Team
Josephine Wen Ning Chen
Wendy Wong
Connie Lam
Daniel Yuen
Location
Hong-Kong ,China
Summary
Presentation
Promoting Regenerative Farming in Hong Kong, China
Details of the Presentation
Source: HK Planning Department |
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Who are we?
HomelandGreen is a Hong Kong based charitable organization established by a small group of volunteers on 17 June 2013, World Day to Combat Desertification, with the motto ‘Be just to the earth; for the sake of all beings.’ To this date, we only have less than ten active members, mostly full-time career workers and a few retirees. We receive no public fund and run all programs from our own reserves.
We organize voluntary tree planting activities to help combat desertification in Inner Mongolia and promote regenerative farming in Hong Kong.
What we intend to share
In this presentation is our story of promoting regenerative farming in Hong Kong, well-known for being a highly urbanized metropolitan, for the past seven years, the strategies we have adopted and the progress we have made.
By that we mean
- We are trying to support local environmental conscious and open-minded farmers to transition into practices of regenerative farming to grow healthier crops free of pesticides, increase yield and income, as a means for soil regeneration to address issues of food safety, food security, and climate change. We believe that these pioneering farmers who also bring ecological benefits to the world deserve better rewards than what they are doing now.
- We are also trying to arouse public’s awareness of issues related to food production and consumption both locally and world-widely and hope to solicit support to move Hong Kong towards green consumption.
Our story
We plan to start by sharing the stories of three farming partners of different background, age and experience, each at a different stage on the road towards regeneration.
- Eva, with whom HomelandGreen has partnered for about three months under all the constraints of the pandemic, who is trying hard at the trial-and-error stage.
- Cheong Gor, 30 months partnership with HomelandGreen started late 2018, presently midway on the road towards regeneration.
- Alice, came to learn from HomelandGreen as a fresh university graduate in 2017, chose a career path subsequently promoting regenerative farming as a full-time worker in a local conservation agency.
Then we will review the strategies we have adopted in the hope that we can get advice from international counterparts so that we can move faster and better, and of course, happier.
Meet Eva – a farming partner HomelandGreen working with for about three months going through the trial-and-error stage
Meet Cheong Gor, an experienced farmer HLG partners with for more than 30 months, midway on the road towards regeneration
Meet Alice, a young environmentalist turned full-time farmer promoting regenerative farming
How did it all start?
HomelandGreen began our involvement in voluntary tree planting projects to combat desertification in 2012 in Inner Mongolia after learning of the incredible story of the land restoration work of NPO-GreenLife in Hure Banner, a remote small county in eastern Inner Mongolia which was once almost totally desertified. The once totally desertified land was consequently turned back into arable land and local peasants managed to make a better living by adopting sustainable zero-waste agroforestry practices that continues to regenerate the land. upon the technical advice of the agricultural bureau. |
HLG tree planting activities and study trips in arid areas in China
- Through the various tree planting experience and study trips, HLG learned of the world-wide land degradation problem not only in extremely arid areas but also as a result of exploitative agricultural practices all over the world in the past several decades and that working from the soil up can be an alternative way of farming that may help remediate a lot of the damages done to agricultural land and as a way of mitigating climate change.
We then began our journey to promote regenerative farming in Hong Kong in 2015
What are our strategies?
Strategy 1 : Learning – We decide to equip ourselves and learn from the leading masters in the field of farming from the soil up, later known as regenerative farming | Strategy 2 : Arouse public awareness – We reach out to the public to raise awareness about the relationship between soil health, plant health, planet health, and human health through talks to different audience with different background in different settings |
Strategy 3 : Walk our talk – We set up thermal compost sites with recycled natural materials and teach about thermal composting – soliciting support from environmental groups along the way | Strategy 4 : Visit Farms – We visit local conscientious farmers to understand the potential obstacles for them to transition into more regenerative way of farming |
Strategy 5 : Build up HLG credibility – We invite our overseas professional partner to offer free training on regenerative farming to experienced local farmers | Strategy 6 : Cultivate young minds – We sponsor young environmentalists for overseas training in regenerative farming as incentives for their longer-term commitment to our cause |
Strategy 7: Build up a semi-professional training team – We involve better-informed farmers as teaching assistants at HLG workshops as continuous professional training | Strategy 8 : Provide free workshops and consultancy service – We run free workshops for local farmers on various themes of regenerative farming and provide consultancy service within our resource capacity |
Strategy 9 : Run small scale trials in schools – We help run regenerative farming programs for school kids with the support of the trained volunteers as preparation for collaborative partnership with local farmers to manage their transition to regenerative farming | |
Strategy 10 : Form collaborative partnership with farmers – We adopt a zero-risk approach to help responsive farmers to transition into the practice of regenerative farming to build up long-term partnership | |
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Strategy 11 : Involve collaborating farmers as co-trainers – We involve our collaborating farmers in our public talks and promotional programs | |
Strategy 12 : Reach out more through social media and networks – We create our HomelandGreen Facebook to reach out to non-English speaking community and HomelandGreen Website to a wider audience | |
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Strategy 13 : Reach out to international like-minded counterparts – We join memberships of international organizations with coherent missions as HomelandGreen | |
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What next?
- A better tomorrow, of course.
- We look forward to an even happier trip with more partners, more resources, more learning opportunities, more supporters, and more successful experiences to continue to heighten our spirit and keep our momentum.
Thank you.
June 2021
Update 2023
Please refer to Stand 0166 for updates in 2023. Thank you.
Images
Videos
Meet Eva - a farming partner HomelandGreen working with for about three months going through the trial-and-error stage | Meet Cheong Gor, an experienced farmer HomelandGreen partners with for more than 30 months, midway on the road towards regeneration |
Meet Alice, a young environmentalist turned full-time farmer promoting regenerative farming | How did it all start? |
An example in video of a free workshop given in 2021 – Introducing the microBIOMETER | Run small scale trials in schools |
Meet the team
During the indicated periods, one of the team members is available for a video chat.
Stand No | Time zone | +/-UTC | Date | Start local time (hh:mm) | Duration (hh:mm) | Attendant | Video chat link |
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0027 | https://meet.jit.si/4p1000_stand_0027 | ||||||
0027 | https://meet.jit.si/4p1000_stand_0027 | ||||||
0027 | https://meet.jit.si/4p1000_stand_0027 |
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8 Comments
Sarah Russell French
Thank you for sharing with everyone the work you are doing in regenerative farming. I would like to invite you to visit our Stand 19 - Agripower Australia, to learn about the benefits that silicon fertiliser has for conservation agriculture, soil and plant health, and carbon sequestration. Please leave a message for us if you would like to meet and talk more! www.agripower.com.au
Sarah Russell French
Hi Josephine, Thank you for reaching out and messaging us at Agripower Australia. We are very interested in talking further with you about our product and the potential for its use in Hong Kong. Perhaps the best way to connect would be for you to share with us an email address or if you could email us at info@agripower.com.au. That way we can talk all things science! We look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Sarah
Unknown User (chan.tsz-yan)
Thrilled to see the stand as a summary of the last decade's experience! Feeding people with nutritious food while enhancing environmental health is the only way to our future. Thanks for showing us that it could be done even in a developed city like Hong Kong.
Anonymous
So touched to see all the time and efforts dedicated to promote regenerative farming in Hong Kong. It is always the hardest to bring about change in mind especially when paradigm shift is involved, each step is not an easy one but will gradually lead us to the goal!
It is also encouraging to see farmer's expressing their own views witnessing the crops and cost improvement after implementation of Regenerative farming practices, which is the most convincing.
Anonymous
Remarkable works and progress made by a small volunteer group in promoting regenerative farming in a densely populated city like Hong Kong.
Girish Sohani
Good evening. I am Dr. Nandini from BAIF Development Research Foundation, India. We are participating in this virtual EU Fair and have shared our work on 'Soil restoration for achieving sustainable livelihoods, climate change adaptation and mitigation' through stand no 37. Please do visit our stand for understanding the work in India.
This is also to share with you all that we have planned a sharing event on 25th May between 14.00 to 15.00 IST (+/- 5.5 UTC). The topic of this sharing event is 'Environmentally sound and climate smart program interventions through BAIF Development Research Foundation', India. It will be based on BAIF, India's efforts on ground to build resilience of vulnerable farming communities against climate change effects by introducing on ground, the multisectorial program interventions for resilient farming system.
So, please participate for enriching knowledge! See you there!
Anonymous
Such a comprehensive display demonstrates how regenerative agriculture has been promoted in Hong Kong. Thanks for your great work!
Daniel Yuen
It's a pity that not many international friends joined the on-line presentation. Would like to have more interaction with regenerative peers.