Green concepts help agriculture achieve sustainable bountiful harvests
Bountiful harvest! Bountiful harvest! At the historic high point of our country's “eleventh consecutive increase” in grain, this year's autumn grain once again enjoyed a bountiful harvest. What is especially valuable is that this hard-won harvest ran the “green” production-increase concept through from beginning to end, most powerfully confirming with facts the correctness of the current shift in mode and adjustment of structure, and accumulating valuable experience for playing well the big game of “shifting the mode.”
Transform the mode of production and move toward “green production increase.” In recent years, our country's grain has increased year after year, various resource factors have been stretched very tight, the pressure on the environmental carrying capacity has continued to grow, and agriculture urgently needs transformational development. It is precisely against this background that our country launched the green production-increase model research, gradually shifting from extensive management that mainly pursued output growth and competed over resources and consumption toward intensive development that gives equal weight to quantity, quality and efficiency, focuses on improving competitiveness, focuses on agricultural technological innovation, and focuses on sustainability, actively exploring a path of sustainable grain development with Chinese characteristics. Accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development mode and promoting agricultural transformation and upgrading is a major deployment made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council with an eye to the overall situation of economic and social development. We should take reform and innovation as the driving force, take the development of appropriately scaled operations in multiple forms as the core, and take building a modern agricultural management system, production system and industrial system as the focus, to push for the transformation of the agricultural development mode to achieve real results as soon as possible. The green production-increase model research is undoubtedly an effective implementation of this strategic deployment.
A double harvest of summer grain and autumn grain depends on “green production increase.” This year's summer grain and autumn grain both achieved another bountiful harvest at unprecedented high levels, fully demonstrating that “green production increase” suits the needs of the current situation and is practical and feasible. “Green production increase” is proposed within the framework of sustainable agricultural development. On the technical path, it promotes new varieties that are high-yield, high-efficiency and multi-resistant, advances scaling-up, standardization and mechanization, and promotes cost-saving and efficiency-enhancing technologies such as controlling fertilizer, controlling pesticides and controlling water. It contains at least these two meanings: on the one hand, through measures such as deep loosening and land preparation, protective tillage, returning straw to the field and applying organic fertilizer, soil fertility can be restored and continuously improved; on the other hand, through scientific fertilization and pesticide use, reducing the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and so on, the excessive intensity of resource development and excessive use of inputs are brought down, while at the same time vigorously tackling treatment so that the overdrawn resource environment can gradually recuperate. It is precisely under the guidance of this concept that the “twelve major actions” of green grain production-increase model research, such as farmland quality protection and improvement, have been launched as priorities starting this year; 20 sets of green production-increase and efficiency-enhancing technical models across 5 major regions - Northeast China, the Huang-Huai-Hai region, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Northwest and the Southwest - as well as 20 key technologies for green production increase and cost-saving and efficiency enhancement in 5 major categories - saving seed, saving fertilizer, saving water, saving pesticide and environmental protection - have been rolled out comprehensively starting this year. Concepts such as “reduce fertilizer without reducing output,” “store grain in the land” and “store grain in technology” have taken deeper root in people's hearts.
Continue to persist in the future and improve “green production increase.” At present, there are many favorable conditions for advancing “green production increase,” such as inventories of bulk agricultural products all being at historic highs and a relatively solid material foundation; the acceleration of upgrading of residents' consumption structure and strong demand in many new areas; and active exploration and experimentation carried out in various places, with some experience accumulated, and so on. However, we should also clearly see that our country's low- and medium-yield farmland still accounts for 70% of total farmland area, degraded farmland accounts for more than 40% of the area, and the problems of eutrophication of surface water in the South and overexploitation of groundwater in North China are prominent…… the challenges facing the agricultural ecological environment remain severe. Even more, we should see that while grain production faces the “ceiling” of price and subsidy policies, it also faces the “floor” of rising production costs; squeezed by the “two boards,” the room for further improving the efficiency of grain production is reduced, and agriculture's competitiveness is weakened. All of this requires us to continuously improve the existing green production-increase model and achieve increased output and efficiency, cost savings and efficiency, and quality improvement and efficiency. It should also be noted that relying only on the power of the government to realize “green production increase” is far from enough; farmers, new types of agricultural business entities, enterprises, research institutes, environmental protection organizations and others can all play important roles in promoting “green production increase.” In addition, in the process of advancing “green production increase,” special attention must also be paid to protecting farmers' principal position, respecting their wishes, and especially respecting their decision-making power in operations.
Across ten thousand li of fields, a scroll of bountiful harvest unfolds. We should deeply understand and grasp the central authorities' strategic task of promoting sustainable agricultural development, base ourselves on the present while looking to the long term, accelerate the building of a technical system suited to the requirements of high-yield, high-quality, high-efficiency, ecological and safe agricultural development, promote the development of eco-friendly agriculture, and let “green” continuously bring us sustainable bountiful harvests!