Keywords

1 Introduction

In recent years, due to the rapid growth of its population and economy, China’s food production and consumption has increased significantly. A fundamental transformation is taking place with the development of modern agriculture to address issues ranging from food sufficiency crises to food safety scandals in the food system (Si et al. 2015). Within this transformation, the question of how to not only ensure food safety, but also to protect small farms has become a key topic for experts and scholars (Tang et al. 2019). Some Chinese food activists believe that community supported agriculture (CSA) is an important approach to help address the increasing food concerns in China and provide support for the small farms (Li 2019).

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is an alternative food network (AFN) system which connects producers and consumers more directly than traditional agriculture (Galt et al. 2016). The original CSA model was called Teikei and emerged from Japan in the 1960s (Tegtmeier and Duffy 2005). It was a response to the occurrence of Minamata disease caused by severe mercury poisoning, as well as a perceived imbalance between Japanese and foreign agriculture trade, which led to the urgent demand for Japanese people to access healthy and safe food (Tang et al. 2019). It was then introduced in the United States in the 1980s (Paul 2019), where the term CSA was coined and evolved (Araz 2020).

As CSA has been developed to meet a public preference for healthy and ecological agriculture products, there is a strong social connection based on the trust mechanism between producer and consumer (Tang et al. 2019). CSA members pay an up-front fee to support the farmers to access operating capital before the growing season and to ensure that farmers focus on ecological farming practices without having to be focussed on making profits. In return, members receive healthy and fresh produce at frequent intervals during harvest time. Through this mode of operation, consumers and producers share the agricultural risks and rewards and can forge a long-term relationship of mutual trust and exchange.

As one of the most productive areas in China, the Pearl River Delta has natural, cultural, economic, political and geographic advantages in relation to agriculture. Currently, the development of CSA farms in the Pearl River Delta area is still in its infancy (Tang et al. 2019). Compared to other first- and second-tier cities in China, there are fewer CSA farms set up in the Pearl River Delta region.

This chapter reviews current literature to provide an analysis of CSA as an ecological agriculture production mode with focus on the development status, catalysts and barriers to CSA farms in the Pearl River Delta. It further identifies the knowledge gaps and proposes insights into potential routes for CSA farm development in the Pearl River Delta. The chapter concludes by providing reference points for future in-depth research into the development of ecological agriculture in this region.

2 CSA as Ecological Farming

Over the last few decades, the significant effects of rapid globalisation have led to a series of impacts on agriculture. China is currently in a period of transition from traditional smallholder production to mechanised, industrialised and intensive modern agricultural production. The current process of agricultural transformation, due to the effects of climate change, the low efficiency of mechanisation and the lack of labour, makes excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides in the production process to ensure maximum production and revenue (Chen and Wang 2019). Consequently, pollution of the environment has become one of the greatest barriers to people’s access to healthy and safe food (Krul and Ho 2017). In response, domestic agricultural institutions and academia are focussing their attention on alternative food networks (AFNs) (see Fig. 16.1), which can play an important role in guaranteeing food safety, protecting the environment and developing rural and peri-urban areas (Tang et al. 2019). The types of AFNs in China include community supported agriculture (CSA), farmers’ markets, community gardens, recreational garden plot rental and consumer cooperatives (Si et al. 2015; Tang et al. 2019). Of these, CSA is the most well-known model and has developed significantly over the last decade in China.

Fig. 16.1
A multi-level schematic has 5 main elements. It maps 2 paths from the producers, namely the ecological and the modern industrialized farming. The former takes the alternative food networks. The latter takes the traditional food supply chain to reach the consumers.

Image Ziyi Liu

Traditional food supply chain and alternative food networks schematic

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The concept of CSA in China was introduced with the main motivation being food safety (Yan et al. 2011; Scott et al. 2014) rather than improving the environment or supporting local farmers (Cox et al. 2008; Peterson et al. 2015). CSA is believed to guarantee the livelihood of the producers, provide high-quality food for the local community, establish a collaborative consumer-producer relationship of mutual trust, and to address the issue of a lack of transparency, sustainability and resilience in the food system (Community Supported Agriculture 2015). It can also provide a fair platform for both the farmer and the urban consumer in the development of local production for local consumption (Partnerships for Community Development 2013).

CSA has a relatively short history in China with the Little Donkey Citizen Farm believed to be the first CSA farm in China, which was founded in Beijing in 2009. CSA has characteristics which distinguish it from traditional agriculture regarding its distribution, operators, customer perception, scale, trade principles and certification process, some of which are discussed later in the chapter.

Krul and Ho (2017) explored the demographics of the farmers in a survey of fifteen CSA farms in China. Their research showed that about two thirds of interviewees described themselves as a ‘new’ farmer that can be described as young and well-educated urban citizens. The characteristics of participants who showed a high level of interest in this form were as follows: well-educated, living in the urban centre and from the middle or upper class; women also make up a high proportion of these farmers (Zheng et al. 2017). Most new farmers started their CSA farm on a small area of land, less than two hectares, where they prefer to adopt polyculture rather than monoculture practices (China CSA Alliance and SMART 2019). CSA farms follow the ‘local producing and marketing’ model (Tang et al. 2019), which can also be reflected in the distribution of CSA farms in China.

CSA farms in China are mainly located in peri-urban areas around first- and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Fuzhou, normally within a radius of 30–50 kms from the city centre (for first-tier cities, this radius extends to 100 kms) (China CSA Alliance and SMART 2019). The location of CSA farms emphasises that the Chinese peri-urban agriculture landscape not only serves urban markets but–as the chapter will discuss later–also supports urban residents as agricultural tourists (Shao et al. 2012).

3 CSA in the Pearl River Delta

Compared to other first- and second-tier cities in China, there are fewer CSA farms in the Pearl River Delta region. According to the data from Yogeev (有机会), a domestic social media platform promoting organic food and sustainable lifestyle, and map of CSA network published by the China CSA Alliance, for first-tier cities in China, there are 56 CSA farms in Beijing and 21 in Shanghai. In the second-tier cities of Chengdu and Fuzhou there are 32 and 15 CSA farms, respectively.

According to Yogeev and China CSA Alliance, currently, in the Pearl River Delta there are only 11 CSA farms (Fig. 16.2). Most of the farms are located in Guangzhou, with another four in Huizhou, whilst in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, there is one farm each. Most farms are operating at mid- to large-scale with sites ranging from 8.67 ha to 40 ha.

Fig. 16.2
A map of the Pearl River delta has 9 shaded regions at the center. It locates 11 C S A farms, 5 in Guangzhou, 4 in Huizhou, and 1 each in Shenzhen, and Zhuhai, respectively.

Image Ziyi Liu

Distribution of CSA farms in Pearl river delta.

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In terms of natural resources, location, economy, history of sustainable agriculture and marketing (Yu 2008; Zeng 2011) the Pearl River Delta has strong potential to develop ecological agriculture. However, there is limited understanding of why there is a rather low number of CSA farms in this region (Fig. 16.3). There is also little literature discussing the potential catalysts for, and barriers to, developing CSA, especially small-scale CSA farms, in the Pearl River Delta. The potential catalysts are discussed in the next section.

Fig. 16.3
A photo of 4 farmers engaged in farming. They wear the Asian conical hat and weed a field of greens using the long-handled hoe.

Photo Ziyi Liu

CSA farmers removing weeds manually with hoes.

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4 Catalysts for Developing CSA Ecological Agriculture in the Pearl River Delta

4.1 A Favourable Environment for Farming

As one of the most productive areas in China, the Pearl River Delta has a natural advantage in terms of ecological agriculture development. The Pearl River Delta is one of the largest flat regions in Guangdong Province, China. This has a long history of ongoing farming practices which trace back to ancient times (Yang et al. 2012). The region has a subtropical marine monsoon climate, which results in a year-long warm and moist environment. Annual mean temperatures in this area are between 21 and 23 ℃ and average annual precipitation is over 1500 mm (Wang 2010). The favourable climate, combined with fertile soil and abundant river water is conducive to farming activities in the Pearl River Delta throughout the year (Lo and Pannell 2013).

4.2 Ecological Farming and Culture Heritage

Ancient ecological farming practices have been pursued in this region for a long time. It is believed that the use of the dyke-pond system in the Pearl River Delta can be traced back to the Ming dynasty Wanli period (AD 1573–1620) (Wu 2011). Local farmers grow plants on the dykes which are used, along with agricultural waste, to feed fish and shrimp in the ponds. The pond water and sludge (mud) in turn fertilise and irrigate the plants. The dyke-pond system is based on cultural wisdom which contributes to this sustainable form of agriculture, which has been developed alongside other local traditional farming practices and represents producers’ understanding of the characteristics of harmonious structure, benign circulation and effectiveness (Li et al. 2021).

4.3 Economic Demand

The Pearl River Delta economic zone is one of China’s main economic zones and manufacturing centres. The region’s rapid economic growth has laid the foundation for the development of ecological agriculture. According to the Statistical Yearbook of Guangdong Province (Guangdong Bureau of Statistics 2020), in 2020, Guangdong Province will achieve a regional GDP of 110.76 billion yuan (equivalent to 15.36 billion euros, as of 2022), an increase of 2.3% on the previous year. The GDP of the core areas of the Pearl River Delta accounts for 80.8% of that of the province. In 2020, the added value of the primary industry was 476.99 billion yuan, marking a yearly increase of 3.8%. The annual per capita disposable income of residents in the province was 41,029 yuan, a yearly increase of 5.2%; the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 50,257 yuan, a yearly increase of 4.4%. The Engel coefficient represents the proportion of family income that is spent on food. The United Nations (UN) use it as an indicator to show the standards of living: an Engel coefficient between 30 and 40% represents a good standard of living. The Engel coefficient for residents in Guangdong province is 33.8% and the Engel coefficient of urban residents is 32.2%. With the growth of urban residents’ income, people’s demand for high-quality, healthy and pollution-free agricultural products is increasing. The CSA mode can potentially contribute to meeting this change in demand while helping improve the agricultural industry in terms of its long-term ecological sustainability.

4.4 Infrastructure for Tourism

The Pearl River Delta has become one of the most developed areas in China, providing convenient transportation for people who wish to visit the rural agricultural landscape, and it also meets local demand for agricultural products in the urban area (Wang 2010). As the income of urban residents increases, their lifestyles and leisure activities are gradually changing. Urban residents are eager to experience rural landscapes that are different from metropolitan life and can contribute to their quality of life (Chen 2005). According to the Guangdong Rural Tourism Big Data Analysis Report (Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangdong Province 2018) (Fig. 16.4), in the first half of 2018, Guangdong’s rural area received 337 million tourists. Among them, 39.5% came from the nearby local city. Figure 16.4 shows how access to rural tourism in Guangdong Province mainly relies on private transport and highways and that this tourism mainly takes place over a short distance. The average distance that over half of the tourists travel is between 10 and 50 kms. The data not only shows the interest of Guangdong residents in rural landscape and lifestyles, but also suggests that there are opportunities for the potential of urban agriculture in the outskirts of their city. A highway network with Guangzhou, as the centre in the Pearl River Delta, is currently being built to meet people’s travel needs (Wang 2010). Given the location of CSA farms in the peri-urban area, there is clearly potential to promote CSA farms to the Pearl River Delta’s urban residents.

Fig. 16.4
3 doughnut charts of rural tourism by reception distribution, travel modes, and the distance traveled. Most tourists travel from a local city by private car or train, within 10 to 50 kilometers, inside or outside of Guangdong.

Source the department of culture and tourism of Guangdong province

Guangdong rural tourism big data analysis report.

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4.5 Policy-Driven Technological Developments

Agricultural technology is an important driver for the development of sustainable ecological agriculture. In 2019, the Guangdong government proposed building a modern agricultural technology and equipment system and promoting high-tech agricultural production methods as one of the five major goals for accelerating the transformation of the agricultural industry and improving the level of modern agriculture in the Pearl River Delta. The Leading Group of the Guangdong Provincial Committee (2020) for the Implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy formulated the Guidance on Promoting the High-quality Development of Modern Agriculture on the basis of the Guangdong Province Quality Agriculture Strategic Plan (2018–2022). The document emphasises the strengthening of the process management of agricultural production safety and proposes establishing and improving the environmental protection and governance system of the production area, setting up an agricultural green cycle low-carbon production system, strengthening the supervision of the quality and safety of agricultural products, and promoting agricultural brands.

Guangdong’s investment in agricultural science and technology innovation has laid the foundation for the development of ecological agriculture (Liu et al. 2017). According to a government report (The State Council of the People's Republic of China 2016), agricultural scientific and technological progress in Guangdong Province was ranked second in (mainland) China in 2016. Excluding forestry, scientific and technological achievements, the agricultural industry has won a total of 174 national and provincial scientific and technological progress awards, 82 technological awards from the Ministry of Agriculture, and 1056 provincial agricultural technology promotion awards. However, it is not yet clear how agricultural technological advances can be applied to ecological farming at a variety of scales to potentially reduce the cost and improve production and promote CSA to a wider consumer group, including the lower-income class.

5 Barriers to CSA

Since 1978, due to reform and opening-up, the Pearl River Delta has moved from a region dominated by agriculture, through rural and urban industrialisation, to a new stage characterised by metropolitanisation and urban agglomeration (Zhou et al. 2019). While these changes have stimulated rapid economic growth; they have also led to negative impacts including pressure on land and changing population structure as this section outlines.

5.1 Pressure on Land Resources

In the early stages of the reform and opening-up, the Pearl River Delta region relied on special policies and its proximity to Hong Kong and Macau to attract foreign investment and encourage private enterprises with cheap land and labour. Policies at the time were conducive to promoting Pearl River Delta’s rapid economy growth and urbanisation. This process also led to an increase in developed land and a decrease in arable land, which Zhou et al. (2019) describe as resulting in inefficient land use in the Pearl River Delta.

According to a report on the Integrated Planning of the Ecological Security System in the Pearl River Delta issued by the Guangdong Government (2014), between 1988 and 2010, development land expanded from 1765.30 to 8790.21  km2, increasing more than four times and removing a large amount of cultivated land, forest land and water areas. From 2003 to 2008, the arable land in the Pearl River Delta decreased by 123,000 ha, and the per capita arable land area in the whole region was only 0.032 ha. This is equivalent to one third of the national average and less than the United Nations guidelines which cite an absolute minimum of 0.053 ha. The scarcity of arable land has thus exacerbated the conflict between urban expansion and agricultural development (Zeng 2012).

5.2 The Workforce Shifting of the Rural Population in the Pearl River Delta

In addition to cheap land, cheap labour was also an important condition for the development of the early processing and manufacturing industries in the Pearl River Delta (Zhou et al. 2019). With increased employment opportunities as a result of the reform and opening up, and increased production efficiencies in traditional agricultural practices in the Pearl River Delta, the rural labour gradually moved to the secondary and tertiary industries to engage in non-agricultural activities (Jiang 2014). Between 1980 and 1990, 2.7 million people in the local villages of the Pearl River Delta were engaged in non-agricultural activities. By the end of 2006, more than half of that rural labour had shifted to the secondary industries (Jiang 2014) such as manufacturing industries in textiles, electronic and communication products and chemical raw materials (Zhou et al. 2019).

However, it should be noted that the workforce transfer of farmers in the Pearl River Delta is not accompanied by signs of large number of rural labourers moving to cities. The workforce transfer from rural areas in the Pearl River Delta mainly took the form of transferring to non-agricultural activities in local areas, thereby manifesting in the industrial structural transfer of agricultural labour, rather than migration to the urbanised areas (Xu and Wei 2012).

The three-industry structure (Fig. 16.5) of Guangdong Province from 2017 to 2020 shows that the proportion of the primary industry in the regional GDP has held mostly constant since 2015. Compared with the inherent uncertainty of agriculture for rural labour, the potential financial opportunities for rural workers who choose to engage in the secondary and tertiary industries are better than those who engage in agricultural production. Therefore, as the Pearl River Delta is dominated by the secondary and tertiary industries, the cost of rural labour is higher than in the surrounding areas (Wang 2010).

Fig. 16.5
A stacked bar graph of the proportion of regional G D Ps in % for 3 categories from 2015 through 2020. Tertiary industry tops with a value of 50 to 100%, followed by secondary, and primary with values 5 to 50%, and 0 to 5%, respectively.

Source Guangdong bureau of statistics

The three-industry structure of Guangdong province 2015–2020.

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Limited arable land resources and the high price of labour in agricultural production are two main dilemmas faced by CSA farms in the Pearl River Delta. Unlike other types of ecological farms that sell their produce through orders, the advance payment in the form of shares in CSA is done by participants to help producers to cover the anticipated cost. Although the CSA model theoretically guarantees profits to the farm, the current ecological planting method followed by CSA requires significant labour, which makes it difficult for domestic CSA farms to manage their costs, particularly where there is a shortage of agricultural labour in the Pearl River Delta.

There is also another barrier for CSA to involve the wider consumer group, including low-income group. According to the China Community Supported Agriculture Network Annual Report (China CSA Alliance and SMART 2019), CSA members pay farms for their products on a monthly basis. On average, 42% of farm members spend less than 500 yuan (around 65 euros) per month, 39% of farm members spend 500–1000 yuan (between 65 and 130 euros) and only 19% of farm members spend more than 1000 yuan (around 130 euros). Moreover, it has been noted that the high expense of certification may result in no profit for CSA farmers (Connolly and Klaiber 2014). Therefore, some CSA farms choose a type of third-party certification, such as participatory guarantee systems (PGS), or they may rely on their own reputation among local networks to ensure consumer trust and cut costs (Du et al. 2012).

6 Discussion and Outlook

CSA reflects global issues such as sustainable development, food safety and enhanced community cohesion in the context of globalisation (Zhu 2018). While this chapter has outlined the catalysts and barriers to developing ecological farming in the Pearl River Delta, there remains a limited understanding of CSA farming in this region of China.

The current domestic research mainly focuses on people’s willingness to participate in CSA and analysing consumer characteristics. However, this has only been carried out in a few Chinese cities, such as Beijing (Li et al. 2015) and Nanjing (Zhao 2012). There is limited understanding of the willingness of urban residents to participate in CSA and willingness to pay for CSA-produced food in the Pearl River Delta. Researchers have analysed why CSA is conducive to building consumer trust in food (Meyer et al. 2012), and the factors that affect trust (Zhu 2018; Fu 2017); however, the literature exploring how trust is established between CSA producers and consumers is in its infancy (Tan and Chen 2018; Chen 2013). There is therefore a need to understand how the concept of building mutual trust, which is critical to the development of CSA, is manifested in the Pearl River Delta. Trust is believed to be dynamic and continuous (Zahedi and Song 2008). The relationship between initial trust and ongoing trust, as well as the time and methods required to establish this, and whether it is applicable to CSA farms of all scales in the Pearl River Delta, still requires research and investigation.

Research shows that, compared with other types of urban agriculture, such as pick-your-own (PYO) farms, CSA tends to be more resilient in terms of operation. The income of PYO farms depends on the peak visitor flow during harvest season. In 2019, when the coronavirus pandemic restricted people’s travel, the disadvantages of PYO farms were therefore revealed. According to a survey with 67 domestic new farmers presented at the China CSA conference (2021), during the pandemic more than half of new CSA farmers confirmed that their farm sales had increased. The strengths of the short supply chain were thus reflected, and the relationship between consumers and producers became closer. To what extent this also happens in the Pearl River Delta will need to be explored in future research.

This chapter has provided an overview of how the CSA model can affect rural economic activities, healthy environments and land use in the sustainable development of rural and peri-urban landscapes in the Pearl River Delta. There is strong potential for the CSA farm sector in the Pearl River Delta to increase. CSA farms need to be studied systematically and require a comprehensive analysis of the perspectives of consumers, producers and the government, which is the subject of ongoing research by the authors.