Back-to Organic Farm

Back to farm

Gender of company owner

Land size (mu亩)

Main Products

Farming Methods

Marketing Channels

Challenges

male

2000

Rice, vegetables, fruits, poultry, eggs, grain

Certified, Organic farming;

members, supermarkets, online sales

labour, marketing, regulation barrier

About the farm

  • Back to farm is a dragon-head company that conducts organic agriculture. Being a dragon-head company means that the farm is able to operate in a large scale, offers vast job opportunities to local farmers, and economically sustainable.
  • The company well sorts two departments of farming and marketing. The latter department concerns about sales in supermarkets and online communicating with members.
  • Based on the sales from the marketing part, farming department makes and adjusts plans of what and how much to plant. For example, they decided to plant more tomatoes and chestnut-pumpkins as both are in high demands from customers.

How does the farm look like?

  • The farm locates in the Gaochun district in Nanjing, where the local authorities are constructing the slow city.
  • Ms.Song (farming manager) finds that farmers’ techniques of pruning will affect both quantities and qualities of fruits. So she divides small farming teams and encourages those with higher pruning skills to train others in the teams.
  • For Song, everything takes a process to be developed. For example, it takes time for her to build good relations with local villagers; it also takes years for marketing and farming departments to match with each other.

Other interesting things about the farm?

  • Gaochun slow city aims to build a place where more supports can be provided to local farmer, more protections can be offered to craftsmanship and traditions, and a place where people can be away from fast globalization and close to the nature.
  • The farm aims to develop agri-tourism in the near future.

Quote from Song:

“High-tech companies are always about fast and updating, but I always say that agriculture is about years and years of accumulations. For agriculture, time is the value.”