Three Major Ecological Agriculture Models Officially Unveiled
Ecological Agriculture Model One: The Virtual Factory
According to relevant media reports, "tire tycoon" and Zhejiang wealthy man Ye Yanping, chairman of Fulun Investment Co., Ltd., founded "Zhejiang Pengzu Xiang Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd." in 2009, and devoted himself to raising native pigs, native chickens, native ducks and other "native goods."
It is reported that the company adopts a "farmer franchise" breeding model, does not engage in production itself, and is only responsible for brand building, market network construction and the free provision of "seeds." The company forms "production clusters" with farmer households as units; this cluster is equivalent to a "virtual factory," and the farmers are equivalent to the company's workers.
Taking pig farming as an example, the company purchases fine pig breeds from the improved breed farm of the Jinhua Academy of Agricultural Sciences and distributes them free of charge to farmers' homes. After the pigs are grown, the company purchases them uniformly, and the farmers earn the price difference between the piglets and the finished pigs.
The company decides the number of pigs each farmer raises according to the farmer's capacity (slope land area, feed reserves), with a single household raising no more than 5 pigs. To ensure that they are authentic "native goods," the company requires farmers to feed them with rice bran, wild grass, vegetables and a small amount of corn, with a marketing time of more than 10 months.
Industry insiders point out that ensuring quality control during the farmers' breeding process is the key to the "virtual factory" model. To this end, the company introduced "five gates": first, strictly selecting qualified farmers; second, mobilizing the public to supervise; third, selecting team leaders and brigade leaders from the rural areas to be responsible for daily grassroots self-management; fourth, the company sending scientific and technical personnel for on-site guidance; and fifth, implementing a real-name system for products to facilitate tracking.
Analysts say that among current A-share listed companies, Huaying Agriculture's model is very close to the virtual factory. It is reported that in order to give play to Huaying Agriculture's leading role as a leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization, the Xinyang Municipal Government formulated a policy encouraging farmers to build farms for raising Cherry Valley ducks and broiler chickens. Xinyang City plans to encourage and support farmers to build 500 and 200 farms (breeding communities) respectively within 60 km of Huaying Agriculture's Cherry Valley duck processing plant (Huangchuan) and broiler processing plant (Huaibin). After all are completed, they can respectively achieve additional marketings of 60-75 million Cherry Valley ducks and about 30 million commercial chickens.
Ecological Agriculture Model Two: Linkage of Three Industries
According to relevant materials, Beijing Jiabowen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established in 2001. It is a high-tech environmental protection and ecological agriculture company that uses microbial technology to treat organic waste and applies the resulting microbial recycled products to clean animal husbandry and organic planting, realizing the recycling and reuse of resources.
Jiabowen's core technology is mainly applied to the treatment of kitchen waste. The current common practice is to take restaurant waste to feed pigs, but this is harmful to food (market quote special zone) safety. Jiabowen's technology can complete the treatment of kitchen waste by fermentation within 10 hours, and the final end product directly returns to the soil and the food chain.
Regarding its industrial model, Jiabowen summarizes it as "one center, two basic points, and linkage of three major industries," specifically referring to "taking organic carbon source circulation as the center, and through urban-rural carbon source circulation, enabling the cyclic utilization of urban organic matter and rural organic matter; through planting-breeding circulation, enabling the rational use of carbon sources; and through the linked development of the three industries of clean breeding, organic planting, and microbial conversion, both thoroughly solving the problem of the outlet for organic waste treatment and promoting the sustainable development of urban modern agriculture."
Industry insiders say that in terms of business model, the main current approach is for the government to build a platform: the government builds stations and collects waste, the enterprise is responsible for operation, and then the government provides a certain treatment fee. Among current listed companies, Minhe Shares' model is very close. It is reported that Minhe Biotechnology's main business scope is biogas power generation from manure and the production and sale of bio-organic fertilizer. The biotechnology company has continuously conducted research in the field of chicken manure bio-fermentation and power generation. In 2012, it obtained 8 utility model patents, and another 5 invention patents are in the application process. The accumulation of the above technologies provides strong technical support for the company's next step of carrying out biogas purification and compression projects. At present, Minhe Biotechnology's biogas slurry concentration project has been completed. This project invested more than 40 million yuan. On the basis of livestock and poultry manure power generation, it uses the biogas slurry produced by fermentation, through nanomembrane purification and concentration technology, to produce pure organic nutrient solution and liquid fertilizer, which can be used for a variety of cash crops, effectively improving crop yield and quality.
In addition, Chuying Agro-Pastoral's model is also very close. The company announced on March 15 this year that Chuying Agro-Pastoral signed a "Letter of Intent for Cooperation between the Taonan Municipal People's Government and Chuying Agro-Pastoral Group Co., Ltd." with the Taonan Municipal People's Government of Jilin Province, selecting areas within the jurisdiction of Taonan City to invest in and build a high-quality commercial pig breeding project, while also building supporting biogas power generation, organic fertilizer plants, feed mills, pig slaughtering, meat product processing, etc., forming a comprehensive agricultural industrialization (market quote special zone) complex. This project adheres to the principle of "unified planning and phased implementation," adopting a method of construction while producing and generating benefits, and is expected to complete the basic investment and construction tasks within about 5 years. Based on the company's development and market demand, the company plans to select areas within the jurisdiction of Taonan City to invest in and build a high-quality commercial pig breeding project, with an annual marketing of 4 million pigs, while also building supporting biogas power generation, organic fertilizer plants, feed mills, pig slaughtering, meat product processing, etc., forming an agricultural industrialization complex, with a total project investment of about 5.6 billion yuan.
Ecological Agriculture Model Three: Value Stacking
It is reported that Qianwei Village in Chongming County is the number one village for ecological agriculture in the country. After decades of operation, a 5,000-mu circular agriculture demonstration zone has been built in the village: crop dead branches and fallen leaves and animal manure are transported together to biogas digesters for fermentation, and the biogas produced after fermentation is used for power generation; part of the biogas slurry is introduced into farmland through underground pipes to become "green fertilizer." And how much organic fertilizer is needed in the farmland, and how many pigs and chickens need to be raised to produce the corresponding manure, all need to be calculated.
From the perspective of the ecological environment, this circular agriculture demonstration zone is almost perfect. According to media reports, Professor Dai Xingyi, an expert in resource and environmental economics at Fudan University, participated in the early planning of Qianwei Village. He proposed the concept of "value stacking," that is, extending ecological agriculture to the tertiary industry, thereby amplifying the value of ecological agriculture. "Nongjiale" farmhouse tourism is a typical project of extending ecological agriculture to the tertiary industry.
Qianwei Village was the first village around Shanghai to develop ecological sightseeing tourism. Shanghai residents who have lived in the city for a long time have a strong desire to return to the countryside, and therefore, relying on the large Shanghai market, the space for ecological sightseeing tourism is very large.
Qianwei Village has more than 200 households, and currently nearly half of them have taken up ecological sightseeing tourism. When city people arrive in the countryside, visiting the circular agriculture park, tasting organic fruits and vegetables and poultry, staying overnight, and purchasing some organic agricultural and sideline products when returning to the city can all generate economic benefits. Now, Qianwei Village can accommodate 3,000 people for meals and 2,300 people for lodging at the same time. The village's annual income from ecological sightseeing tourism has reached more than 10 million yuan, and households with good returns have an annual income of more than 200,000 yuan.
Analysts say that among current A-share listed companies, Shanghai Yatong Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., a subsidiary 90% held by Yatong Shares, mainly engages in landscaping engineering (market quote special zone), ecological agriculture, animal husbandry and other businesses. It is reported that the "Chongming Ecological Island Construction 2013-2015 Action Plan" is being compiled. In the next three years, a total of 131 projects will be built on the ecological island, with a planned investment of 17.4 billion yuan. Some analyses say that Yatong Shares, as the only listed company under the Chongming State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, will devote itself to regional development and construction, and its main business will also be gradually replaced. In addition, the company's transformation work is being attempted and prepared, and in the future it may increase investment in tourism hotels (market quote special zone).