Learning to Grow Rice in a Village: 0.4 Acres of Organic Rice and a 5,000 Yuan Loss

What happens when a “expert” with twenty years’ experience researching agricultural policy decides to roll up their trousers and personally cultivate 2.6 mu (roughly 0.42 acres) of paddy rice?

Chen Jingjing, an agriculture university graduate with a long-standing focus on rural development, took what he calls an “unconventional” step this year: he settled in Qingshan Village in Hangzhou to tackle a full growing season of genuine ecological rice cultivation.

This was no mere conceptual exercise; it was a head-on collision between idealism and reality.

Chen Jingjing was hardly a stranger to rice cultivation. Having spent most of his life working within rural communities, he grew up in a small mountain village in central Zhejiang where his family raised silkworms, grew rice, and processed preserved dates. Yet, setting foot in the fields to grow rice himself was a first.

From selecting the plot and raising seedlings to processing and logistics, every stage delivered a harsh reality check to the “veteran expert”. His refusal to use herbicides came at a staggering labour cost; his insistence on sun-drying for better flavour meant grappling with the painstaking logistics of organising workers. Meanwhile, the bills kept mounting: seeds, organic and chemical fertilisers, machinery hire, hired hands, transport, drying, packaging…

By late October last year, the harvest was finally in, and Chen Jingjing tasted the rice he had grown himself. But when the accounts were balanced, the production cost came to over ¥30 per jin (500g), leaving him with a seasonal loss of nearly ¥5,000.

So, what exactly went wrong? This episode draws on a live talk where Chen Jingjing candidly unpacks this sobering, unvarnished “farming ledger”. It is far more than a simple deficit figure; it reads as an exceptionally honest lesson on contemporary Chinese agriculture:

Idealism versus reality: Why does the “no fertiliser, no pesticide” approach struggle to take hold in a real-world agricultural system?
The power of structure: How do land rent, state subsidies and the modern division of labour gradually “school” the idealist?
Reconfiguring relationships: What structural shifts are reshaping the bond between contemporary farmers and the land?
Questioning value: In a society defined by both loneliness and acceleration, what does it truly mean for one person to grow their own food?

In this episode, there are no comforting platitudes, only gritty details, confusion, and reflection. If you’ve ever been tempted by the idea of “moving back to the countryside” or “throwing yourself into organic farming”, this in-depth review of the realities of land and food might well make you reconsider that impulse.

Qing Shan Village, about a thirty-minute drive from central Hangzhou, serves as a weekend retreat for city dwellers and is where Chen Jingjing began testing out her agricultural ideals.

Life as a modern tenant farmer: Where does one even find fields?

Once you actually start farming, you need to seek out local villagers’ advice on every single aspect.

Those still farming in the village are mostly elderly, in their fifties and sixties.

Friends came to help harvest the rice in the fields, but after half an hour, everyone was wearing out, hitting the limit of their romanticised pastoral dreams……

Seeds, 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 stages it takes to go from paddy to polished rice.

Chen Jingjing tallied up her costs for growing rice in 2025. Even without factoring in her own labour, it was still a loss-making venture.

A note from Uncle Shen Jinhuo regarding his work for Chen Jingjing.

Eating a meal at Uncle Shen Jinhuo’s home. At 74, Uncle Shen was formerly a village team leader in Li San and has extensive agricultural experience, serving as the technical advisor for the 2.6 mu of rice paddies. After his patient but firm urging, Chen Jingjing agreed to use compound fertiliser.

Episode Guest

Chen Jingjing

A graduate of China Agricultural University with two decades of experience in rural development. She has spent years working on-site across various regions, dedicating herself to researching agricultural and rural reform and practising rural revitalisation initiatives.

Episode Host

Xiao Dan

Former agricultural journalist. In 2026, she has a 20-square-metre plot to farm.

Timestamps

00:46 How did Chen Jingjing go from studying agricultural science at China Agricultural University, to working in rural development, to settling in Qingshan Village and growing rice?

04:28 Can an “art village” full of designers, environmental NGOs, and new villagers still take food production seriously?

11:15 Why did someone with twenty years in rural development decide, on their very first attempt at growing rice, to “break with convention”?

11:41 Out of all the possible ventures, why did he specifically choose rice—the hardest, most exhausting, and least profitable crop?

15:47 Chinese agriculture is shifting from a “romanticised notion of small-scale farming” toward a reality driven by large-scale operations, mechanisation, and subsidies.

19:22 The contemporary new tenant farmer: why do the good plots never go to those “genuinely keen to farm properly”, and where exactly does land transfer get stuck?

22:52 From seedling cultivation and transplanting to harvest, a single 2.6-mu paddy field pulls in an entire network of specialised labour.

30:54 When organic fertiliser actually arrived at the fields, was idealism finally given a reality check?

32:00 Foregoing chemical fertilisers and pesticides: is it a stand for principles, or an avoidance of responsibility for yield?

32:32 With manual harvesting and carrying rice on the shoulder, physical limits set in faster than ideals can hold out.

32:41 A year of hard work yielded “good rice”, but why did nine people come to “collect straw”, while only two wanted to buy the rice?

35:04 From sun-drying to milling, every step in turning paddy into rice quietly swallows up costs.

36:34 Once the true cost of a single kilogram of rice is tallied, can “ecology”, “ideals” and “perseverance” still stand their ground?

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

46:22 Once you’ve spent a season actually growing rice, your relationship with the land, the villagers, and rural life itself will be transformed.

53:07 After all that effort and financial loss, is there a second season?

Episode Guest

Episode Host

Published by Foodthink