Why are smallholders reluctant to grow greenhouse vegetables?
Industrial prosperity is a vital foundation for rural revitalisation. Perhaps inspired by Shouguang in Shandong, the centerpiece of agricultural industrial development in the rural central and western regions is often the promotion of greenhouse vegetable cultivation. Such is the case in Gong County (a pseudonym) in the central region.
A few years ago, during the period of targeted poverty alleviation, the Gong County government introduced greenhouse vegetables—highly profitable in market terms—and implemented subsidy policies in an attempt to integrate them into the local farmers’ livelihood systems.
Given that the government provided greenhouses, seedlings, and technical guidance free of charge, what exactly caused their reluctant attitude towards adopting greenhouse vegetables?
1. Land Transfer, or Land Grabbing?
The complication is that Gong County is situated in a hilly and low-mountain region, with mountains covering approximately 2 million mu, leaving very little flat, open terrain. Promoting the greenhouse vegetable industry here requires significant upfront investment: fragmented smallholdings must be transferred and levelled into contiguous plots, and access to water, electricity, and roads must be established to facilitate the movement of agricultural inputs and the transport of produce.
The consequence of this was that paddy fields, originally used for rice and white lotus, were converted into dry land. Diverse landscapes were standardised into uniform blocks, forcing a sharp decline in the cultivation area for Chen Village’s traditional rice, white lotus, and even tobacco leaves. The rare flat, open arable land with convenient irrigation and transport links was entirely occupied by greenhouse vegetables.
However, due to overly rapid expansion combined with land rent and labour costs, the enterprise could only sustain the operation of 800 mu of greenhouses. Of the remaining 1,200 mu in Chen Village, 200 mu were leased back to farmers for free in accordance with policy requirements, 600 mu were sublet via a lease-back arrangement to professional migrant farmers from provinces such as Guizhou and Hunan to grow crops like strawberries, leafy greens, and watermelons, and 400 mu had lain fallow for two consecutive years.
If the original intention of land transfer was to improve resource utilisation, the case of Chen Village has clearly failed to deliver on this promise.
II. High Investment Following the Withdrawal of Subsidies
To ensure the successful establishment of the greenhouse vegetable industry, the government—building on high-standard farmland renovation—actively attracted industrial and commercial capital to invest in the construction of connected steel-frame greenhouses, providing a 50% subsidy for construction costs per mu.
The government also stipulated that once the greenhouses were completed, vegetable enterprises should prioritise hiring local low-income households for labour. For those households wishing to cultivate the land themselves, rent-free access to the greenhouses was provided.
Encouraged by these favourable policies, 43-year-old Chen Guilin, a resident of Chen Village, recognised the market potential of greenhouse vegetables. During the 2018 Spring Festival, after discussing it with his wife, he decided to stop migrating for work. Taking advantage of a policy that halved the rent, he leased four connected vegetable greenhouses from an enterprise, primarily growing aubergines and chillies.
However, Chen Guilin soon discovered that growing greenhouse vegetables was not as simple as tending to a home garden, as the costs for pesticides, seedlings, fertilisers, agricultural film, irrigation, and labour were prohibitively high. Although the greenhouses increased yields, the scale of production still fell short of that of commercial vegetable enterprises. Consequently, he could only sell in bulk at low prices, relying on the enterprise’s channels for distribution.
By the end of 2020, as the poverty alleviation campaign drew to a close, the officials who had championed the greenhouse project were reassigned. Consequently, the previous subsidies for vegetable greenhouses were slashed and rental costs rose, leaving many vegetable enterprises unable to sustain such high-input production methods. Feeling it was no longer viable, Chen and his wife abandoned their greenhouses and returned to migrant work.
III. Technology: The “Invisible Wall”
Before the development of the greenhouse industry in Gong County, tobacco and potatoes were the most common crops. However, the farmers who contracted the greenhouses typically grew aubergines. Not only could these not be rotated with tobacco or potatoes—as all belong to the Solanaceae family—but the soil previously used for tobacco or potatoes required additional disinfection before aubergine seedlings could be planted. The experience gained from open-field cultivation, which suited the traditional industrial structure, proved largely useless inside a greenhouse.
In theory, because a greenhouse is a relatively enclosed space, the entire growth process of the crops can be controlled by adjusting temperature, humidity, light, heat, water, and fertiliser, thereby shielding the plants from the adverse effects of natural elements.
Yet, discerning exactly when to increase humidity or temperature, and knowing how to manage these levels using ventilation and heating equipment, depends entirely on the operator’s individual skill and experience.
Take aubergines, for example: they thrive in high temperatures, requiring a sufficiently warm nighttime room temperature during the planting stage. They also love the sun; for farmers wishing to bring aubergines to market off-season, shading cloths must be opened promptly during the day and closed at night, while fan heaters are run to regulate the temperature. Aubergines are water-intensive; once fruit has set, irrigation must be increased several times over. However, overwatering can lead to waterlogged roots and foliage rot, making timely ventilation management essential. During the flowering and fruit-setting period, growers must also prune excess side shoots from below the main stem and remove diseased, yellowed, or ageing leaves and deformed fruit to ensure the plants are well-ventilated and receive enough light, preventing the waste of nutrients…
All of this demonstrates that the precision management of water, fertiliser, light, and pests in greenhouse farming constitutes an entirely new body of knowledge and experience. Only by investing significant time, energy, and labour can a producer guarantee their yield and income.
This technical barrier acts as an invisible “wall”, separating those inside the greenhouse from those outside.
Chen Chengren, a 45-year-old farmer from Chen Village, remarked with a sigh: “At my age, I can manage more complex vegetables—things like aubergines and chillies, which require more technical skill. But for someone my father’s age, sixty, it’s not suitable. Firstly, his physical strength isn’t there, and secondly, he can’t keep up with the technical side.”
Yet, in central regions like Gong County, those remaining in the villages are predominantly elderly farmers over sixty, like Chen Chengren’s father. Driven by a fear of incurring losses, they prefer to grow the open-air vegetables they are familiar with or set up simple greenhouses in winter. By planting on a smaller scale and selling their produce retail at the market, they may only make a modest living, but at least they avoid the risk.
IV. The Difficulty of Hiring Labour
However, finding and hiring the right workers presents another daunting challenge.
Approximately 85% of Gongxian’s youth have migrated to coastal regions for work. Those remaining in the villages—regardless of their age, skill set, or physical fitness—fall far short of the high-intensity, fast-paced demands of greenhouse vegetable farming.
As Huang Jinchun, a village official in Zhu Village, puts it: “A vast number of rural residents still head elsewhere for work, leaving businesses facing chronic labour shortages. Some find the wages too low or the management too strict, while others find the greenhouses stifling. Owners have tried various strategies, including hiring young people, but these recruits often lack the necessary skills; the role requires someone who is both technically proficient and capable of managing others. The villagers are accustomed to a more relaxed way of life, making them difficult to supervise. Middle-aged women, for instance, often ignore instructions; when eggplants or chillies need pruning according to technical standards, the farmers are reluctant to do so, fearing it will damage the seedlings. Traditional farming beliefs often clash with scientific cultivation—meaning that even those who know how to farm may not know how to farm *this* way.”
Larger vegetable enterprises are often willing to pay higher wages (in 2018-2019, daily rates were 100 yuan for men and 90 yuan for women) to attract farmers. For ordinary growers, however, this inflation of wages means they must rely on the help of relatives and friends to manage their labour needs, though the resulting costs can still squeeze their already slim profit margins.
For instance, the labour cost for eggplants can reach approximately 3,000 yuan per mu per season. It is little wonder that grower Chen Keli remarked: “To make money from vegetables, you have to put in the hard graft yourself. The big bosses have the money to hire people at high wages, but for ordinary folk like us, we’d rather let the crop fail than pay for labour.”
Greenhouse vegetable farming is not lacking in market potential or policy support. However, due to its “demanding nature”, it is best suited to younger and middle-aged farmers who possess a degree of financial stability, can adapt quickly to new technologies, have the energy required, and can better navigate market fluctuations.
Clearly, there is a mismatch between these requirements and the age and skill sets of the farmers remaining in rural Gongxian.
Foodthink says
Editor: Ze En