Shen Hong shows visitors and local farmers his Mooyuu Farm, an eco-farm on Shanghai's Chongming Island. The farm is both a food source for the megacity as well as an experiment in green agriculture. Shen has been practicing sustainable agriculture on the island for two decades. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

From afar, the paddy in Mooyuu Farm does not look much different from other rice fields in East China. But a closer look reveals crayfish, soft-shell turtles, bullfrogs and mud eels swimming between the crop lines.

The farm is also unique because its rice is priced at 18 yuan (US$2.6) per 500 grams, about four times the price of regular rice. The little creatures found in the farm are also for sale.

One of the many eco-farms on Shanghai's Chongming Island, Mooyuu Farm is both a food source for the megacity as well as an experiment in green agriculture. The farm is operated by 56-year-old general manager Shen Hong, who has been practicing sustainable agriculture on the island for two decades.

An aquaculture graduate from Zhejiang province who also has a master's degree from Shanghai Fisheries University－now known as Shanghai Ocean University－Shen first worked at the Marine Environmental Monitoring Center for the East China Sea before making a career switch in 1995 to help farmers on Chongming Island artificially breed hairy crabs.

In 2004, he started to experiment with pesticide-free farming and persuaded a few farmers to join him. With an initial investment of 100,000 yuan, they planted rice in a 6.6-hectare paddy without using chemicals. Instead, they relied on the crayfish to eat pests, performed weeding manually and used only organic fertilizer."It wasn't a big success at first, but it proved that my method could work," he says."The farmers were used to applying pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and doubted whether they could even have a harvest without such things."

Shen says that initial opposition that farmers voiced was understandable because what he studied in college was also focused on increasing the output of the field through industrial methods and agricultural chemicals.

"Back then, our country needed to increase crop harvests quickly to feed a fast-growing population," he says. "Now, we have become relatively well-off and people are starting to seek food that is healthier and more environmentally friendly.

"Because crayfish are sensitive to chemicals, the fact that this creature can survive in our farms is evidence that our farming is organic. This allows us to sell the rice at a higher price."

Shen Hong shows visitors and local farmers his Mooyuu Farm, an eco-farm on Shanghai's Chongming Island. The farm is both a food source for the megacity as well as an experiment in green agriculture. Shen has been practicing sustainable agriculture on the island for two decades. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The scale of the farm and its partnership with local farmers grew gradually as more people started to accept Shen's organic farming over the years. He has since diversified his products by introducing other animals into the food chain, with the most successful being the soft-shell turtle, which is sold at around 400 yuan per kilogram.

Ding Weidong, a former fisherman on Chongming Island, joined Shen's farm six years ago and later started his own family farm in partnership with him. Ding's current annual income amounts to more than 100,000 yuan per year, significantly more than when he was a fisherman.

"The environment can be better protected when we do farming without pesticides. This is good for both people and nature,"Ding said in a previous interview with local newspaper Wen Hui Bao.

There are now around 100 farmers like Ding who are a part of Shen's initiative, and they have a client base of 5,000 people that is made up mostly of young parents, white-collar workers and university professors.

"The majority of Chinese customers care about the taste of a product, but our customers care more about buying organic food that has been grown without using chemicals," says Shen."Good taste speaks little of the safety of the food."

Besides farming, Shen and his fellow farmers also run education programs aimed at changing the perception of their practice. This initiative draws more than 20,000 people to the farm every year.

As part of these programs, Mooyuu Farm has been working with some schools, offering its premises as an outdoor classroom for students to learn about ecology. The venue has even been designated as a model farm for farmer practicum by the Shanghai Municipal Radio and Television School of Agriculture.

Shen is also a part of the environmental organization Good Earth Project, which was launched by professors and environmentalists in Shanghai.

"To change people's mindset about consumption is our ultimate goal. After all, a healthy cycle of production and consumption is important for green agriculture as well," Shen says.