''Small-scale Peasant Economy'' and ''Civilian Route'' of Liuzhou Farmer Fraternity

It is one of the core capabilities of a ''Social Enterprise'' to integrate social resources and resolve local social problems.
 
''Small-scale Peasant Economy'' and ''Civilian Route'' of Liuzhou Farmer Fraternity

It is one of the core capabilities of a ''Social Enterprise'' to integrate social resources and resolve local social problems.

''Liuzhou Farmer Fraternity'' is a small organization of Liuzhou, Guangxi. Although it has only two full-time staff members, it has become the leader in social innovation in the local area. As the name implies, a ''Farmer Fraternity'' is an organization having intercourse with the farmers, so they call themselves ''Liuzhou Rural'', and their slogan is: ''rural means tasty, rural means healthy and rural means environment friendly''. The ''Farmer Fraternity'' was officially established in 2005 after trial operation for more than two years. A volunteer summarizes the practice of the Farmer Fraternity as follows: ''It has two features: the first one is to develop 'small-scale peasant economy' and the second to take the 'civilian route' ''.

On the one hand, they encouraged the farmers in small-scale trial cultivation of the local traditional long-shaped rice, soybean and other varieties of agricultural produce without using chemical fertilizers and agricultural pesticides, and ensured the harvest of such products to ''sell at a good price'' in the city. They also collected quality chicken breeds in the mountain area and delivered free of charge to the farmers in possession of orchards and conditioned for keeping backyard poultry.

On the other hand, they designed ''one-day experience'' activities to invite the urban buyer group participating in the farming activities. For instance, they arranged the parents to come with their kids from downtown to the orchards of the chicken keepers for ''collecting free-range chicken eggs and tasting the farmer's cooking''. At the end of April, people were invited to transplant rice seedlings with the farmers and in June, to help the farmers catch insects in the paddy fields under organic farming. Moreover, the farmers were organized to attend the ''interview with consumers'', ''taste the choice products from farmland'' in the city and other activities. The car owners make use of their cars and those without cars share the transport by paying for gasoline. This way, everybody enjoys a happy day together and after such activities, the farmers are paid in full for the relevant cost, so as to let them benefit from these processes. To date, their relationship has become more and more harmonious and the farmers consider the members and volunteers of the Farmer Fraternity as their ''relatives in Liuzhou''. These ''experience activities'' lay also a good foundation for their future sales of the ''choice products from farmland'' in the city for the sake of the farmers. They do not need to apply for expensive ''certification of organic farming products''; instead, when they sell the free-range chicken eggs, they put a small bamboo label in the basket, with weight marked on the front and producer's name on the verso. Mostly, the consumers have participated in the activities, knowing well the situation of the farmers or having dealt directly with the farmers, so they feel save in this respect.

For their trial operation in the first half of 2006 and based on the conditions of the natural environment, they chose two farmers from different villages for cultivation of local rice variety, one farmer for cultivation of soybean and two farmers for free-range keeping of chickens. Having felt the development tendency, the other farmers are also eager to have a try. One paddy farmer has contracted a piece of land in the valley and plans to enlarge the traditional rice field to 10 mu[1] in the second half of the year.
The Farmer Fraternity is adjusting its working focus and trying to develop some innovative practices in cities. For example, they plan to lease a booth in a traditional free market after rice harvest in August and bring rice milling machine to mill fresh rice on the spot for the buyers. They do believe that the ''taste of the rice'' will certainly attract the townspeople. They also plan to open a ''Tofu Shop'' in cooperation with the laid-off workers; and with the fresh soybeans made by their collaborating farmers, the taste will certainly be unique. They are also providing consulting services to a ''big restaurant'' of Liuzhou city, helping them in establishing cooperative relationship with the farmers. The restaurant is supposed to serve series of special dishes, so that the ''green'' produce of the farmers will have larger market spaces. They have made many similar attempts, without hankering for speed and scale of growth; and when communicating with the farmers, they do not request the farmers to completely give up the existing cultivation modes; instead, they wish the farmers to partake in the experiments in a happy and easy way, in the hope of setting up a steady and dynamic production and sales system different from the mainstream agriculture. During the process of formation of this system, the relationship between townspeople and farmers, and between farmers and nature will be more harmonious and with more human kindness.

Although the Farmer Fraternity shows a good development potential, it faces great challenges in practice, such as the traditional farming mode, which is low in yield (less than half of the normal yield), needing thus more intensive training on farming technology. The demand is now far greater than the supply and the shortage in supply will impair the initiative of the consumer group. Moreover, the Farmer Fraternity needs to be more distinct in mission and positioning of the organization. All these factors require that the Farmer Fraternity should respond with its zealous and creative practice.
 
(Author:Zhu Ming)


[1] Mu: Chinese unit of area (1/15 of a hectare)