Nowadays free information for example on the internet provides us all the possibilities, we shall grab it to improve our capacities. There is a good saying: “You are not making any progress if you keep doing the same thing again and again for 20 years.” Throughout internet we get to know rice cultivation modes in other countries as well as different growing modes worldwide.

Apart from internet, face to face communication is a more effective way to exchange ideas and experience. On October 16th, DCALDP was invited to participate a workshop in Shanghai Jincui farm. Participants are agriculture experts from Germany, Japan and China, while many of them are rice experts.

Jincui Farm is a private farm located in Qingpu district, Shanghai, with the goal of producing high quality rice. Embrace environment-friendly thoughts, both high quality rice and farm profit are taken into consideration by the farm owner Ms. Sun Jingjing. Even though two harvest seasons are made commonly in the area, Jincui farm decided to only harvest once a year, by planting covercrops between to increase soil fertility.

Picture: Different rice varieties displayed in Jincui Farm. (Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

The workshop started at 2:30 in the afternoon, some experts were invited to present their research results and exchanged ideas and experience.

Picture: Guests that were invited by Jincui Farm & Presentation sharing process (Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

Alex from DCALDP was the first one to present, with the topic of straw management, especially no-tillage seedling or drilling. Also, Alex and Patrick answered questions from participants and provided suggestions, but they emphasized it would be good to give practical suggestions if they can go to the site for a visit.

Picture: Alex is presenting DCALDP results (from left to right: DCALDP team leader and expert Mr. Alex, and DCALDP expert Mr. Patrick. Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

Then Mr. Kenichi Ishizuki from Japan shared a presentation about Japans ways of growing rice. Now he is cooperating with Jincui Farm as a rice growing expert and consultant, to introduce Japanese rice varieties and fertilizer & pesticide reducing methods to the farm.

Picture: Mr. Kenichi Ishizuki is presenting rice growing way in Japan  (The right one is Mr. Kenichi Ishizuki, the other one is Mr. Liu Houqing as a Japanese interpreter. Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

Next presentation was shared by Mr. Yu Xinqiao who comes from Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center, he introduced a very interesting rice variety – water saving & resistance rice (WDR), high yield can be achieved by providing less water, such as rainfall only, which means these WDR rice can be grown even on hills.

Picture: Mr. Yu Xinqiao is presenting WDR. (Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

As DCALDP consists of fields, rice growing can be seen, such as seeding, pesticide and fertilizer applying, and harvesting. But we do not think a lot about afterwards process. Through the presentation of Mr. Liu Houqing, who comes from Zuo Zhu Machinery (Suzhou) Grain Analysis Center, it is also very complicated when the grain is already in the warehouse. Such as how to ventilate, insect-proof, moisture-proof, mildew proof and so on. Thus, when looking at the rice on a plate, we should realize the hard working in the back from the farmers, farm owners, to the people working in processing, storage and logistics.

Picture: Mr. Liu Houqing is presenting grains in warehouse. (Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

In the workshop we had the opportunity to taste different rice varieties, and to vote which one is the best. Mr. Liu Houqing showed us how to wash rice properly before cooking, which attracted many participants. It turns out the best way is to wash it 7 times, each time around 30 rounds before cooking the rice!

Picture: Mr. Liu Houqing is explaining the reason to wash rice properly

Picture: Mr. Liu Hongqing is presenting how much water to put in before cooking

Picture: Participants are tasting different rice varieties. (Photographer: Gao Mingmin. Location: Shanghai Jincui Farm)

There were some other topics that have discussed in the workshop, such as the yield loss owing to too early or too late harvesting, proper grain warehouse management, etc.