2022 Annual Report

Established in 2013 on the World Day to Combat Desertification (17 June), HomelandGreen Limited (“HomelandGreen”) was incorporated in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance on 5 August 2013. As a Hong Kong based non-profitmaking association of volunteers, HomelandGreen pursues the objective of enhancing public awareness of the threat posed by desertification and land degradation to the world’s sustainable development. Since HomelandGreen’s inception, our motto “Be just to the earth; for the good of all beings” 『善待土地．惠澤眾生』has been put into practice through collaborating with local and overseas institutions and organisations with similar missions; working with local farmers on regenerative soil improvement projects; supporting civilian tree planting projects in Mainland China to combat desertification; organising talks and workshops to disseminate the relevant knowledge and skills to the public; and sharing our studies and research findings with professional partners and the public through our website and other social media. These activities are provided to the public mainly in the form of free services. HomelandGreen, being a charitable institution of a public character, has been exempt from tax under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance since November 2018. Recognising the need for concerted efforts of the global community to address global ecological issues by working from the soil up, HomelandGreen became a forum partner of the French “4 per 1000 Initiative” (the “Initiative”) and a partner of Regeneration International in October 2019 and September 2020 respectively.

For the year ended March 2022, HomelandGreen continued to engage in activities of (1) liaison and professional partnerships; (2) promoting regenerative farming; (3) educational services; and (4) research projects, as in previous years. Local activities resumed quickly in late 2021 but were brought to an abrupt halt at the onset of Hong Kong’s fifth wave of COVID-19 in early 2022. Voluntary tree planting projects in the Mainland have been suspended since 2020.

Liaison work and professional partnerships
Promoting Regenerative Farming
Educational Services
Experimental Farming and Research Projects
HomelandGreen Website and Social Media
Acknowledgement

1. Liaison work and professional partnerships

Liaison with our tree planting partner in Mainland China

Despite physical voluntary tree planting trips to Mainland China has been suspended since 2020, HomelandGreen continued to receive updates from NPO-GreenLife (綠色生命). Noting the great interest gained by the new plantation site in Dunhuang, Gansu (甘肅敦煌) since its launching in May 2020, we have been in close liaison with a tree planting trip collaborative partner in promoting tree planting-cum-study tours to this valuable historical site to the local education sector once the travelling restrictions between Hong Kong and Mainland China are relaxed. The tentative theme for our future trips will take the form of “Study tour for the development of ecological civilisation” (生態文明建設探討之旅). In addition to voluntary tree planning, it is expected that the collaboration between HomelandGreen and NPO-GreenLife will venture into the promotion of regenerative agriculture despite the hiccup caused by the epidemic.

Liaison with international counterparts

HomelandGreen had continual dialogues on the promotion of regenerative farming with the Soil Foodweb Institute (Australia) (“SFI Aus”). Free subscription with Farming Secrets, Australia, was also maintained, and useful information on regenerative farming thus received was constantly shared with local practitioners.
Partnership developed with the Initiative saw marked progress in the year.
1. The past activities of HomelandGreen were shared at the online Civic Community of the Initiative to reach out to like-minded forum partners and feedback has been positive.
2. Five HomelandGreen members and a collaborating volunteer of HomelandGreen joined two Task Forces regarding the goals on inception & conceptualisation and promotion of the Initiative to provide input to the development of the Implementation Plan for the 2050 Strategic Plan. The conclusions of the work were presented to the Consortium during the 5th Day of the Initiative in November 2021 and have led to the inception of the “4 per 1000” Implementation Plan and its development for 2022. We continue to make our best effort to learn and contribute.
3. HomelandGreen responded positively to the Initiative’s calling in March 2021 for virtual display showcasing various soil restoration work around the globe as a partner event of the EU Green Week 2021 with the theme “Zero Pollution for a healthier planet and people”. Our proposal of hosting two virtual stands and two live presentations on the same themes were accepted by the Initiative and the EU Green Week 2021 organiser respectively. The two themes we chose to work on were “Promoting regenerative farming in Hong Kong, China” and “Turning the Ulan Buh Desert into a high yield zero pollution eco-agricultural zone.” A workgroup was formed to work on the project to meet the very tight time frame. Presentations opened to worldwide participants were conducted on Monday, 31 May and Tuesday, 1 June 2021. The Chairman was among the 12 participants from all around the world invited to extend welcoming messages at the Opening Event of the 4p1000 fair on Monday, 3 May 2021. A summary presentation of HomelandGeen’s virtual displays was then given at the “4p1000” Restoration in Action Event on Friday, 11 June 2021.
4. The participation in the fair had greatly enhanced HomelandGreen’s collaboration with the Initiative’s secretariate and the exposure to like-minded players outside Hong Kong. Dr Li Ying of Conservation & Agriculture Director, The Nature Conservancy, China was among one of the new professional connections.
5. The Chairman and some members joined the joint webinar of the Initiative with the European Parliament on “How to make Carbon Farming a Success for Climate, Environment and Farmers” on Wednesday, 8 September 2021.
HomelandGreen has been in close liaison with the representatives from Zero Foodprint (“ZFP”), a US-based charitable organization promoting regenerative farming through the involvement of the food industry and consumers for collaborative partnership in the form of advisory service. Zero Foodprint Asia (“ZFPA”), an extension of ZFP was launched in July 2021.

Local professional partnerships

Locally, HomelandGreen maintained professional liaison with the Federation of Vegetable Marketing Co‑operative Societies (菜聯社), the Hong Kong Organic Association (香港有機生活社), Au Law Organic Farm (歐羅農場), Society for Indigenous Learning (鄉土學社), the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres (香港婦女中心協會), the Mushroom Initiatives (菇菌圓), So Organic Biotech Enterprise Ltd. (“SOBE”), Senior Buddy Charitable Farm (老友記慈善農場), Hong Miu Organic Farm (康苗有機農場) and Hong Kong Farmers Pride Association Ltd. (香港農友心協會有限公司). Relationship established with these local groups helps HomelandGreen disseminate information about training courses as well as recruiting volunteers to take part in the experimental project on regenerative farming.
The collaboration with ZFPA had a fruitful year despite the effect of pandemic. After a year of incubation, ZFPA was officially launched on Monday, 19 July 2021. The Chairman, being one of the advisory members ad personam, gave a talk at the ceremony as well as at the Chinese Press launch on Monday, 18 October 2021. A series of exchanges with ZFPA on soil-organic-carbon-related-farming on various scale and regenerative farming were made with a view to adapting the program in this part of the world. The demonstrations made at HomelandGreen’s experimental farms, coupled with the visits to a spectrum of farms in Hong Kong in July and September 2021, had provided strong evidence to the feasible way forward. The ZFPA Restore Fund (復元基金資助計劃) was successfully launched in April 2022. ZFPA received 16 applications with 13 Hong Kong applicants and three applicants in the Mainland, varying in range of experience and years of farming. Eight recipients were awarded.
The Chairman will provide free consultancy services to the five ZEPA Restore Fund awardees in Hong Kong as well as training services to the Technical Advice Providers who are responsible for monitoring and auditing the progress of the projects to ensure that genuine regenerative farming practices are properly implemented. Assistance will be provided in working out the standards and procedures for auditing with the Mainland counterparts who are responsible for monitoring the progress of the three awardees in the Greater Bay Area. Data from the five local awardees will be collected to build up the database for the implementation of regenerative farming in Hong Kong.
As for our compost production, the new management of the Society for Indigenous Learning (“SoIL”) has continued to support us by housing our compost site in their farm. HealthWorks (健康工房) and the Tai Wo and Shek Lei branches of NPO Food Grace (食德好) remained the major suppliers of wet organic wastes for our compost production whereas dry plant materials were collected on a continuous basis from the Management Office of Woodland Crest, a private residence. However, production was slightly slowed down by the pandemic at times.
Recyclegreen Project (綠惜再生計劃), the charity arm of Sum Kee Construction Limited (森記建築有限公司) and Hong Kong Tree Care (香港樹護) have continued to provide brown wastes which would be delivered to any collaborating farms of HomelandGreen accessible by vehicles. The brown material supply is instrumental to our promotion of composting in Hong Kong as lack of brown materials is one of the critical constraints for most local farms to start compost work.
HomelandGreen assisted the publication of a Chinese booklet 《堆肥知多啲》 in 2021 by the Jockey Club “Field So Good” Community Composting Programme (賽馬會「好壤」城市有機堆肥計劃).
COME Groundworks (土作．時分) of St. James’ Settlement (聖雅各福群會) in Sheung Shui learnt of HomelandGreen’s work of providing free workshop for farmers through one of our collaborating farms. The project manager helped produce a video on our workshop on the preparation of fish hydrolysate. The video was shared with the public through Facebook in April 2021.
Community service in promoting green products: HomelandGreen volunteers coordinated another round of purchase and distribution of fresh Yam (山藥) product from Dengkou in October 2021. The service has been suspended as Hong Kong and various places in the Mainland were hit by waves of pandemic since late 2021.

2. Promoting Regenerative Farming

HomelandGreen works with local farms in Hong Kong to experiment and showcase the benefit of regenerative farming. Regenerative farming does not deplete the soil. Rather it makes the soil healthier and encourages biodiversity.

3. Educational Services

The Chairman and a member were invited by the Partnerships for Community Development (社區伙伴) for an interview on Friday, 13 August 2021.
The Chairman paid a visit to SoIL on Monday, 30 August 2021 with three young farmers working with Momentous Community of Creative Compassion (正在生活). A compost workshop was subsequently given at Sai Kung on Saturday, 16 October 2021.
The Chairman, Mr Pat Chan, a biology teacher of QESOSASS and Dr Kennedy Chan, an Associate Professor of HKU’s Faculty of Education had a demonstration session on regenerative farming at Sun Fung Farm (新鳳農莊) on Tuesday, 31 August 2021 with a view to exploring the feasibility of incorporating regenerative farming as a module in the biology curriculum of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education.
The Chairman had an online meeting on Friday, 3 September 2021 with the owner of Earth Farm (一地共農) in Pat Heung exploring the possibility of consultancy service.
The Chairman accepted the invitation by On Becoming a Farmer (學人做農夫), a Community Involvement Broadcasting Service of RTHK (香港電台社區參與廣播服務) program for a radio interview on Regenerative Farming in October 2020. The recorded program was broadcasted on Monday, 6 September 2021.
The Chairman gave a hands-on session on regenerative farming to a group of students of Mr Pat Chan together with several young environmentalists on Wednesday, 8 September 2021. The report 《化廢為肥》 prepared by the group was awarded Secondary Section Champion of the 15th Hong Kong Budding Scientists Award (香港科學青苗獎) in 2022.
The Chairman visited to rooftop garden of Rooftop Republic (雲耕一族) at Lok Fu on Thursday, 16 September 2021. A talk on composting for a regenerative future was subsequently given on Saturday, 20 November 2021.
The Chairman gave a talk on “香港農田土壤保育例子”at the環保基金「土壤與生命健康共同體」網上研討會 on the second day of the seminar on Sunday, 14 November 2021.
The Chairman gave a talk to volunteers of Fair Trade Hong Kong (香港公平貿易聯盟) at Dream Impact (夢創成真) on Wednesday, 29 December 2021 morning and then visited Hong Miu Organic Farm in the afternoon.
In 2021-22, HomelandGreen continues to produce educational resource materials in the form of videos and Chinese translation of works from overseas professional bodies on soil restoration and regenerative farming, and have them shared with the public through social media such as Facebook, Weibo and the HomelandGreen website. Responses to our postings have all along been very positive and encouraging.

4. Experimental Farming and Research Projects

Further to the successful completion of the projects at the Hong Miu Organic Farm of Cheong and Sun Fung Farm of Eva, the third project at Cham Shan Farm commenced on Saturday, 17 November 2021 with workshop on various soil amendments and plant nutrients and collection of initial data.
Other collaborative projects with farmers under exploration:
Ming Fai Garden (明輝農莊) and Noah’s Forest (諾亞之森農莊) in Cham Shan (杉山), a newly established charitable farm.

5. HomelandGreen Website and Social Media

After groundwork for more than a year, the HomelandGreen Website was revamped with the collaborated effort of the website working group with members and friends. The revamped bilingual website was officially launched in May 2021.
In 2021-22, the HomelandGreen Facebook had gradual increase in page likes reaching over 13,800 with over 16,300 followers. This platform mainly addresses the Chinese speaking communities in South-east Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, and continues to serve the purpose to promote basic science and practice of regenerative farming as well as general global ecological issues.
The HomelandGreen Weibo, which was designed to reach out to counterparts in Mainland China, will be put under review as other more effective platforms are now available.

6. Acknowledgement

HomelandGreen has made some progress towards her mission since the inception over a decade ago after the meeting with Madam Yi in November 2011 and the Chairman would like to extend gratitude to all members, friends and members of the public sharing our aspirations, for their contribution towards making HomelandGreen a meaningful presence in the global effort to make our world a better place from the soil up.