Efficient and ecological agriculture cannot be achieved without innovation-driven development

For agriculture to achieve high efficiency and ecology, it must fundamentally rely on innovation-driven development, which is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

First, innovation-driven science and technology systems. As we know, the current agricultural science and technology system is basically the science and technology system of chemical agriculture, because we rely on large inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; in addition, additives, hormones, antibiotics and the like all belong to the category of chemical agriculture. In the future, we must gradually replace chemical agriculture with ecological agriculture and move toward a sustainable science and technology system. The key here is to implement biological agriculture and physical agriculture. Because the objects of agricultural labor are biological populations, biological agriculture must be implemented. If we blindly use chemical inputs, we will destroy the coordinated relationships among biological populations. We can use the principles of mutual promotion and mutual restraint among biological populations to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results and to prevent and control pests and diseases. Biological agriculture will be an important direction for the future development of our agriculture. Physical agriculture regulates light, heat, water and air. Everyone knows that the growth of crops, including animals, requires a harmonious configuration of light, heat, water and air. Through physical design, such as protected agriculture, it creates an environment conducive to the growth of animals and plants. A typical example is monochromatic cold light from LED lamps. After irradiating plants according to their different production stages, they will grow very robustly, especially when vegetable seeds are irradiated, because many of our vegetable seeds are imported and very expensive; one vegetable seed costs several yuan. If farmers raise seedlings, the germination rate will not be high, and losing one seedling means losing several yuan. But after a certain amount of light irradiation, the seeds germinate 100%, and the seedlings have no transplant shock period after reaching the field; they directly grow and are very robust, which farmers like very much. Things like this are what physical agriculture will do in the future. For another example, heavy metal pollution not only harms grain, such as cadmium rice in Hunan, but also harms some melons, fruits and vegetables. After adding a certain amount of water to the field with attapulgite, it can adsorb heavy metals onto it and finally extract them. This is a physical technology that has already been successfully appraised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There are still many technologies in this area, and their future application prospects are relatively great. We can assemble and integrate physical agriculture technologies and biological agriculture technologies into the agricultural science and technology system, free agriculture from the troubles of chemical agriculture, and this is the innovation of the science and technology system. You may still remember that in 2007, in the People's Daily, Xi Jinping, then still serving in the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, published an article titled "Take the Road of New-Type Agricultural Modernization with High Efficiency and Ecology." What we want to create in the future is a high-efficiency and ecological agricultural science and technology system. This is the first aspect of innovation-driven development.

Second, innovation-driven management mechanisms. As everyone knows, our management of water, soil, agricultural production, production area environments and comprehensive agricultural development is currently dispersed among different departments and is not something the agricultural departments alone can decide. This mechanism is very unsmooth, but that is the current situation. This situation leads to dysfunctional functions: either absence, with no one taking responsibility, or overlap, with everyone rushing to manage, or crossed functions, interfering with one another. China's agricultural management mechanism cannot work without innovation, and our innovation-driven development must be fully embodied here. In Xi Jinping's "Explanation of the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform," he said: "We must recognize that mountains, rivers, farmland, forests and lakes are a community of life. The lifeblood of people lies in farmland, the lifeblood of farmland lies in water, the lifeblood of water lies in mountains, the lifeblood of mountains lies in soil, and the lifeblood of soil lies in trees. Use control and ecological restoration must follow natural laws. If those who plant trees only plant trees, those who manage water only manage water, and those who protect farmland only protect farmland, it is easy to attend to one thing and lose another, ultimately causing systemic damage to the ecosystem. It is very necessary for one department to be responsible for use control of all territorial space within the territory and to carry out unified protection and unified restoration of mountains, rivers, farmland, forests and lakes."

Third, innovation-driven operating systems. In the past, when we engaged in agriculture, we mainly engaged in primary industry. Now we must implement a new operating system that integrates primary, secondary and tertiary industries as well as industrialized agricultural operation and socialized services. In the past, our technology mainly relied on the government's agricultural technology extension stations. In the future, the socialized service system will be multifaceted, very flexible and very dynamic. In addition, the financial service system must keep up. In the past, we neglected financial services in rural areas, and in the future this cannot be allowed to lag behind. With the development of scale, the operating unit of agriculture will become an enterprise, and capital is its blood. If it is anemic, it cannot do well, so the financial service system must keep up so that our agriculture does not become anemic. At the same time, the market service system must also keep up. If the existing market service system continues, it will certainly constrain the sustainable development of our agriculture. With the market service system plus "Internet Plus," agriculture in the future will take off even more.

The National Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015-2030) is a programmatic document guiding our country's agriculture toward high efficiency and ecology. In the text, it repeatedly aligns with the strategy of innovation-driven development. For example, the second basic principle states that "we must adhere to coordination between innovation-driven development and law-based governance," which highlights the importance of innovation-driven development in the entire sustainable development of agriculture. It requires grasping both driving forces and the legal system. Why is this said? Because the legal system can both safeguard our innovation-driven development and also set a reasonable track for it. In addition, the plan also emphasizes "vigorously promoting agricultural science and technology innovation and institutional and mechanistic innovation," "releasing new vitality for reform, promoting scientific planting and breeding, focusing on enhancing new momentum for innovation-driven development, and promoting the transformation of agricultural development modes." The plan proposes that "by 2020, our contribution rate of scientific and technological progress must reach 60%." What this relies on is innovation-driven development, not only original innovation but also introduction, digestion, absorption and re-innovation, and even more importantly integrated innovation. At present, I believe agriculture especially needs to focus on integrated innovation, which is to quickly connect existing stockpiled scientific and technological achievements to agricultural production and play a huge role. For example, the technical models of ecological agriculture and some technical models of circular agriculture must rely on integrated innovation of various biological technologies and physical technologies and develop toward an integrated model of biological agriculture and physical agriculture. Only then can Chinese agriculture truly move onto the path of sustainable development.