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september 22, 2024, the autumnal equinox of the lunar calendar, is the seventh chinese farmers' harvest festival. on this day, the annual autumn harvest activity of the alxa see "water-saving millet" project was held as scheduled in barunbeli town, alxa league.

this is the 10th autumn harvest experience event held by the project. participants are members who subscribe to "ren xiaomi" in alashan see (internally called "landlords") and their families, as well as media partners.

as an environmental protection charity organization with "entrepreneur" as its distinctive label, business thinking is a natural advantage in the 20-year development history of alashan see. in particular, the "water-saving millet" project is an example of entrepreneurs using business thinking to integrate resources, "join forces" with charity organizations and social enterprises, and promote the practice of a sustainable charity innovation model for environmental protection in china.

some media commented that the "water-saving millet" project is "a bowl of millet rice that unlocks a successful case of using public welfare to prevent and control desertification." this is a powerful continuation of the "public welfare + people's livelihood" innovative practice explored by alxa see at the beginning of its establishment. since then, alxa see may use this as a blueprint to give full play to this model in the implementation of projects such as the qinling mountains in the northwest and the mountains in the southwest.

a bowl of millet rice unlocks a successful case of using public welfare to prevent and control desertification

start by resolving the relationship between livelihood and environmental protection

"one hundred million haloxylon ammodendron trees" and "water-saving millet" are two iconic environmental protection projects of alxa see to curb the spread of desertification in the alxa region. the former, with the help of the "internet + public welfare" trend, has been sought after and participated by hundreds of millions of netizens and is well known to the public, but the latter's contribution is no less impressive. even within alxa see, it is a more representative attempt - to carry out environmental protection projects in the form of helping farmers locally, to mobilize the enthusiasm of farmers and herdsmen to participate through market-oriented means, and to link a win-win situation of environmental protection public welfare and social and economic values ​​in a commercial way.

the "water-saving millet" project is located in barunbeli town, alxa league, which is known as the "yaoba oasis", bordering the helan mountains to the east and the tengger desert to the west. protecting this oasis is of great strategic significance for preventing the tengger desert from "expanding eastward".

^{water-saving millet grown in the "yaoba oasis"}

as soon as the alxa see ecological association was established, according to the "charter", it required entrepreneur members to pay an annual membership fee of 100,000 yuan and continue to invest time and energy in environmental protection public welfare activities. how to mobilize members' enthusiasm for environmental protection, how to scientifically control desertification in the alxa region, how to deal with the relationship between agriculture and environmental protection in the alxa region, etc., the early governance team of the alxa see had a lot of thoughts and practices.

as one of the projects to control desertification in alxa, in 2009, wang shi, the then (second) president of alxa see, introduced water-saving grains cultivated by zhao zhihai, the "father of hybrid millet", and guided local farmers to plant water-saving millet instead of traditional corn and other high-water-consuming crops that are mainly planted by flooding, in order to reduce the exploitation of local groundwater resources.

_{desert water-saving millet with full grains}

before wang shi stepped down, alxa see's scientific experiment of growing millet in the desert had been preliminarily completed.

as the successor chairman, for han jiahuan, president and ceo of taiwan dacheng group, how to sell millet and let farmers make money has become a problem that needs to be solved.

han jiahuan's company is an international agricultural and livestock food company covering feed, food, catering, nutritional technology and other aspects. he thought of establishing a social enterprise as a bridge connecting desert millet and the market.

its operating model is that alxa see supports local planting by laying and renovating water-saving facilities, and the social enterprise is responsible for formulating product standards and purchasing millet from farmers, and selling millet to some food companies. with the help of the brand effect of food companies, desert millet can be more easily and widely absorbed by the market. to this end, han jiahuan served as the chief designer and conceived and designed beijing weixi agriculture co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as weixi).

"social enterprises are not charitable organizations. they must rely on the market and the value of their products and brands, and achieve a win-win situation for farmers, consumers, the environment, and enterprises in order to be sustainable," han jiahuan once said.

after five years of exploration and accumulation, innovative planting experience, market channels and product brands, weixi was officially established in early 2015. the then fifth president, as a director of weixi, went to wharton school of business to learn how to operate a social enterprise. water-saving xiaomi also completed its brand evolution from "xiaomi daren" to "ren xiaomi".

at this point, the model of product market development by weixi and the three-party cooperation of "public welfare organization (alashan see) + social enterprise (weixi) + farmers" has been formally formed. obviously, this is to ensure the sustainability and scale effect of commercial practices on the basis of ensuring the nature of public welfare, thus achieving a win-win situation.

closed operation chain

as the world pays more and more attention to social responsibility and sustainable development, social enterprises, as a new type of enterprise that combines social benefits with economic benefits, are gradually recognized by the international community. as a new organizational concept, social enterprises have really entered china since 2006.

in the next 10 years, the development of social enterprises in china will mainly rely on public welfare organizations and a small number of forward-looking entrepreneurs. they will explore new ways to solve social problems by practicing the concept of social enterprises. "using market means to solve social problems and taking solving social problems as the primary goal" is the common understanding of social enterprises.

social enterprises try to make up for the shortcomings of public welfare organizations and commercial enterprises in solving social problems. the emergence of weixi solved the problem that alxa see could not promote desert millet on a large scale, and made alxa see's desert control action move from a charitable act of a group of entrepreneurs to a market action jointly carried out by all parties.

"a commercial social innovation model solves environmental problems" and "announces the implementation of a sustainable public welfare innovation model in china that integrates resources between public welfare organizations and commercial enterprises to jointly promote environmental protection." these were the media and society's recognition and evaluation of the alashan see "water-saving millet" project model when weixi was established.

in terms of organizational form, the legal entity of a social enterprise is a business rather than a charity. in terms of corporate goals, the primary task of a social enterprise is to pursue social benefits rather than maximizing profits. to ensure this, social enterprises usually do not make or limit dividends to shareholders and require that profits be used for public welfare investments.

weixi was jointly invested and established by 49 entrepreneur members and enterprises of alashan see. it is independent of the alashan see ecological association and is specifically responsible for the brand and market management of desert xiaomi. all shareholders only bear the responsibility for losses and do not enjoy dividends.

in the tripartite cooperation model of "public welfare organization (alashan see) + social enterprise (weixi) + farmers", weixi is responsible for the specific implementation of the water-saving millet project, formulating product standards for desert millet, conducting product control and technical support, and setting up cooperatives in alashan to be responsible for field management and farmer communication of water-saving millet from spring planting to autumn harvest; alashan see, as a public welfare organization, supports local cooperatives and farmers in the installation and upgrading of water-saving facilities by funding cooperatives on the project side; and alashan see entrepreneur members, through order agriculture such as "ren xiaomi" subscription, further increase farmers' income, maximize the interests of growers, and increase the enthusiasm of farmers and herdsmen to participate in environmental governance.

the same model was replicated and further developed in the subsequent exploration of alashan see.

in the qinling mountains in the northwest, the alxa see northwest project center launched the "one acre of ibis field" project in the core living area of ​​the national first-class protected species, the crested ibis, to mobilize farmers to set aside one acre of field in each acre of rice field as a foraging area for the crested ibis. at the same time, it created the "ibis village rice" public welfare product for external sales, continuously restored and improved the crested ibis habitat, and improved the livelihoods of local farmers, thereby encouraging surrounding farmers to actively participate in the crested ibis protection efforts, making environmental protection projects sustainable, and forming an industrial cluster-driven targeted poverty alleviation program, so that crested ibis protection and farmers' livelihood development can achieve a win-win situation.

^{“ibis field one point” project site © zhang yueming}

in the southwestern mountains, the alxa see southwest environmental protection project center has combined beekeeping experts and other resources to provide himalayan beekeeping technology training to community residents around the baima snow mountain, where rare and endangered species such as the yunnan golden monkey are distributed. it has also distributed customized beehives, established the "qianhuami - himalayan bee pure honey" public welfare honey brand, and other initiatives to ensure that high-altitude, original honey is supplied to public welfare investors and the market, allowing local villagers to improve their livelihoods through beekeeping while maintaining the biodiversity of the baima snow mountain.

^{himalayan honey bee hives supported by alxa see}

from passive output to self-generation

although alashan see has a large number of entrepreneur members, it seems that there is no need to worry about project funding. however, from the perspective of the model, subscription and donation are still the traditional way of relying on external transfusions to carry out public welfare projects. if the project is promoted on a larger scale, this internal subscription method will be difficult to support the sustainability of the project.

as early as 2010, under the joint promotion of the alxa left banner government and alxa see, desert water-saving millet was continuously promoted locally. the planting area once expanded to 3,000 acres, and the output reached one million kilograms, far exceeding the domestic sales capacity of alxa see member companies.

obviously, if we want to achieve a win-win situation of protecting the ecology and improving livelihoods, it is far from enough to rely solely on the public welfare sentiment of entrepreneurs. in addition to the high support of a series of resources and funds, the project design must be precise and effective, and the most important thing is to ensure the ability to generate self-sustaining income.

this means that the process from pure environmental protection charity to using commercial means to solve environmental protection and people's livelihood issues, and then to promoting environmental protection culture to the public is a transformation process from passive output to project self-financing.

there is no doubt that the operation of alashan see's "commercialized social innovation model" benefits from the special advantages of entrepreneurs - entrepreneurs have played an important role and function in financial support, resource linkage, strategic guidance, etc., introducing business wisdom and market thinking, and efficiently and organically integrating them with environmental protection and public welfare. for example, by establishing social enterprises and cooperatives, they promote commercial operations and achieve self-financing.

taking water-saving millet as an example, weixi, as a social enterprise, has also developed market-competitive millet products such as millet sticks, millet crisps, millet vinegar, millet beer, millet spiral noodles, millet macaroni and other derivative products, striving to meet and attract users with different needs and more categories. it has also promoted commercial operations and attracted more support and participation from the public by opening up sales channels, as well as brand promotion and event support.

^{"ren xiaomi" derivative products}

the same is true for the operation model of the projects of hexiang rice and himalayan honeybees. alashan see is responsible for coordinating the communication with farmers internally and helping with product sales externally. it can be seen that alashan see helps environmental protection projects break out of the public welfare circle through a commercial operation model. this model not only carries its public welfare concept, but also has commercial means as a driving force, so that environmental protection public welfare projects can eventually achieve large-scale effects.

finally, let us raise a question: although the project has achieved a certain degree of success, the competition in the commercial market is huge and risks always exist. if these public welfare products produced by ecological industries that conform to the laws of nature do not have the support of public welfare forces, can they continue to be recognized by the commercial market?

the answer may be clear - only in the new model, by combining farmers at the back end, public welfare organizations in the middle, and social enterprises at the front end, and making the entire alxa see system have the function of generating income, can the path of win-win between ecology and economy go further. this is also a topic that these environmental entrepreneurs need to continue to study.

the author of this article is mu lin. the early information in this article comes from public media reports