Penghu Has Agriculture Too: Getting Close to the Driving Forces Behind Local Agricultural Development
That day we got to talking about how one of our friends grew the most beautiful vegetables, but they were also the ones most likely to get stolen. I asked in amazement: People come and steal vegetables here? And he actually answered me:
“Yes, because this is Happy Farm!”
Only later did I understand Brother Ren's humor: it refers to the Facebook game Happy Farm, where vegetables are always being stolen!
Ren Guangguo is 49 this year and will retire next year. Right now his main job is still police officer, with farming on the side; but next year, he will become a full-time farmer.
This citizens' farm called ”Happy Farm” sits on more than 2,000 ping of land in the Xiwei Community of Magong City. Fifty or sixty years ago, it was Ren Guangguo's grandfather who grew vegetables here, and a well they dug themselves is still preserved to this day; five or six years ago, Ren Guangguo began farming it himself. At that time the whole plot was weeds, so he had no choice but to clear it little by little.
He thought, if he could turn over five ping of soil a day, then in a few years he would finish it all! So, like the Foolish Old Man who moved the mountain, he dug with a hoe every day, and in the desolate overgrown grass, one hoe stroke at a time, he loosened the soil.
After clearing a small patch over a period of time, he tried growing vegetables. He planted vegetables on one side while continuing to break new ground on the other. When he had already dug more than 100 ping, the county government saw it and told him to stop digging. The county government decided to help level the land, brought in an excavator, and got it done in no time.
After they finished clearing it for him, Ren Guangguo only then thought that he could find more people to farm it!
He said: ”Because joy shared is joy doubled!”
With this idea, he wrote up a plan and submitted a proposal to the county government, and also brought in some friends. In the 98th year of the Republic of China, the first phase began, with eighteen small vegetable plots laid out on the right, about 900 ping; in the 99th year, the second phase added twelve more plots on the left, for a total of thirty households.
Each small vegetable plot is not a field adopted by one farmer, but a plot where an entire family comes to grow vegetables together!
Ren Guangguo donated the land for everyone to grow vegetables for free. He felt that what comes from the public should be used for the public, so this farm charges no fees, only a monthly shared electricity fee of 50 yuan. There are still many people on the waiting list, waiting for the plots behind to be cleared, expanding this Happy Farm.
When he first started, many people did not understand: how could anyone be willing to give up land for everyone to use? Could there be some ulterior motive? Only later, by communicating with them one by one and inviting them one by one to come and plant, did they gradually understand that he hoped the farmland his grandfather left behind would not go to waste; now, even other nearby people are willing to donate land and provide it to the farm for free use, so the plots behind can apply for funding to be cleared, giving more people who want to grow vegetables a small patch of their dream vegetable garden.
He said: ”At the beginning I discussed it with my family, hoping this land would not be sold, that it could be kept, and that it could be used by everyone for free. I think that when we come into this world for a lifetime, we hope to do some meaningful things, and not necessarily just think about making money.”
“Back then I saw everyone coming here, especially fathers bringing their sons along. When I saw them, I was very happy!”
I think this is the real reason he named the farm ”Happy Farm.”
For this farm, he took classes to become a community planner, planning the farm as a leisure garden and gradually adding facilities so that its leisure function would be more complete. People who come to grow vegetables can have a place to rest and cool off, and visiting guests can also properly experience it and enjoy it together; to make these facilities more colorful, he also took oil painting classes and learned to paint himself, so he could paint the tables, chairs, walls and so on.
To make the farm richer, he recently proposed a ”pastoral concert” plan, because he himself is an erhu enthusiast and wants to bring musical elements in, so there may be a concert blending Chinese and Western music performed here as early as this autumn.
To let more people eat healthily and be able to buy pesticide-free vegetables, he also wants to promote a farmers' market, so that everyone can bring out the extra vegetables they grow to sell. He hopes even more that this Happy Farm can serve as a small demonstration, so that other communities in Penghu can also clear more and more citizens' farms. That way, the abandoned farmland in Penghu can come back to life!
The process of interviewing Brother Ren was full of surprises. I had thought he was just a part-time farmer growing some vegetables, but unexpectedly, what he is actually thinking about is all of Penghu, all of agriculture, and everyone, which moved me very much.
He hopes Penghu can produce locally and sell locally, and that everyone can have the chance to enjoy farming. I also feel that Penghu actually has the ability to be self-sufficient, and I am itching to get started too.
And what he is thinking about is not just growing vegetables together, but about attending a pastoral concert together, performing on the farm, that kind of happy scene!