How can the promotion and application of water-fertilizer integration stay close to the market? Experts weigh in
China ranks first in the world in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but their utilization rate is 15% to 20% lower than that of developed countries. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed that by 2020 China's agriculture should achieve "one control, two reductions and three basics" and zero growth in chemical fertilizer use. Against the background of accelerating transformation and upgrading in the fertilizer industry, developing water-soluble fertilizers and promoting water-fertilizer integration technology has become the general trend. This was learned by the reporter at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's research meeting on fertilizer industry transformation and upgrading and water-fertilizer integration development held recently in Linshu County, Shandong.
Experts from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources and other relevant departments who participated in the research believe that the environmental contribution of water-fertilizer integration technology is not only saving water and fertilizer, but also reducing non-point source pollution. However, at present there are still many problems in the development of China's water and fertilizer industry, such as the smallholder planting model of individual households restricting large-scale development, and the technology promotion and service system being incomplete. Around how to advance the implementation of water-fertilizer integration technology, the experts attending the meeting offered suggestions one after another.
Jin Yong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at Tsinghua University, suggested that to promote water-fertilizer integration, the key is to stay close to the market, establish a business model for water-fertilizer integration promotion, and use market, industrial and capital means to advance water-fertilizer integration.
In the view of Chen Qing, an expert in the research group and a professor at China Agricultural University, promoting water-fertilizer integration technology is a systematic project that requires the joint efforts of the government, scientific research institutions, enterprises, industry organizations and other parties. Water-soluble fertilizer production enterprises need to break through bottlenecks, strengthen connections with irrigation equipment enterprises, strengthen coordination and linkage, and jointly meet the product and technical service needs of large modern agricultural operators.
Chen Hongkun, director of the National Engineering Research Center for Compound Fertilizers and vice president of Kingenta Group, said that as a leading enterprise in new-type fertilizers, Kingenta has positioned water-soluble fertilizer as a strategic product of the company and is pursuing large-scale and industrialized development, and has now formed an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons. At the same time, it has established a trinity promotion model of "fertilizer + equipment + service" to accelerate the implementation and rooting of water-fertilizer integration technology.