How I Learned to Grow Paddy Rice in a Village: 2.6 Mu of Ecological Rice and Nearly 5,000 Yuan in Losses

What happens when an “expert” who has studied agricultural policy for 20 years decides to roll up his trouser legs and grow 2.6 mu of paddy rice with his own hands?

Chen Jingjing, who was formally trained at China Agricultural University and has long devoted his career to researching rural construction, made what many would call a “counter-intuitive” decision this year: to put down roots in Qingshan Village, Hangzhou, and take on a full growing season of genuine ecological rice production.

This was no superficial concept experiment but a head-on confrontation between idealism and reality.

Chen Jingjing was not entirely unfamiliar with rice farming. He had spent nearly his whole life in close contact with the countryside—born in a small mountain village in central Zhejiang, where his family raised silkworms, grew paddy rice and processed candied jujube. But tilling the soil to grow paddy rice with his own hands was a first for him.

From choosing a plot and raising seedlings to processing and logistics, every single stage gave this “veteran expert” a harsh reality check. In insisting on using no herbicide, he paid an eye-watering sum in manual labour costs; in choosing sun-drying to achieve a better flavour, he was tormented by the sheer difficulty of organising workers. Meanwhile, the bills for seed, organic fertiliser, chemical fertiliser, combine harvester hire, hired labour, transport, drying, packaging… piled up line after line.

In late October last year, the paddy was finally harvested, and Chen Jingjing ate milled rice he had grown himself. But when the numbers were crunched, the production cost per jin of milled rice had reached over 30 yuan, and the entire season ended in a loss of nearly 5,000 yuan.

So what exactly happened along the way? This episode of the podcast grew out of an offline sharing session in which Chen Jingjing candidly unpacked this heavy, unflinching “farming ledger”—far more than a single loss figure, it reads almost like an exceptionally honest lesson on contemporary Chinese agriculture:

Idealism vs. Reality: Why is “no chemical fertiliser, no pesticide” nearly impossible to sustain within a real agricultural system?
The Power of Structure: How do land-rent logic, grain subsidies and the division of labour in modern agriculture “educate” an idealist, step by step?
Rebuilding Relationships: What structural changes are reshaping the bond between modern farmers and the land?
Questioning Value: In a society where “loneliness and acceleration” coexist, what is the true meaning of a person growing their own grain?

This episode offers no feel-good platitudes—only raw, blood-and-guts details, bewilderment and reflection. If you have ever been tempted by the idea of “going back to the countryside” or “throwing yourself into organic agriculture”, this in-depth retrospective on land and food may well make you rethink that impulse.

Qingshan Village, roughly half an hour’s drive from central Hangzhou, is a back garden for city dwellers—and the test plot where Chen Jingjing began putting his agricultural ideals into practice.

The life of a modern new tenant farmer: where does the land come from?

Once you actually start farming, you find yourself turning to every farmer in the village for their hard-won experience.

Those in the village who still farm are mostly in their fifties and sixties.

Friends came out to the fields to help harvest the paddy, but after half an hour most of them were flagging—they had reached the limit of their pastoral-idiyll dream…

Seed, soil, fertiliser, finished product: the inputs and outputs of a rice-growing life.

For the first time, Chen Jingjing experienced firsthand just how many production processes stand between paddy and milled rice.

Chen Jingjing tallied up the costs of his 2025 rice-growing season—even without counting his own labour, it was still a loss-making venture.

The work note Shen Jinhuo left for Chen Jingjing.

Having dinner at Shen Jinhuo’s home. Grandpa Shen, 74 this year and a former group leader of Lisan Village, has extensive experience in agricultural production and served as technical advisor for the 2.6 mu of paddy rice. Under his patient, earnest urging, Chen Jingjing used compound fertiliser.

This Episode’s Guest

Chen Jingjing

A graduate of China Agricultural University and a practitioner with 20 years of experience in rural construction. Having spent long periods stationed in villages across different regions, he is dedicated to research on agricultural and rural reform and to practical work in rural revitalisation.

This Episode’s Host

Xiaodan

Former agricultural journalist; in 2026, she has 20 square metres of land to farm.

Timeline

00:46 From graduating as a specialist at China Agricultural University, to entering the field of rural construction, to settling in Qingshan Village — how did Chen Jingjing end up growing paddy rice in a village?

04:28 Can an “art village” that draws together designers, environmental organisations and new residents still seriously grow grain?

11:15 Why did someone with 20 years of rural construction work decide, on the very first occasion of growing paddy rice on their own, “don’t follow convention”.

11:41 Of all the possible things to try, why did he single out paddy rice — the hardest, most exhausting, least profitable crop?

15:47 Chinese agriculture is shifting from a “smallholder imagination” to a reality driven by large-scale farmers, mechanisation and subsidies.

19:22 The modern new tenant farmer: why do the best plots never come to those who “want to farm seriously”, and which layer exactly does land transfer get stuck at?

22:52 From raising seedlings and rice transplanting to harvesting, behind a single 2.6-mu paddy plot lies an entire web of division of labour.

30:54 When the organic fertiliser was actually delivered to the fields, was idealism being squarely “educated” by reality for the first time?

32:00 No chemical fertiliser, no pesticide — is it about upholding principles, or shirking responsibility for yields?

32:32 Hand-harvesting, shouldering bundles of paddy rice — the body’s limits arrive faster than any ideal.

32:41 After a year’s toil growing “good rice”, why did nine people come to “collect straw” but only two wanted to buy the milled rice?

35:04 From drying the grain to rice milling, every step from paddy to milled rice quietly devours costs.

36:34 When the true cost per jin of milled rice is calculated, can “ecology”, “idealism” and “perseverance” still hold up?

45:37 Is this ultimately a failed agricultural experiment, or a necessary hands-on immersion?

46:22 Once you have actually grown a season of paddy rice, your relationship with the land, the villagers and the countryside changes completely.

53:07 After all that effort, all those losses — will you farm again next year?

This Episode’s Guest

This Episode’s Host

Published by Foodthink