Established at the end of 2005, Liuzhou Ainong Hui is one of PCD’s partners in Guangxi Province. The NGO just has two staff members, who make fun of themselves as Liuzhou indigenous people. The slogan of their organization is “The more home-grown it is, the more delicious; the more indigenous, the healthier; the more native, the more environmentally friendly”. A volunteer named Wang Yifei identifies two features that distinguish Ainong Hui: “to develop small-scale agricultural economy and to become popular”.

Ainong Hui started its trial operations in early 2006. They encouraged farmer partners to grow, on a small scale, indigenous rice and soybeans without using chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Currently, there are three partners farming rice and one partner farming soybeans.

Ainong Hui also helps farmers to raise chickens by providing a fine breed of chickens collected from the nearby mountainous areas of Rongshui in Sanjiang; it is suitable for households that have orchards to raise these local chickens. As the programme has received a good response from villagers, farmers growing rice in Genpo have planned to increase the scale of their indigenous rice to 10 mu next year.

Ainong Hui has also organized a series of “one-day” visits for urban people to participate in farming activities. Families from the cities visit farmhouses on the weekends. Parents and their children collect eggs and have meals at the farm. This year, the series of activities was themed around growing rice. In April, for instance, they held an activity for participants to transplant rice seedlings. Other activities include pest control in June, and harvesting crops in late July. The farmers also benefited from the activities, as participants would pay for the home-cooked meals. Ainong Hui also invited households to meet potential customers and to participate in indigenous food fairs in cities. These visits helped lay a good foundation for the organization to improve the quality of farm products in cities.

PCD has recognized Ainong Hui’s efforts and their concern for farmers’ livelihoods, their endeavors on promoting organic farming, and their facilitation of exchanges between urban customers and rural farmers. In 2006, PCD assisted the organization to nurture key staff through the implementation of Healthy Agriculture Volunteers Internship Programme 健康农业志愿者实习生项目. PCD also provided small grants for them to launch innovative activities related to rural-urban exchange. In order to facilitate exchange between Ainong Hui and other partner organizations, PCD organized a training workshop on sustainable agriculture in Liuzhou. On the last afternoon, about 150 participants, including farmer partners, urban customers and other participants, joined a talk on “The Price of Indigenous Rice”. In the meeting, farmers expressed their hardships while consumers expressed their needs and concerns. Other organizations also shared their experiences.

Ainong Hui has demonstrated its potential. The organization hopes to establish a stable but vigorous local farm production and sales system that is different from the mainstream system. Along the way, they want to foster a harmonious relationship between urban citizens and farmers, and between farmers and nature.

Remarks: “Community-supported agriculture and urban farming programme” aims to provide a platform for discussion and practice so that more people, especially urban consumers, will reflect on the rural-urban relationship; the connection between their life styles, consumer models and ecological environment; and sustainable community development under the circumstances of modernization and globalization.