How modern agriculture takes off on the wings of science and technology
“I really didn't expect such a big increase in yield! Saving fertilizer and pesticide while still increasing yield, it turns out there is still great potential in growing grain with science and technology.” During the autumn harvest season, large-scale grain growers spoke one after another of the joy of a bumper harvest. On the high starting point of “eleven consecutive years of increase,” China's grain production is expected to achieve another bumper harvest, and farmers' incomes continue to maintain relatively fast growth on the good momentum of “eleven consecutive years of rapid growth.” Agriculture and rural economy have made tremendous achievements, and agricultural science and technology have played a crucial role. At present, the contribution rate of China's agricultural science and technology progress has reached 56%, making outstanding contributions to stabilizing agricultural growth, adjusting structure, promoting reform and benefiting the people's livelihood.
Transforming the mode of agricultural development fundamentally relies on scientific and technological progress. Climbing from a high point and defending the position at a high level require high-yield and high-efficiency scientific and technological contributions; breaking through technological bottlenecks and promoting sustainable agricultural development require strong and lasting scientific and technological momentum. In recent years, through highly effective efforts, the Ministry of Agriculture has made the wings of agricultural science and technology increasingly solid and powerful, and the engine of agricultural science and technology increasingly strong and effective.
Climbing upward, “groundbreaking and towering” achievements enhance international competitiveness
Some people say that agricultural scientific research should both look up at the stars and keep its feet on the ground. To achieve “groundbreaking and towering,” it is necessary both to focus on the long term and seize the commanding heights of agricultural science and technology, and to base itself on the present, adhere to demand orientation, and avoid the “two skins” separation of science and technology from the economy. It is precisely by aiming at this goal that China has achieved a batch of major scientific research achievements with independent intellectual property rights, laying a solid foundation for serving industrial development and enhancing international competitiveness.
In the seed industry, a “molecular identity card” database has been constructed for germplasm resources of rice, wheat, corn, cotton and others, and a batch of key genes with independent intellectual property rights and important breeding value, such as insect resistance, herbicide resistance, high quality and high yield, have been obtained. A batch of new transgenic grain and oil crop lines or combinations with application prospects, such as insect-resistant, drought-resistant and herbicide-resistant rice, corn and soybean, have been cultivated. In agricultural disaster prevention and control, biological control technologies for major pests and diseases have been innovated, and a batch of animal vaccines such as avian influenza and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome vaccines have been developed, ensuring stable industrial development. In agricultural resources and environment, technologies for resource conservation and environmental protection such as agricultural water-saving and efficiency enhancement, prevention and control of non-point source pollution, and resource utilization of agricultural waste have been developed, improving resource use efficiency, protecting the production area environment and promoting sustainable agricultural development.
Extending downward, agricultural technology extension reaches villages and households
From “broken lines, torn nets and scattered people” to opening up the “last kilometer,” in recent years the Ministry of Agriculture has promoted the revision of the “Law on the Popularization of Agricultural Technology” and vigorously carried out its implementation, increased efforts to implement the “one linkage and two coverages” policy, and achieved new results in the reform and construction of the grassroots agricultural technology extension system, entering a new stage of healthy and rapid development.
Institutions and teams have been further strengthened. At present, there are 580,000 agricultural technology personnel nationwide, 87% of whom have a secondary specialized school education or above, and 11,000 special-post agricultural technology personnel have been recruited nationwide. Systems and mechanisms have been further improved, with two-thirds of township agricultural technology extension institutions implementing a management model mainly led by the county level; the working mechanism of “experts + agricultural technology personnel + science and technology demonstration households” and the service model of “contracting villages and linking households” are generally implemented nationwide. Service levels have been further improved. The national grassroots agricultural technology extension system annually extends 278,000 instances of new varieties and 181,000 instances of new technologies, carries out 580,000 technical training sessions, and trains 350 million person-times, effectively promoting the rapid entry of agricultural science and technology into villages, households and fields, and providing strong support for China's crop improved variety coverage rate to reach 96% and for continuously raising the level of per-unit yield. The transformation and application of agricultural scientific and technological achievements have been further accelerated. A national agricultural scientific and technological achievement transfer center has been built, and a national agricultural science and technology service cloud platform has been launched, improving the speed of transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements and the level of informatization.
Joint collaboration, agricultural scientific research tackling key problems presents a new pattern
During last year's autumn harvest season, the super rice led by Academician Yuan Longping achieved a yield of more than 1,000 kg per mu. Behind the glory and dream of super rice, many academicians and experts devoted their efforts, and five major rice regions and six major collaborative groups fought jointly. The successful practice of super rice once again proves that organizing joint efforts to tackle key problems is an important way to break through major key agricultural technologies and an important guarantee for improving the efficiency of agricultural science and technology innovation and achieving breakthroughs in agricultural science and technology.
In recent years, the organization and implementation of major science and technology projects by the Ministry of Agriculture have broken departmental, regional, institutional and disciplinary boundaries, effectively gathering superior forces from all sides and forming a powerful joint force. Using the modern agricultural industrial technology system as a carrier, it promotes in-depth cooperation among agriculture, science and education, and production, study and research. In the industrial technology fields of 50 agricultural products such as rice and live pigs, a new pattern of joint collaboration among experts from different regions and different disciplines has been formed. Using public welfare industry (agriculture) scientific research special projects as a platform, 224 major science and technology projects have been launched and implemented. More than 660 agricultural scientific research institutions, science and technology enterprises, colleges and universities and other innovative institutions in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country participated in the projects, involving nearly 10,000 person-times of scientific and technological personnel nationwide, achieving cross-departmental, cross-disciplinary and cross-regional joint collaboration. Eleven “vertical disciplines” with variety innovation as the main line, such as rice, wheat, soybean and cotton, have been constructed; 19 “horizontal disciplines” with common technology innovation as the main line, such as genomics, integrated pest management of crops and animal diseases, have been constructed, forming a crisscrossing agricultural science and technology platform link and innovation network facing all agricultural production areas, encompassing advantageous agricultural product industries and covering major agricultural discipline fields and advantageous institutions.