More young people are quitting the city to try their hand at tilling the soil, with varying degrees of success, Wang Qian reports.

It is the eighth time this summer that Guo Xiunan has failed to grow vegetables without chemical pesticides. After trying various homemade bug sprays, such as plant ash, mixtures of pepper, vinegar and water, and rubbing alcohol, there are still plenty of holes chewed by flea beetles in the leaves.

"I will not give up trying and next time, I shall experiment with mustard oil," the 29-year-old accountant-turned-farmer says.

Covering 0.67 hectares of farmland and 1.33 hectares of woodland and wetland, his farm is located on the outskirts of Hefei, East China's Anhui province. He is trying to turn it into an organic farm, cultivating fruits and vegetables with the same flavor of those from his childhood memories.

"Growing tasty and healthy food has been my dream since I was a teenager. I know how difficult it can be, but if you take the soil seriously, I believe it will pay off," Guo says.

He adds that farming is not a business that can make money in a short time, but for him, it became an urgent issue when his father was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year, ringing an alarm bell over food safety.

Recalling spending time on the farm with his parents as a child, Guo says overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is changing the face of farming, which does not only damage the soil, but also people's health.