Agricultural expert is on a lifelong quest to promote organic farming
Print Edition
For Kawasaki Hiroto, a 72-year-old Japanese agricultural expert, promoting organic farming in China has become a lifelong pursuit.
鈥淧repare a grave for me here in China, this is where I鈥檒l work till my last breath,鈥 said Kawasaki.
Kawasaki, who has been in China for nearly a decade, champions manure composting and recycling.
So far, the Japanese green farming enthusiast鈥檚 mission has won him more than 270,000 followers on Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo. Four years ago, the number was less than 300.
Kawasaki teamed up with Xiaoliugu Farm in the city of Xinxiang, central China鈥檚 Henan Province, to apply green farming methods and train young farmers across the country in the skills needed to popularize the green techniques.
鈥淭he task for the rest of my life is to cultivate talent and hope that recycled agriculture can be widely applied in the future,鈥 Kawasaki has written.
Back in 2009, Kawasaki worked at a Chinese university and was appalled to find that many Chinese villagers threw livestock manure into the field or rivers without any disposal methods. Also, overuse of fertilizers was causing the soil to harden, affecting product yield and quality.
Later, the retiree from a Japanese agricultural cooperative decided to alter the situation by promoting manure composting and recycled farming.
鈥淲hen I told my wife that I was going to work in China, she thought I no longer loved her,鈥 Kawasaki said, with a laugh.
But she finally understood and agreed.
In 2013, Kawasaki traveled to farms across China looking for partners to achieve his vision but was turned down many times because of the high cost of implementing the methods.
Kawasaki only began learning Chinese in 2009 and did not have a good grasp of the language at that time. In addition, he had a hard time getting used to pit toilets.
Then, through a friend鈥檚 introduction, he met Li Wei, a former journalist who inherited a hog farm from her father. She wanted to transform the property into an organic farm but found it difficult without proper techniques.
鈥淲e both wanted to use recycled farming back then,鈥 said Li. 鈥淜awasaki also broadened my mind by introducing deep processing in our wheat production.鈥
Kawasaki鈥檚 methods helped boost wheat yield and sales for the farm, and Li invited him to stay.
In 2015, a snowstorm destroyed 35 greenhouses on the farm but Kawasaki鈥檚 posts on Weibo helped them sell nearly 70,000 yuan (US$10,146) of products in just a few days.
In 2017, he launched training classes to promote the green techniques.
Liu Yan, a university graduate who participated in the training sessions said that next year he plans to study at a Japanese agricultural company.
More than 100 people have participated in the program and some have even come from other parts of China thousands of miles away.
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