Farm women in Miyun, Beijing join forces to develop circular agriculture
On rural farms, manure disposal is a major problem. If manure is not handled properly, the surrounding area often reeks of stench, affecting the production and daily life of nearby residents. At Liu Keyun's farm in Sihe Village, Gaoling Town, Miyun District, she does not have to worry about manure disposal. By adopting a circular planting-and-breeding economy, the manure that was once difficult to handle has become a treasure for her.
When we first met Liu Keyun, she had just come out of a vegetable greenhouse. Because of the heat, she took off her hat, and the reporter noticed that, in her early 50s, she already had obvious white hair. Over the past 20 years, she has put a great deal of thought into the nearly 1,000 pigs her family raises. In 1996, Liu Keyun began raising pigs as her livelihood. Because the farm is close to the village road, the manure produced was piled by the roadside. "Many people in the village farm the land. Whoever uses manure as fertilizer comes here to take some, and some sell it to itinerant traders," Liu Keyun said. At first, she did not pay much attention to manure disposal, but every summer, the mosquitoes and flies attracted by the manure caused her no small amount of trouble. "Sometimes when it was not handled in time, the stench made nearby villagers very uncomfortable. Almost every summer, I had to buy a lot of mosquito and fly repellent and floral water to give to everyone," Liu Keyun said. Repellents only treat the symptoms, not the root cause, and she mulled over for a long time how to thoroughly solve the problem of manure accumulation.
As the village's infrastructure continued to improve and the village's environmental standards kept rising, solving the manure problem from breeding as soon as possible became Liu Keyun's main task. Seeing the prosperity of the organic fruit and vegetable industry in various reports, Liu Keyun wondered whether she could join the planting industry. Manure, as a natural organic fertilizer, would then be put to use, while also expanding the scale and increasing income. In 2011, Liu Keyun established the Lüfeng Ecological Planting Professional Cooperative, built vegetable greenhouses, and planted vegetables such as zucchini and tomatoes. The manure from breeding was fermented into nutrient fertilizer for the vegetables, and some substandard vegetables could also be used as feed for breeding. In this way, not only was the annual cost of more than 20,000 yuan for fertilizer and part of the feed saved, but the surrounding environment was also greatly improved.
By adopting a circular planting-and-breeding economy, the manure that was once difficult to handle has become a treasure for Liu Keyun. The village environment has improved a great deal, and more than 20 villagers have found work at the cooperative. This year, the vegetables grown by the cooperative have been approved as organic vegetables, the varieties grown have also increased to more than 10 kinds of fruits and vegetables including grapes, eggplants and celery, and the planting scale has expanded to 23 greenhouses and more than 20 mu of land, with each greenhouse bringing in about 15,000 yuan in income. The members have also increased from 5 households at the beginning to 150 households. As Liu Keyun watches the cooperative's scale continue to expand and the surrounding environment continue to improve, she is full of motivation. "Next, we will focus on developing premium organic vegetables so that more people know about Sihe Village's Lüfeng brand," Liu Keyun said.