Farmers’ Clubs in Nanjiang, the Chongqing municipality, the PR of China, is an update of the method to assist the small scale local farmers and hopefully the project will pave the way for other initiatives alike. The project started in 2020 and will run to January 2023.
The idea of the project is to mobilize 150 households into four farmers’ clubs to start them and run a cooperative.
In the second year of implementation, the project has met the targets of planting, growing and gainful selling the harvest of ecological rice through the farmers’ cooperative. In principle, the market value of the eco-rice is up to seven times higher than that of the usual rice. In practice, it means to engage actively in the new areas of activities, like branding and e-selling. The farmer cooperative will apply for a Green Certificate, which can be obtained after three years of not using industrial pesticides and fertilizers in the rice production.
The checkup in January 2021 certified that the rice samples does meet the national eco-rice standard and the village does comply with the basic principles of self-restrictions in produce of the eco-rice. E.g., no traces of lead, mercury, inorganic arsenic is found in the samples.
Holding back the pesticides away from the fields leaves the rice plants unprotected against the pests and plant diseases. Due to the enhanced farmers competence to identify and react against a harm, the loss of ecologically cultivated rice harvest decreased from 30% in 2020 and to 10% in 2021.
To diversify the farmers' income sources and to compensate the losses due to the self-imposed eco restrictions, five thousand ducklings and chicken have been distributed among the farmer households. The farmers prepared 3 ha of soil for tangerine tree gardens and planted two thousand trees in total.
The local authorities are responsible for the successful implementation of the Rural Reconstruction Program. The HPP as an expert organization in the field of local development aims to persuade the local authorities to prioritize the community capacity building approach. To achieve that, the HPP strategy is to demonstrate to the local authorities the results and the impact achieved in Nanjiang village.
