundless Practice and Exploration of Leisure Agriculture
Leisure agriculture is an instinctive, wise and inevitable journey of returning to one's roots, a behavior of self-adjustment and a cycle of mismatch between supply and demand after humanity moved from an agricultural society into an industrial society and an information society.
In today's society, the world is flat and relationships are broad; when the marketing of a single specific product (point) follows the law of diminishing marginal returns, the industrial operation chain (line) can be traced upward to its source and extended downward to its end, the industrial and sectoral circle (plane) can be horizontally allied and vertically linked, and the industrial complex can circulate internally and integrate externally. This is the theoretical foundation of boundless leisure agriculture.
The practice and exploration of boundless leisure agriculture is a practical application of the Scientific Outlook on Development and an objective reflection of the new normal economy. It requires us to re-recognize the relationship between humanity and agriculture, re-recognize the connotations and extensions of leisure agriculture, re-recognize the complexity and flexibility of natural systems and social systems, re-recognize the penetrating power and adaptive capacity of economic activities and social activities, and re-recognize the subversive power and influence of technological innovation and cultural creativity. Boundless leisure agriculture is mainly embodied in the following six aspects:
I. No Boundary Between Agriculture and Tourism
Once, leisure agriculture was merely a small branch of the tourism product system, but most of China's tourist attractions are located in the countryside. Leisure agriculture not only launched a counter-encirclement but also penetrated into scenic areas, becoming one of the pathways for capacity expansion, quality improvement and transformation and upgrading of traditional scenic areas. Combining agriculture and tourism, strengthening both together, promoting tourism through agriculture, driving agriculture through tourism, having tourism within agriculture and agriculture within tourism, is becoming the development trend of leisure agriculture and rural tourism. In addition, very soon a new term will be born, and that is scenic-area agriculture. Once the concept of scenic-area agriculture becomes popular, it will once again confirm the absence of boundaries between agriculture and tourism.
II. No Boundary Between Agriculture and Leisure
Leisure agriculture integrates capital, technology, talent and modern management concepts. It is the vanguard, incubator, experimental field and promotion station of agricultural modernization, and the universal adhesive, adsorbent and storage bag of other agricultural models and forms. It can be said that all advanced agricultural technologies and agricultural models can be applied and displayed based on the carrier of leisure agriculture without affecting the process of agricultural production. To this day, agriculture itself has also subdivided and derived a large number of business forms, models and types. A rough count includes traditional agriculture, characteristic agriculture, high-efficiency agriculture, modern agriculture, petroleum agriculture, facility agriculture, organic agriculture, circular agriculture, biological agriculture, leisure agriculture, urban agriculture, creative agriculture, brand agriculture, three-dimensional agriculture, intensive agriculture, resource-saving and environment-friendly agriculture, contract agriculture, digital agriculture, precision agriculture, water-saving agriculture, irrigated agriculture, mountain agriculture, dryland farming, balcony agriculture, courtyard agriculture, dike-pond agriculture, space agriculture, marine agriculture, saline-alkali agriculture, desert agriculture, mother-seed agriculture, low-carbon agriculture, green agriculture, blue agriculture, black agriculture, white agriculture, purple agriculture, colorful agriculture, aromatic agriculture, selenium-enriched agriculture, maternal and infant agriculture, carbon-sink agriculture, foreign-exchange-earning agriculture, futures agriculture, large-scale agriculture, capital agriculture, crowdfunding agriculture, micro agriculture, virtual agriculture, and so on. Although many of these concepts overlap or even repeat one another, they are all definitions, demands and explorations of agriculture's characteristics. The development of leisure agriculture has further stimulated innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in the agricultural field, and more agricultural concepts or conceptual agricultures will emerge. Whether you know about them or not, like them or not, oppose them or not, this is inevitability and trend.
III. No Boundary Between City and Countryside
If we rigidly set the countryside as the precondition for leisure agriculture, then the related agricultural phenomena occurring in cities could only be called sub-leisure agriculture, quasi-leisure agriculture or imitation leisure agriculture. For example, rooftop agriculture and rooftop gardens in cities, balcony agriculture and aquaponic fish-vegetable tanks in homes, vertical agriculture on the outer walls of buildings, artistic agriculture in shopping malls, plant screens in offices, display agriculture in famous restaurants, landscape agriculture in parks, a corner of parent-child agriculture in kindergartens, agricultural science popularization and ecological plots in primary and secondary school campuses, horticultural therapy bases in nursing homes, and further, the rural atmosphere of food streets, agricultural carnival festivals in city squares, even just parent-child fish catching in inflatable pools in city parks, a small pot of fruits and vegetables on the tea table of a hotel room, or even a mini plant pendant on the keychain of a fashionable urban youth. All of these demonstrate our pursuit of agriculture, of greenery and of health, and are also an awakening of collective consciousness. Among these, some products and technologies are supplied directly by leisure farms, while others are inspired or influenced by leisure agriculture. From the perspective of overall social development, while vigorously developing rural leisure agriculture, we should welcome agriculture into the city and encourage the growth and popularization of the aforementioned sub-leisure agriculture, quasi-leisure agriculture and imitation leisure agriculture. The level of leisure agriculture development in a place is not only measured by how many star-rated farms it has, but also by whether the city can truly be built into a garden city rather than a forest of concrete and steel. We should take leisure agriculture as a reference or guide, turn education into an ecological, interesting and creative paradise for learning and growth, guide tourism real estate toward estate-style development, elderly-care real estate toward village-style development, and industrial and commercial real estate toward ecological development, and build as a whole a beautiful, harmonious, happy and livable county-level city full of personality and characteristics, creativity and vitality, and a slow pace of life.
IV. No Boundary Between Resources and Elements
On the basis of the six elements of tourism - food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment - leisure agriculture adds culture, education, experience, wellness, landscape, cultivation and breeding, and processing. Leisure agriculture resources include everything from astronomy above to geography below, and all agricultural production, farm household life, rural ecology, farmers' skills and farming culture in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production and fisheries, and can flexibly absorb all fashionable popular culture and urban resource elements. Leisure agriculture is also the only agricultural form that relies on resource advantages to attract various advanced urban elements to continuously flow to rural areas, and it has a long-term impact on urban-rural interaction and exchange, especially on the construction of a new countryside. Precisely because of this, when conducting surveys of leisure agriculture resources, the methods and scope of traditional tourism resource surveys will be broken through. In planning analysis, a deeper sorting will be carried out from the three aspects of space, time and interpersonal relations. First, the effective linkage and coordinated protection among mountains, water, fields, gardens, roads, towns, villages, dwellings and scenic areas; second, the optimization of product configuration and adjustment of operating strategies for different time periods and time nodes, such as ancient and modern times, spring, summer, autumn and winter, day and night, busy and slack farming seasons, statutory holidays, and the 24 solar terms; third, the segmentation and selection of different source markets by gender, age, distance, height and personal interests.
V. No Boundary Between Models and Business Forms
In terms of industrial form, it includes leisure agriculture, leisure fisheries, leisure ranches, leisure forest farms, leisure orchards, leisure tea gardens, leisure vegetable gardens, leisure flower gardens, exhibition and experience bases of leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization, and logistics support bases of enterprises and institutions. In terms of geographical distribution, it includes the urban creative experience type, the suburban leisure vacation type, the tourist attraction support type, the agricultural park support type, the new countryside construction demonstration type, the ethnic village cultural inheritance type, the mountain under-forest comprehensive development type, the lake-area wetland protection and utilization type, the reservoir-area water-source ecological conservation type, the mining-area comprehensive treatment and restoration type, and the old revolutionary base area industry poverty alleviation driving type. In terms of development models, it includes the small family farm type, the mini crowdfunding experience type, the mass leisure amusement type, the high-end wellness vacation type, the regional pillar industry extension type, the special theme culture in-depth development type, the specific source market docking type, the community-supported agriculture order type, the farmers' cooperative organization binding type, and the brand farm chain type. In terms of theme positioning, there are agricultural industry themes, characteristic industry themes, sports and fitness themes, wellness vacation themes, business leisure themes, fun education themes, science popularization study tour themes, social science and humanities themes, cultural experience themes, art exhibition themes, novel and individual themes, and so on. It can be said that the model types are diverse, the scales vary, and the positioning themes differ. In terms of business forms, many traditional business models and service formats will be combined with leisure agriculture, such as farming-and-reading academies, wellness apartments, warehouse-style supermarkets, high-end kindergartens, rural bars, international youth hostels, logistics bases, corporate training bases, corporate headquarters estates, intangible cultural heritage inheritance and protection centers, community owner estates, rural wedding photography bases, film and television culture shooting bases, citizens' holiday universities, college student entrepreneurship practice bases, farmer entrepreneurship parks, grid farms, pet training centers, folk collection exhibition centers, national defense education and training bases, and public welfare community activity bases. These new business forms enrich the product system of leisure agriculture and accelerate the integration of leisure agriculture with social resources.
VI. No Boundary Between Functions and Roles
What sister grows is not vegetables, but loneliness (the function of retreating from the world); what sister grows is not vegetables, but hope (the motivating function); what sister grows is not vegetables, but cause and effect (the Zen meditation function); what brother grows is not trees, but love (the commemorative function); what brother grows is not trees, but a passbook (the investment function); what brother grows is not trees, but green charm (the environmental protection function). From the online Happy Farm to the real Happy Farm, from many people's coffee shop to many people's farm, from the Angry Birds game to the Angry Birds theme park, from Where Are We Going, Dad? to Dad Goes to the Farm, from A Bite of China to A Bite of the Farm, leisure agriculture has fully exerted its capacity for integrated absorption. As national and local departments at all levels increase their support and guidance for leisure agriculture, and as the supporting industries and supporting services of leisure agriculture become increasingly complete and mature, leisure agriculture will surely develop into a grand agricultural garden, a great educational classroom, an ecological reception hall, a gathering base camp, a food carnival, a specialty shopping village, a new front for science popularization, and a new carrier for art, promoting the integrated development of city and countryside, tradition and fashion, technology and art, culture and creativity, and industry and platforms.
In summary, leisure agriculture demonstrations have standards but no boundaries; they have benchmarks but no sameness; they have time periods but no end. Boundless leisure agriculture: only with cognition is there direction; only with cognition can there be good practice; only with cognition can it be called exploration.