Guangxi Penshibao Group: Forging Ahead with New Quality Productive Forces to Lead the Trend of Green Agriculture

With the rapid advancement of technology, the rise of new quality productive forces has become a key driver of social progress, agricultural industrial upgrading, and enterprise development. Guangxi Penshibao Group has pioneered an innovative path for the green and efficient development of agriculture in implementing new quality productive forces. Relying on technological innovation, industrial chain upgrading, productivity enhancement, and resource integration, the group has achieved remarkable economic, social, and innovative benefits, promoting the modernization of green agriculture and sustainable agricultural development, and serving as an exemplary model of new quality productive forces for the high-quality development of modern agriculture.

Penshibao: The World’s First Enterprise to Sign the UN Food & Agriculture Business Principles at UN Headquarters

Penshibao Group is the world’s first enterprise to sign the UN Food & Agriculture Business Principles (FAB Principles)UN Global Compact, a steadfast practitioner of China’s agricultural modernization and sustainable development. It has made outstanding achievements in independent innovation, green development, and global vision. In developing new quality productive forces, it has played a leading role in driving high-quality agricultural development, ensuring national food security and food safety, controlling farmland environmental pollution, and remediating and improving soil. Highly recognized by the market, the group has made outstanding contributions to rural revitalization, the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and the building of a great modern socialist country.

Founded in 1985, Guangxi Penshibao Group is a high-tech agricultural enterprise integrating R&D, production, sales, and service. Led by its founder, Wang Xianglin—a farmer-entrepreneur—the group is committed to developing healthy agriculture and is the first to promote healthy and green agriculture to the international stage. It has won recognition from the state, the general public, and the UN Global Compact, and has been repeatedly invited to attend UN Global Compact meetings. In 2014, at the UN International Symposium on Sustainable Agricultural Development, Penshibao was designated as the first signatory of the UN Food & Agriculture Business Principles, bringing honor to the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China. Yuan Longping enabled the Chinese people to have enough to eat; Wang Xianglin’s aspiration is to enable them to eat well and healthily. On June 25, 2014, at the seminar on the outcomes of the UN Forum on Sustainable Agricultural Development held in Beijing, Hu Deping, former Vice Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and former Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, highly praised Penshibao and its Chairman Wang Xianglin for their positive contributions to global healthy agriculture. He pointed out, “If the food we consume is unsafe and unhealthy, what use are more luxury cars and skyscrapers? By participating in the UN Global Symposium on Sustainable Agricultural Development and being the world’s first to sign the UN Food & Agriculture Business Principles, Penshibao has made contributions to China and the world.”

I. Technological Innovation in Organic Foliar Fertilizers Transforms Traditional Fertilization Models

Penshibao’s product series boasts independent intellectual property rights and patented formulas. Made from natural raw materials and processed with advanced technology, they are ultra-concentrated, non-toxic, harmless, residue-free, hormone-free, and pollution-free multifunctional liquid nutritional fertilizers. They are rich in various nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, boron, zinc, molybdenum, and manganese, as well as physiologically active substances like humic acid, fulvic acid, amino acids, and multiple vitamins. When applied to crops via foliar spraying, they activate enzyme activity in plants, increase amino acid and chlorophyll content, enhance photosynthesis intensity, degrade pesticide residues, and promote food safety. While balancing nutrition, increasing yields, and improving crop quality, they strengthen root absorption of soil nutrients and prevent premature senescence in the later stages of crop growth. As a renowned product integrating “nutrition, regulation, and stress resistance,” they deliver significant effects in increasing agricultural production, boosting farmers’ incomes, reducing fertilizer use while increasing efficiency, controlling soil pollution, improving saline-alkali land, degrading pesticide residues, and ensuring food safety. In 2018, the group won the First Prize of the National Agricultural, Animal Husbandry and Fishery Harvest Award and is a drafting unit of the national standard for organic foliar fertilizers. These achievements are a guarantee for developing healthy agriculture and meet the needs of the country and the people.

II. Visionary Leadership: Pioneering Fertilizer Reduction, Efficiency Enhancement, and Healthy Agriculture

Penshibao Group has long been dedicated to the R&D and promotion of multifunctional products. Through unremitting efforts and continuous innovation, it has developed fourth-generation products and technologies, forming seven major series of over 60 products, including foliar fertilizers, bio-organic fertilizers, soil remediation agents, pesticide residue degradants, feed synergists, high-quality rice seeds, and ecological aquaculture supplies. These products are widely used in agricultural fields such as field farming, orchard cultivation, livestock and poultry breeding, aquaculture, and soil remediation.

After China resolved its people’s food and clothing problem at the beginning of this century, excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides gradually led to issues such as soil acidification, compaction, and ecological degradation. Since the 1970s, large-scale application of chemical fertilizers has played a crucial role in China’s successive grain yield increases. However, over time, problems such as excessive fertilizer use and declining efficiency have become increasingly prominent. China accounts for one-third of the world’s total chemical fertilizer consumption, ranking first globally. It is estimated that China consumes 1 jin of chemical fertilizer for every 9 jin of grain produced. Based on a monthly grain ration of 30 jin per person, each person consumes approximately 40 jin of chemical fertilizer annually. To address these issues, Wang Xianglin led Penshibao to develop foliar fertilizers that can reduce and replace chemical fertilizers. As early as 1990, the achievements of Penshibao’s selenium-rich wheat project were inspected at the on-site meeting for the development of 100,000 mu of functional agriculture selenium-rich wheat.

For years, Penshibao has focused on the R&D and application of selenium-rich products. Leveraging its core biological technology, it has broken new ground in the selenium-rich industry and functional agriculture, enabling people to consume more nutritious agricultural products and wholeheartedly supporting rural revitalization to benefit millions of households. The group successfully developed the patented product “Kangxi Bao,” a selenium-rich organic water-soluble fertilizer. Tested by the Guangxi Institute for Occupational Disease Prevention and Control, it is non-toxic, making it the first selenium-rich product to pass toxicological testing and prove non-toxic. In collaboration with agricultural technology promotion departments under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, extensive trials and demonstrations have been conducted on dozens of crops, including rice, wheat, apples, citrus, and vegetables, in more than ten provinces and cities such as Guangxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning. Tests by the Rice and Products Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Guangxi Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center show that agricultural products treated with “Kangxi Bao” meet the quality standards for selenium-rich agricultural products in Guangxi. In addition to the yield-increasing and stress-resistant effects of Penshibao products, “Kangxi Bao” enables agricultural products to reach the national standard range for selenium content.

Promoting the application of “Kangxi Bao” not only increases crop yields but also multiplies the economic benefits of selenium-rich agricultural products. Taking rice as an example, if selenium-rich rice is promoted in Guangxi, based on the region’s 2013 rice output of 11.56 million tons (equivalent to 8 million tons of milled rice), an average increase of 2 yuan per jin would generate an additional economic benefit of 16 billion yuan. Meanwhile, an 8% yield increase would add over 900,000 tons of rice. If selenium-rich wheat is fully promoted in Henan, with 100 million mu of wheat cultivated as selenium-rich wheat nationwide, yields would increase by approximately 10%. At an additional income of 1 yuan per jin of selenium-rich wheat, farmers would earn over 1,200 yuan per mu, totaling over 120 billion yuan for the province—with a cost of less than 100 yuan per mu. This makes affordable, healthy selenium-rich agricultural products accessible to ordinary people, and such initiatives deserve strong support and promotion from relevant government agencies.

VI. Leading the Development of Global Green and Healthy Agriculture

The group’s founder, Wang Xianglin, often says, “Be a good person first, then do great things.” He also states, “As a farmer, I have a profound affection for agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. I hope to contribute to agriculture in China and around the world.” Yuan Longping enabled the Chinese people to have enough to eat; Wang Xianglin’s aspiration is to enable them to eat well and healthily. As a representative of the first batch of technology-based private entrepreneurs emerging from China’s reform and opening-up, Wang Xianglin has never forgotten his original aspiration of “letting the people eat safe agricultural products,” regardless of changing times or the group’s development. He has always focused on “how to enable the Chinese people to eat well,” and his years of hard work have yielded fruitful results. He was awarded the “Commemorative Medal for the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” jointly by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission in recognition of his social contributions.

The state advocates green and high-quality development, and General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”—goals that Penshibao has always pursued. For 39 years, Penshibao has adhered to its mission of “Serving Agriculture, Benefiting Humanity” and the philosophy of “Putting Agriculture First, Low-Carbon and Environmental Protection.” It has fulfilled its corporate social responsibility, committed to environmental protection and sustainable agricultural development, and made outstanding contributions to innovatively exploring efficient yield increase and quality improvement of agricultural products, soil pollution control and remediation, and pesticide residue degradation. With a strong sense of social responsibility and mission, Wang Xianglin has led the enterprise to explore a distinctive path of modern agriculture, adhering to green and healthy development, innovating high-tech development models, and demonstrating broad development prospects in promoting food safety and developing selenium-rich healthy agriculture. The group has achieved industrialization and scale effects with tangible benefits, preserving lucid waters and lush mountains for future generations.

Wang Xianglin was awarded the “Commemorative Medal for the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” jointly by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission, in recognition of his social contributions.

Amid economic development and technological progress, the group has maintained keen market insight and innovation awareness, forging ahead in the field of new quality productive forces, continuously exploring new technologies and business models to achieve innovation-driven development. It attaches great importance to talent cultivation: establishing a comprehensive talent development system to enhance employees’ skills and comprehensive qualities, while fostering a favorable environment for talent growth to stimulate their innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. Adhering to the path of green development, the group adopts green production methods to reduce energy consumption and pollution emissions, effectively enhancing its brand image and market competitiveness.

For 39 years, Guangxi Penshibao Group has been committed to exploring green agriculture, healthy agriculture, and sustainable agricultural development in China. Facing the world and the future, it keeps pace with the times, forges ahead with innovation, stays focused on its goals, and perseveres. It leads the trend of China’s green and healthy agricultural sustainable development, contributing Penshibao’s wisdom and strength to the development of new quality productive forces in China’s agriculture.