With a postgraduate degree, Shen Haimei could have chosen to make a fortune doing a regular office job. Instead, she has chosen to work with manure and offer organic fertilizers to farmers, free of charge. Shen, 45, an overseas returnee, is pursuing green agriculture in Harbin city in northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

Inside a huge gray capsule on Qingyuan Farm, 6,000 cubic meters of manure are under fermentation.

"It will turn into organic fertilizer in six months, and be applied to nearby farmland," she said.