Community support for Agriculture: how far can Localization go?

Community support agriculture is a new type of agricultural production and management model that has emerged in China in recent years. It originated from Japan, the United States and other western countries, and now it has a considerable scale. Similar organizational forms of community support for agriculture also exist widely in Europe. Community support agriculture means that the operation of a farm is supported by the community, making the farm a community farm, forming a model in which producers and consumers support each other, share agricultural risks and share the benefits of agricultural products.

The local development of community support for agriculture can be traced back to the "Native products Exhibition Hall" opened in Liuzhou, Guangxi in 2005, after which community support for agricultural farms appeared one after another. The initial consumers and promoters of community support for agriculture are basically middle-income groups, because such consumers have a certain purchasing power and can pay the relatively high prices of agricultural products; producers also have the ability to obtain adequate economic and social support and invest it in the production process of ecologically healthy agriculture. The community supports the organic mode of production in agriculture, emphasizes the harmony between people and nature, and opposes excessive profit-seeking behavior, excessive use and transformation of nature. therefore, the community support agricultural action under the guidance of this concept has a variety of functions, such as producing healthy and safe agricultural products, reducing agricultural environmental pollution, promoting trust between consumers and producers, and raising awareness of respect for nature.

Although the community supports agriculture has many advantages, but in the local development and promotion process, it is experiencing difficulties in many aspects, such as management, talent, market, land and so on. First, management. The management of community supporting agricultural operation is mostly a kind of traditional paternalistic management, which is different from the hierarchical management of modern enterprises that most employees are used to. In agricultural production and management, not every penny of labor can be condensed into material products for exchange. therefore, every penny of labor can not be fully rewarded in the market and reflected through salary management. this affects the enthusiasm of employees to a great extent; second, in terms of talents. There are relatively few talents in the production of specialized organic agriculture, and it takes a long-term process for the community to support agriculture as a new space for development. The only thing that can be done on the farm is to make full use of the unique concept of community support for agricultural development, to create an internal atmosphere of tolerance and care, to train talents and retain talents at the same time; third, production. Farms want to use naturally improved seeds, but most of the seeds on the agricultural market cannot be retained; fourth, in terms of consumption. Although consumers at present have certain concepts of environmental protection and ecology, they still lack resonance with the deeper purpose of the community to support agriculture, and most of them just stand on the other side of production, and the enjoyment of safe agricultural products is their main consumption mentality. Lack of equal tolerance for product types and products, therefore, the contradiction between the singularity of agricultural products and the diversification of consumer demand is particularly prominent; fifth, in terms of land. Most of the land that the community supports agricultural farms is contracted collectively from the village, and most of them are located in the suburbs of the city. with the acceleration of urbanization construction, the land price around the city is soaring, and the place where the farm is located is also facing the pressure of demolition at any time. Once the village collective is aware of the huge benefits that may be brought by demolition, it will take back the land for collective sale. Farms have to carefully maintain a balanced relationship with local organizations under the existing land system in order to obtain a relatively stable development environment.

For the community to support the development of agriculture in China, in addition to the above problems, what needs to be solved is the low participation of ordinary farmers, because the current community support for agriculture more reflects the interests of middle-income groups in the process of development, and farmers' right to speak is not fully reflected. This requires active action by the government, social organizations and universities to explore a way for ordinary farmers to participate and benefit from it. For example, the "Beijing Organic Farmers' Market" encourages farmers to participate by reducing or not charging service fees, and the School of Humanities and Development of China Agricultural University has launched activities such as a "nest market" that directly connects ordinary farmers with urban consumers in Yixian County, Hebei Province. its concept is worth using for reference.

Community support for agriculture is a new model of agricultural development in China, which plays a positive role in many aspects. we should face up to the problems in the process of development and solve them. finally, it will be built into a new agricultural development model to promote the safe production of agricultural products, reduce the environmental pollution of agricultural production, increase farmers' income and expand the space for rural development.