Sunyuki Agricultural Science & Technology Co., Ltd

Chengdu, China

An Overview Of Our Solution

The Sunyuki organic farms are distributed in Sichuan and Shandong provinces, from Dezhou city in north China to Panzhihua city in southwest China, where across different altitudes and latitudes, providing more than 200 kinds of vegetables for customers. All the farms are divided into 3 types, which are Panxi subtropical farms, mountain cold farms and plain temperature farms, and aiming at (1) enrich more kinds of vegetables supplying, (2) extend the supplying period, (3) guarantee the production quality based on different type of soils, (4) resist the natural risks through scattered planting, and (5) solve the labor shortage problems.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Corporação

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Forests

Population impacted

30,000 people

Size of agricultural area

190 ha

Production quantity

9,000,000 kilos

People employed

500 people

Describe your solution

The core solutions of Sunyuki standard are as follows: (1) Create the ecological wetland. Take advantage of local terrain to create 1 ha of ecological garden, enlarge the low-lying land, introduce of irrigation water to keep the plot wet, and plant green manure crops like alfalfa or let the weeds grown naturally, and then plant vegetables around the garden. (2) Reuse of crop stalks, crop residues and animal manure. Collect crop stalks, residues and manure around the farm, and pile up together. From these treatments, the organic matter accumulation could increase evidently which will keep soil healthier and sustainable, at the same time, the micro-organisms in the soil could also increase dramatically. (3) Create the effective crop rotation systems. Carry out the rotation between different kinds of cultivars, in order to avoid the soil-borne diseases. (4) Scientific planting specification and intercropping application. For crop production, the high ridge planting is advocated, thus could avoid the damage or crop failure caused by waterlogging, and increase the light area. Meanwhile, set reasonable intercropping systems according to the characteristics of different cultivars. (5) Pay attention to biological prevention and control. Prohibition of chemical pesticide application, instead take the biological control like predators as the priority.

Describe your implementation

1.Activities (1) Create the ecological wetland. Take advantage of local terrain to create 1 ha of ecological garden, enlarge the low-lying land, introduce of irrigation water to keep the plot wet, and plant green manure crops. (2) Reuse of crop stalks, crop residues and animal manure. Collect corp stalks, residues and manure around the farm, pile up together and disinfect in sunshine for 7 days. (3) Create the effective crop rotation systems. Carry out the rotation between different kinds of cultivars, in order to avoid the soil-borne diseases. (4) Scientific planting specification and intercropping application. Build the sides after soil preparation, the width and height of the side are 1.2 m and 0.30 cm, and keep an interval of 0.30 m between 2 sides. (5) Pay attention to biological prevention and control. Cultivate the predators such as ladybird and bud cocoon, when the aphid burst, release the predators at 1,500 numbers of adult per ha in order to control the pest. 2. How to ensure the solutions First, the Sunyuki will build its own demonstration farm, and attract the producers to visit and learn through the production cost and economical interest exhibition. Second, hold the training regularly and occasionally, raise the operational and management efficiency. 3. Advantages The Sunyuki have devoted to organic farming for 7years since founded in 2010. Take good advantage of this brands in southwest China, leading people involve in organic production. 4. Key success factors From the application of Sunyuki standard, the organic matter of the soil increased dramatically year by year, and the input using such as fertilizer and pesticide become more and more less which truly lower the cost of production. 5. Obstacles It’s hard to persuade farmers to built the wetland garden to keep the balance of ecological cycle. This could be solved through the building of demonstration farm.

External connections

The Sunyuki has been invested millions of US dollars for the construction of production facilities and R&D, it’s hard to work out all these difficulties through our own investment. The funding and technology supporting are needed during the whole operation process. Nowadays, we have cooperated with some universities and institutes such as Sichuan Agricultural University and Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Science.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

The Sunyuki Organic Standard programs could solve the difficulties as follows: (1) Hygienic problems produced from farm itself and neighborhoods like crop stalks, crop residues, excrement of animals, and waste after burning. (2) Soil loss, degradation and salivation problems. Before organic production initiated, the pesticide and heavy meatal residues of soil are out of standard due to excessive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. (3) Water eutrophication problems. Due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides before organic production that the irrigation water is polluted which threatens the quality of irrigation and lives of residents. (4) Re-create the micro-ecological environment, and realize the ecological cycle. The ecological environment was totally destroyed because of the conventional production. (5) Solve the soil borne diseases. The diseases like downy mildew, white mildew, and insect pests like aphids, red spiders are occurred frequently.

Describe the context in which you are operating

The Sunyuki organic standard program can be applied in organic production like vegetable, field crop production across China. Nowadays, this standard has been extended to 17 farms of 2 provinces (Shandong and Sichuan) in China, and production area has reached to 190 ha. There are more than 100 customers and producers visit and study this program every week, and the Sunyuki organizes various trainings to enlarge the effect of this program. Through the application of this program, the ecological cycle and sustainable development are re-created, and the organic matter and micro-organism increased gradually (the organic matter reaches to 40 g/kg after 2 years’ application). Specially, the dependence of external inputs like fertilizer, organic pesticide is reducing year by year. After 2 years’ conversion production, the pesticide and heavy metal residues reach to nearly zero level for all the products and thus guarantee the food security.
Refers to the economic benefit, the production cost by Sunyuki standard is 30% higher and the yield is 30% less than conventional production, however, the sale price is more than 3-5 times than conventional products. In other words, peoper will obtain a higher efficiency according to Sunyuki standard.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Take the Xindu Farm as an example. First, this farm was chosen according to strictly standard which is far away from city, factories and highway. Second, all the plots were separated into different pieces scientifically, and built the reasonable crop rotation and intercropping systems. Third, built and enlarged the wetland to restore the ecological cycle. For now, the wetland in Xindu has attracted a varied range of animals like egret, frog, and snake species. The farm has become the local demonstration project which attracted people to visit and learn.

Language(s)

Which language(s) are spoken in the area where your solution is implemented?

Water

The impounding reservoir provide the abundant groundwater resources for organic production. The drop irrigation is the main irrigation method among the farms, this could save groundwater to the most extent.

Food Security/Nutrition

The Sunyuki develop the seed from domestic and oversea, where the priority evaluation criterion is taste and nutrition, to meet the requirement of the customers

Economic/Sustainable Development

Through the crop rotation and intercropping, and the creation of ecological cycle, to make sure the biodiversity and sustainable development of organic farming. The input decrease year by year and the quality of vegetables improve, it is not only could keep the soil healthy, but also could meet the requirement of customers and maintain the market competition advantage.

Climate

Ban on burning, to avoid the occurrence of heavy pollution events.

Sustainability

The Sunyuki standard could improve the products quality and keep the biodiversity, and accordingly the price is 3-5 times more than conventional products. However, due to the higher invest and R&D cost, we need external capital to continue development.

Return on investment

The investment is $322,500/ha (including greenhouse, warehouse, and irrigation facilities), and the 1st year will return 66,000/ha, and will pay back in 3 years.

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

We promote this program through the construction of demonstration farm and the practical return rate of investment. For now, there are more than 190 ha of farms have adopted Sunyuki standard.

Overview