The Rocky Areas' Road to Prosperity: 'She Power' Shines in the Practice of Eco-farming

Xie Xianfang (white shirt and cream-coloured vest), founder of the Panzhihua Xianfang Crop Cultivation and Livestock Farming Cooperative, teaches ecological farming techniques to some of the organisation’s members in Xinqiao Village, Bude Town, Renhe District, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province.

Located in southwest China, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, is an ideal place for subtropical fruit farming and animal husbandry. The only city that produces subtropical fruit in Sichuan, Panzhihua sells an abundance of mangos, loquats, pomegranates, cherries, and other high-quality produce both domestically and abroad.  

Driven by economic interests, the prefecture-level city’s farmers tended to apply large amounts of chemical fertiliser and pesticide to their orchards, however, which increased production for short periods of time but led to eventual declines in yields and quality. A survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) in 2013 revealed that 80% of the soil in the orchards that had been cultivated for more than five years in Panzhihua lacked sufficient nutrients or contained enough acids to inhibit plant growth and had thus entered “old-age stage” ahead of schedule, which caused the experts that were involved to fear that the current generation of the administrative area’s farmers would not be able to produce much fruit and that the next generation would not have any soil suitable for cultivation available if this style of production did not change.

A view of damaged soil at an orchard in Xinqiao (Photo taken in 2013). Excessive chemical fertiliser and pesticide usage resulted in a loss of nutrients and an increase in acidity, which can impede plant growth.

A native of a section of Xinqiao known as the Zhantian villager group named Xie Xianfang had been living and doing business in an urban centre outside the local area but began rethinking her career in 2012. The fruits and vegetables covered in pesticide residue that had been cultivated with chemical fertiliser and meat and eggs that had been produced with hormone supplements that the then-37-year-old encountered in her daily life compelled her to reflect on her career and consider getting involved with ecological crop cultivation and animal husbandry in the remote, mountainous village that she is from. Faced with a difficult decision, she deliberated the matter for a while but ultimately decided to follow through with the idea and began leasing more than 200 mu of Xinqiao’s barren slopes and wasteland later that year, which marked the beginning of her new entrepreneurial journey.

In early 2013, Xie established the Panzhihua Xianfang Crop Cultivation and Livestock Farming Cooperative and implemented an eco-friendly farming model featuring an interconnected cycle involving “fruit trees, forage grass, animal husbandry, and  manure” under the guidance of CATAS experts, which maximised output per unit of land area while protecting the environment.

Xinqiao Village, Bude Town, Renhe District, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, native Xie Xianfang (second from left) discusses ecological farming techniques with experts from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS). The experts have helped her transform barren slopes and wasteland into an oasis that has boosted incomes in the area. 

CATAS introduced several high-quality forage varieties to the organisation, and the most suitable were intercropped between the fruit trees that grow in its orchards, including forage legumes, which reduce weed growth and therefore decrease reliance on herbicide and related manual labour costs and help solve the problem of soil compaction caused by extensive application of it, boost soil fertility with their ability to fix nitrogen, conserve water and soil, and yield other benefits. Cultivation of gramineous and leguminous plants also improved the quality of the fodder that the organisation’s members produce and reduced the cost of feeding the goats and chickens that they raise.

Leguminous forage growing in Xinqiao. The Panzhihua Xianfang Crop Cultivation and Livestock Farming Cooperative intercrops various types of forage in its orchards in order to improve soil quality and produce fodder for its livestock and high-quality manure for its trees.

The Panzhihua Xianfang Cooperative farms goats in a quality standardised enclosure featuring areas suitable for feeding, relaxing, and sleeping that was built on 1.2 mu of barren slopes and also raises poultry in its orchards. The animals are fed with silage produced by straw purchased from farmers in addition to the high-quality fodder that is grown.

A certain portion of the forage that is cultivated is composted and combined with the manure produced by the livestock that eat it, which has made it possible to replace chemical fertiliser with the mixture and thus improve the soil that it is applied to and the quality of the fruit that is grown on it.

CATAS experts deliver a lecture on ecological farming techniques involving circular  crop cultivation and livestock rearing to farmers in Xinqiao.

The opportunities that the Panzhihua Xianfang Cooperative has created have resulted in greater numbers of villagers becoming motivated to engage in ecological farming in the Xinqiao area and the number of people from the area working as migrant labourers decreasing. Three hundred sixteen farmers from 108 local households had become members of the organisation and receive help selling their agricultural products as of early 2023. Taking advantage of its picturesque orchards, the cooperative has also been pursuing agritourism, which has resulted in many new job opportunities becoming available for its members. Plans are also in the works to create a greater number of processed products out of the agricultural products that are produced in the future. China’s citizens have been taking a greater interest in healthy food as living standards continue to improve in the country, which will surely broaden the ecological farming organisation’s prospects.

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)

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