Organic cucumbers are cultivated in winter under glass at the Hesheng Agricultural Technology Development Co. farm in Penglai, China.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
Tainted Food Fear Spurs New Breed of Chinese Farmer
Organic farms and startups transform the rural landscape after decades of urban migrants abandoning the land
China’s agricultural landscape can be summed up fairly simply: it has too little arable land, divided into too many tiny plots, tended by too many farmers, who are mostly too old. And much of the soil is contaminated.
Four-fifths of the nation’s farmland is divided up into plots of less than 3.3 hectares (8.2 acres) and most of those are even smaller—less than the size of a football field. These patches of earth are used mainly to grow cereals like rice and wheat on soil that farmers soak with government-subsidized chemicals to boost yields and keep state grain silos full.