Written by: Qi Ping
Posted on: July 18, 2018 | 
| 中文
Wenchang Chicken Farm, built in the village of Haosheng for the villagers to raise Wenchang chicken
Zheng Youqun, an old fisherman in Haosheng Village, Longlou Town, Wenchang City, Hainan Province, China, had never imagined that he could eat ‘space rice.’ Since the village is just over seven kilometers from China’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, Wenchang City decided to make use of its favorable location, to build itself into a well-off village of space science and technology.
The decision is not just a concept. The village uses its idle land to plant 21 space-bred varieties of melons and vegetables, and the villagers have begun to feed Wenchang chicken and black goats with space forage grass, which helps increase the incomes of locals. Besides, as the construction of the beautiful village attracts many tourists, the villagers can live a better life.
“The supply-side structural reform of agriculture has great potential,” Wang Xiaoqiao, mayor of Wenchang said. The city will take Haosheng Village as an example, and strive to build 12 space sharing farms, which will help more villagers get rich by planting space vegetables and using the “internet plus.”
With unique characteristics and advantages, Hainan’s agriculture has huge development potential. In 2013, in his inspection of Hainan, Chinese president Xi Jinping urged the local officials to fully implement the central government policies on strengthening agriculture, benefiting rural areas and enriching the farmers, so that tropical agriculture would become a competitive industry and a trump card of the Hainan economy, in conjunction with breaking new grounds for the work related to agriculture, rural areas and the farmers.
But how do you change conventional farming to modern agriculture? Hainan has given the answer through its explorations, which impressed the journalists with two "magic weapons."
The construction of an internet agricultural town in Hainan began in May 2015. It was initiated to solve the problem of a poor market of agricultural products, caused by scattered agricultural production and information asymmetry. The "chain reaction" of the farmers' fast application of the internet, not only solved the problem of the "harvest season" becoming a “headache season” in recent years, but also forced the transformation and upgrading of agriculture. The internet has greatly expanded the sales radius of the products.
Located in an area of volcanic geomorphology, Shishan Town in Xiuying District of Haikou City, has little arable land but many volcanic rocks, that restrict conventional farming. Fortunately, the construction of an internet agricultural town has helped the locals ‘make money in-between the rocks.’ Black beans have been planted for thousands of years in the town, but they do not sell well despite the good quality of their produces, because the local farmers do not use modern methods when planting the beans. To solve this problem, the city organized experts to analyze the unique composition of local black beans and created a brand of green, healthy and selenium-rich produces, grown in volcanic rocks. The information diffused through the internet, and online orders swarmed in. As a result, the price of black beans in the town rose several times, reaching more than 10 yuan per half kilo if purchased in the field. Now, black beans are seeded in every corner of each household’s farmland.
"Give agriculture the wings of science and technology," says a slogan engraved on the landscape stone at the entrance to Lingshui Modern Agricultural Demonstration Base in Hainan. Inside, soilless cultivated plants sit on the ferris wheel, and rotate slowly so that they can simultaneously absorb water and enjoy enough light; the small Meiyue watermelons hanging on the vines have not only sweet and mushy pulps but also crisp and tasty ski; and tomatoes hanging like bunches of grapes facilitate faster picking. In addition, the bell pepper has seen its output grow by more than 10 times after its problem of vulnerability to diseases and pests is solved, relative to common planting methods. Xiao Rixin, Director of Hainan Modern Protected Agriculture Research Institute said that by using high-tech means, such as an intelligent plant factory, vertical rotation farming system and intelligent management of the Internet of Things, the output value per mu is several times that of conventional planting.
In Shamei Village, Boao Town, Qionghai City, the journalist met Liang Wenbin, who returned from Singapore to start his own business. Liang found that an ingredient called pandan has a big market in Southeast Asia. Pandan has a unique natural fragrance and the cake made of its leaf juice is popularly known as the "Queen of Cakes."After returning to his hometown, Liang got big support for his business from the local government. His company and the government each pay half the cost of the pandan seedlings, which are given for free to low-income families to plant, to be later sold by his company. Pandan can be planted under areca trees and the farmers can earn a net profit of more than 8000 yuan per mu every year.
Scientific research and the market have been linked as the two ends of the ‘Smiling Curve,’ with high profits on the industrial chain of agriculture. Through vigorously promoting supply-side structural reform of agriculture, Hainan has been leading in China in terms of the growth rate of value-added agricultural products for several years.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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