Continued progress in agricultural modernization drives substantial growth in demand for instruments
Developing ecological agriculture, water-saving agriculture, dryland agriculture, precision agriculture and plant protection creates a great demand for scientific instruments. Breeding new varieties of crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry with high quality, high efficiency, high yield and high resistance is likewise inseparable from scientific instruments.
“Agriculture has an extremely wide range of objects that must be analyzed, tested and controlled, from agricultural products to the animal and plant ecological environments and agricultural production inputs that must be traced, from animal and plant populations and individuals to cells, genes and molecules, from organic to inorganic, from macro amounts to trace amounts, from monitoring to simulating and even creating specific ecological environments. The objects are mostly living organisms, and the conditions of use are in harsher environments such as fields and on-site locations.” Jiang Shiqiang, Executive Vice Chairman of the Agricultural Instrument Application Technology Society of the China Instrument and Control Society, said this in a recent interview with our newspaper's reporter while attending the 2015 China Scientific Instruments and Laboratory Technology Summit Forum.
It is reported that the National Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Inspection and Testing System began construction in 2006, with about 6 billion yuan invested in the first phase and about 7 billion yuan planned for the second phase, of which about 65% is used for the purchase of instruments and equipment.
⟦NL> “Residues of pesticides, veterinary drugs and fishery drugs, toxic and harmful elements, pathogenic bacteria, biological toxins, illegal additives, excessive additives and genetically modified agricultural products have become agricultural product and food safety issues of great concern to people around the world.” Jiang Shiqiang said.
According to the introduction, pesticide residues can be divided by chemical composition and structure into organochlorines, organophosphorus compounds, carbamates, pyrethroids, herbicides and other pesticide residues, while veterinary drug and fishery drug residues are roughly divided into 15 categories.
“Developing ecological agriculture, water-saving agriculture, dryland agriculture, precision agriculture and plant protection also creates a great demand for scientific instruments.” Jiang Shiqiang told the reporter.
The urgent problem today is remediating contamination of soil by heavy metals, pesticide residues and harmful compounds. The Ministry of Environmental Protection released the draft revision of the current Soil Environmental Quality Standard, among which the Soil Environmental Quality Standard for Agricultural Land applies to farmland, orchards, tea gardens and pastureland. For example, the limit value for cadmium is refined into four tiers according to soil pH conditions, the limit values for lead, hexachlorocyclohexane and DDT have been tightened, 10 optional testing items for pollutants such as total manganese and total cobalt have been added, and the monitoring specifications have been updated. All of these will create new demand for scientific instruments.
“In addition, water-scarce and arid areas account for about 56% of China's total land area. Plant diseases and insect pests occur from time to time.” Jiang Shiqiang said. To monitor them in a timely manner and study countermeasures, a series of scientific instruments specifically for agriculture are needed, such as effective photosynthesis radiation meters, infrared remote-sensing leaf surface/vegetation/ground surface thermometers, small agricultural weather stations, as well as agricultural remote sensing and telemetry, and multispectral camera and image analysis systems for ground crop ecology and disease and pest disasters. In the future, on-site detection, analysis, decision-making and control systems for agriculture, livestock and aquaculture will also emerge.
The concept of “Internet+” has risen rapidly, and the Internet is combining with various industries, pushing them into a new era. Modernized agriculture will inevitably also be agriculture plus the Internet, that is, the Internet will run through the monitoring, communication and interaction of agricultural environments, production inputs, production processes and all post-production links.
At the same time, breeding new varieties of crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry with high quality, high efficiency, high yield and high resistance is likewise inseparable from scientific instruments.
Jiang Shiqiang said that improved seeds are the core of agricultural development. Whether it is traditional hybridization based on genetics, polyploid or haploid breeding, or mutation breeding, or modern biotechnology breeding based on gene introduction and transgenic technology, a series of instruments must first be used to analyze and screen the quality of germplasm resources.
“Agricultural biotechnology is a new technology and also a new industry with broad development prospects. At present, the global momentum of technical research and development in agricultural genetic modification is very strong, and developed countries are going all out to seize the technical high ground. We should even more so have a place in it and seize the high ground, fully using biotechnology to develop and utilize China's rich excellent gene resources in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries, and rapidly and directionally breed improved varieties. This will certainly be the technical support for high quality, high efficiency, high yield and high resistance in China's implementation of sustainable agricultural development.” Jiang Shiqiang said.