Hong Kong youth bring farm hopes to Guangdong

Team's efforts to grow produce using green, sustainable methods paying off

With spring approaching, Victor Lo, a young man from Hong Kong, starts work at 5 am every day on his farm on the mainland.

During his undergraduate years at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lo tended to a 20-square-meter vegetable garden in front of his dormitory out of an interest in agriculture.

Since then, a dream of pursuing more environmentally friendly and sustainable production has been growing in his heart. Despite majoring in business administration, Lo made the bold decision with two friends in 2016 to set up a farm in Jiangmen, Guangdong province.

Over the past six years, he has installed an aquaponics system with independent intellectual property rights that produces up to 1,000 metric tons of vegetables and 500 tons of rice each year for buyers in Hong Kong and Guangdong.

Aquaponics refers to the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the growing of plants without soil).

Fish manure is used as fertilizer for growing vegetables, while vegetable roots help purify pond water. In this way, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not needed.

This environmentally friendly, sustainable production method that is growing in popularity around the world can help create a natural ecosystem and boost traditional farming efficiency.