Xinlei Family Farm in Rugao, Nantong, Jiangsu province. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Rugao's Xinlei Ecological Family Farm was recently selected as a national-level eco farm for the year 2023. It was the only farm in Nantong to receive the recognition, and coupled with Xinshi Family Farm last year, Rugao is the only county in Nantong boasting two national-level eco farms.

Zhou Haiming, the owner of Xinshi Family Farm in Jiang'an town, started his journey with pig farming. As the scale of his operation expanded, the challenge of managing manure became evident. With guidance from local agriculture and rural affairs bureau officials, Zhou decided to invest in a biogas power generation project.

The initiative involved fermenting the pig farm's manure to produce biogas for power generation. The electricity is partly used by the farm and the excess is fed into the national grid, which results in an additional income of 400,000 yuan ($55,916) annually. Meanwhile, by-products like biogas slurry were used as organic fertilizer.

"Our fruits and vegetables are nurtured with organic fertilizer, which not only yields 20 percent higher production but also leads to a 50 percent price increase," Zhou said.

The Xinshi Family Farm currently houses 9,000 pigs, generates an annual electricity output of 800,000 kilowatt-hours, and produces over 500 metric tons of organic fertilizer. The farm's total annual output exceeds 40 million yuan.

The Xinlei Family Farm cultivates a variety of crops, such as fava beans, rice, taro, watermelon, and tomatoes, on a rotational basis. Wu Chunfang, the farm's manager and a researcher at the Jiangsu Yanjiang Institute of Agricultural Sciences, emphasizes the importance of crop rotation to prevent soil salinization and to control the spread of harmful pathogens.