Green yield increase will become a keyword in agricultural development

Structural adjustment of crop farming, transformation and upgrading of herbivorous animal husbandry, and integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries…… As summer grain production achieves a “twelfth consecutive bumper harvest,” China's agriculture is making new explorations in transforming its development model and adjusting its structure——

Data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2015 the national total summer grain output reached 282.13 billion jin, an increase of 8.94 billion jin over 2014, up 3.3%. China's summer grain achieved a “twelfth consecutive bumper harvest.”

Achieving the “twelfth consecutive bumper harvest” does not mean that China's agriculture can be “blindly complacent.” Various risks and challenges to China's agricultural and rural economic development are also gradually accumulating and gathering, and agriculture is planning a new transformation. What difficulties and constraints does China's agricultural transformation and development currently face? Where should efforts be directed to seek transformation in the future? In this regard, a reporter interviewed authoritative experts.

From focusing on output to focusing on quality:

Simultaneous improvement of grain output and production capacity

⟦NL> 7 mu of land harvested more than 4,000 kg of wheat. Recently, holding the more than 10,000 yuan from selling grain, Song Zhiguo, a villager from Qicun Village, Ren County, Hebei, was grinning from ear to ear. The application of the green yield increase model has greatly improved the comparative returns of grain farming. “This year, the village experimented with more than 100 mu of a new three-dimensional uniform sowing model, watering only once, and wheat income increased by more than 10%.” Song Zhiguo said that compared with ordinary varieties, water-saving wheat can save more than 110 yuan per mu.

“The past approach of competing on resources and inputs is no longer sustainable. At present, localities are vigorously carrying out research on green yield increase models to explore the path of sustainable agricultural development.” pointed out Duan Lingling, chief agronomist of the Hebei Provincial Department of Agriculture.

“The bumper summer grain harvest is of great significance to international and domestic food security and stability, to the current transformation and upgrading of China's economic structure, and to increasing farmers' incomes.” pointed out Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. More importantly, grain production is now shifting from mainly focusing on annual output to a path of sustainable development of storing grain in the land and storing grain in technology.

“Looking at the agricultural development trends of developed countries, they all shifted from initially pursuing output as the goal to placing equal emphasis on production development and ecological protection. Today, China's agricultural production is also advancing in this direction, and ‘green yield increase’ will become a keyword for China's agricultural production for some time to come.” said Qin Fu, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Double squeeze from the “ceiling” and the “floor”:

Agricultural transformation urgently needs new breakthroughs

Since entering the new century, China's agricultural and rural economic development has continued to improve, and modern agricultural construction has made new progress. However, various risks and challenges to agricultural and rural economic development are also gradually accumulating and gathering. The “tightening band” of the dual constraints of resource conditions and environmental pressure is growing tighter and tighter, and agriculture urgently needs to seek new breakthroughs in transforming its development model.

“After the summer grain ‘twelfth consecutive bumper harvest,’ one must absolutely not be ‘blindly complacent,’ but rather view it objectively, dialectically and calmly. We must see its positive side, and even more we must see that the current high output is still achieved at the cost of high inputs. High output has been achieved, but there is still great room for improvement in quality, safety and efficiency.” said Peng Yufa, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Professor Shang Xunwu of Gansu Agricultural University analyzed and pointed out that under the traditional agricultural production model, due to excessive development of agricultural resources and massive use of chemical inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural films, enormous resource and environmental costs were paid.

Relevant statistics show that China's pesticide use per unit area of cultivated land is 2.5 times the world average. “The continuous rise in domestic agricultural production costs has led to a continuous decline in the comparative returns of agriculture. Meanwhile, the prices of bulk agricultural products on the international market have fallen, and are already lower than the prices of similar Chinese products to varying degrees. The rise of the cost ‘floor’ and the decline of the price ‘ceiling’ bring a double squeeze to the sustainable development of China's agriculture.” Shang Xunwu said that this imposes more urgent requirements on transforming the agricultural development model.

From extensive production to conservation and efficiency:

Breaking the two “tightening bands” of ecology and resources

Structural adjustment of crop farming, transformation and upgrading of herbivorous animal husbandry, and integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries…… As summer grain production achieves a “twelfth consecutive bumper harvest,” China's agriculture is making new explorations in transforming its development model and adjusting its structure.

Since the beginning of this year, eight ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the National Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015—2030). The Ministry of Agriculture launched a battle against agricultural non-point source pollution, carried out an action to achieve zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, implemented pilot projects for black soil protection and utilization in major grain-producing counties in Northeast China, restoration of heavy metal-contaminated cultivated land, and comprehensive treatment of areas with severe groundwater overexploitation, promoting the transformation of agricultural resource utilization toward conservation and efficiency.

“In the past, no one wanted the cow dung and pig manure from farms, but now everyone is scrambling for it. As the use of organic fertilizer gradually increases, chemical fertilizer use has dropped by 30%, yet wheat yield per mu has increased from 700 to 800 jin to more than 1,300 jin.” Speaking of the new changes in grain farming methods, Zhao Jincheng, a large-scale grain farmer in Qihe County, Shandong Province, said.

“This also shows that the most fundamental aspect of future agricultural transformation and development is the transformation of resource utilization methods, which is a process of structural adjustment.” Li Guoxiang pointed out that it is necessary to achieve simultaneous advancement of agricultural structural adjustment and layout optimization, simultaneous implementation of resource utilization and environmental protection, and simultaneous improvement of moderate-scale operation and the cultivation of operating entities.

Peng Yufa pointed out that while agriculture transforms, it is necessary to use new technologies such as the internet and the Internet of Things to transform traditional agriculture and achieve precision and intelligentization of agricultural production.