US farm must-see for Chinese tourists
DES MOINES, United States — In the backyard of her brick-built homestead, Martha Kimberley is talking to two potential contractors about how to restore the weathered wood patio.
It is a Thursday, a rainy day with sunny intervals.
A few yards away, her husband, silver-haired Rick Kimberley, is talking on camera to visiting reporters in front of shiny, silver grain bins.
Earlier, about 60 visitors from China’s Guangdong province, leave the family’s rolling expanse of corn and soybean fields after a walk — following in the footsteps of President Xi Jinping.
In 2012, Xi, then the Chinese vice-president, had visited the Kimberleys’ family farm, a half-hour drive from Des Moines, the capital of Iowa State.
Since then, greeting Chinese visitors and granting interviews to China’s media outlets is part of Rick’s and Martha’s daily routine.
“I’d like to do the patio with cement this time, and make it better to withstand heavier foot traffic. We never expected to have so many visitors,” says Martha.
“We’ve probably had thousands of Chinese visitors since,” Rick says.
“About one of every three or every four rows of soybeans grown in my farm are destined for China,” he says.
In reality, Rick has also become an ambassador for modern farming methods in China. And he has been to China 15 times in recent years to talk about precision farming and other tricks of his trade.
It is an eye-opener for Chinese visitors that Rick and his son, Grant, harvest more than 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans with a couple of hired hands and massive combines whose computers precisely track yield, moisture and other key statistics for each row and acre.
North China’s Hebei province, Iowa’s sister state, is building a farm based on the model of the Kimberleys’ farm, showcasing their ways of farming, that include everything from grid sampling soils to using GPS and biotechnology seeds.
The project is the first phase of a massive research and agri-tourism park in the province.
Speaking about the use of technology in farming, Rick says: “As the population increases, we’ll have less land to farm, so we’re gonna have to become better and more productive, making better use of the land.
“You know, in my great great grandfather’s day, they used horses as their power source. My grandfather bought maybe (one of) the first tractors back in the 1930s, a very small one ... Today ... I have 12-row corn pickers.”
During his last visit to China, Rick was bestowed with more acclaim: He became honorary dean of the Kimberley Agricultural Business School at Weinan Normal University, in Shaanxi province, northwestern China.
The 68-year-old American was a little astonished by the Asian country’s huge population and progress when he first visited Beijing.
“It’s a huge population, I was impressed. Sometimes people (here) get the wrong impression that China still hasn’t progressed as far as they have, but you know there are areas (which are) just very modern, and that’s something I realized (during my visits).
“It helps if you can talk to people face to face. It really does make a big difference,” he says.