Nick Neumann was working as a herdsman on a Pembrokeshire dairy farm when he read a job advert in a farming publication that made him sit up and take notice.

Fast forward four months and Nick is leading a British Sugar project in China that aims to double yields from sugar beet production in the region.

His role is to educate Chinese farmers in how to improve their farming practices.

“My job is to promote western style farming practices, attention to detail and a passion to succeed,” says Nick, who was living in Newgale before departing for China.

“Through this education, coupled with hands-on practical support and just being on the fields at the right time to advise, I hope to achieve a successful crop, yield, sugar content and to achieve overall success for the company.

“The end goal is to improve yields and gross margins and the quality of life and wealth for the local people of rural north-east China.”

Nick’s new job was created after British Sugar extended its interests in the Xiang region to create the Botian Joint Venture with Chinese partners. The company has a 65% stake in the partnership and has invested heavily in modernising its factory at Yian to increase production.

Farming in the region is very much as it was in the UK a century ago. Farmers still use hoes and small tractors with ridgers to tend the land and all the sugar beet is harvested by hand.

But what really restricts yields is the lack of attention given to the land over the decades.

“The natural resource is excellent, it is grade one soil, but there needs to be emphasis on better agronomy,” says Nick.

“Until now there hasn’t been a system of soil analysis so they have been growing crops blindly on fields that have residue issues from previous crops. The result is lower plant population.”

Fertiliser application is also an area Nick will be helping the Chinese farmers focus on. Currently, blanket volumes of fertiliser are used, regardless of what the crop needs, so the potential to cut costs is significant.

Also, the fields have only ever been cultivated to a depth of 15cm.

“They need to break that pan to really get the fields working for them,” says Nick.

Yields have been averaging 2t/mu — a mu is the equivalent of one fifteenth of a hectare — but this is unprofitable. Through adopting better farming practices the goal is to double that yield.

Currently 2.2million tonnes of sugar is produced in the region — some from British Sugar’s self grow enterprise in which it leases land and grows the crop using western machinery, technology and practice, and the remainder from local communities, townships and natives growing their own crops for the factory. It is the latter that Nick will be focusing on improving.

He admits there is nervousness from Chinese farmers with a westerner telling them what to do.

“They have farmed their way for so long that it must be difficult for them to accept our way of farming but a lot of jobs are riding on this goal and they have to trust our way of farming to achieve that result,” he says.

Nick’s new job is very different to the farming that he was involved in before this opportunity came along. He came from a non-farming background — he was born in Wolfscastle where his parents ran the Wolfsdale Inn — but he always had an interest in agriculture. He had been milking cows since he left school at 16 and more recently he was herd manager for Pembrokeshire County Council deputy leader, Jamie Adams. He also bought his own land, owning 35 acres of grassland in Solva where he keeps tack sheep.

Although he had no experience in the arable sector he believes British Sugar selected him because of the passion he showed for the job and his initiative in buying land. And indeed he is embracing the challenge.

“The Chinese economy is booming and there is a demand for a more western diet which includes sugar,” says Nick.

“The favourable resources of soil quality, growing season and climate are better than the UK. The potential is great.”