Facility agriculture advances through multi-wheel drive: The 14th China Greenhouse

With the theme of “adapting to the new normal of the economy and discovering new market momentum,” the 14th China Greenhouse Conference and the 2015 Annual Meeting of China's Greenhouse Horticulture Industry was grandly held on November 12-14 in Zhengzhou, Henan, carrying out around the future of facility agriculture a series of themed activities including the China Greenhouse 2015 Innovation Achievement Exhibition, the First Henan Flower and Horticulture Materials Exhibition and Trade Fair, and professional seminars and open high-level forums. More than 600 people attended the summit, including representatives of relevant enterprises and institutions from 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country, as well as internationally renowned manufacturers from 12 countries and regions including Australia, the United States, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Israel, expert representatives from national research institutes and universities, and representatives of greenhouse planting and breeding production enterprises, and they conducted in-depth discussions on future industry development trends. Experts at the meeting proposed that China is a major facility horticulture country in the world, and to move from a major facility agriculture country to a strong one, it requires the joint drive of innovative development by the four horses of government, enterprises, research institutes and the vast number of farmers.

China's greenhouse horticulture began exploratory development in the 1980s, developed rapidly in 1996 and especially after entering the new century, and in 2008 the Ministry of Agriculture issued opinions on promoting the development of facility agriculture, injecting new vitality into the development of China's facility agriculture. Various localities actively implemented support policies and continuously introduced new measures, and the Ministry of Agriculture organized 14 provinces, municipalities and districts to collaborate on tackling key problems, solving some difficulties in the development of solar greenhouses, so that fruits and vegetables could also be produced in winter climates of minus twenty degrees, and the new cultivation techniques explored greatly increased yields. In 2014, the national greenhouse area reached 2.0797 million hectares (mainly solar greenhouses, plastic tunnels and multi-span greenhouses, etc.), accounting for 80% of the world's total area, effectively guaranteeing the seasonal balanced supply of agricultural products such as vegetables, meat, eggs and milk in China, and driving the development of related industries such as greenhouse engineering and building materials, agricultural film, mechanical equipment, seeds and fertilizers, with the per capita possession of facility vegetables and melons reaching 190 kg.

After more than 30 years, while China's facility horticulture industry has developed greatly, it has also become an important means for farmers in various places to increase their incomes. Reviewing the development process, industry representatives at the meeting frankly admitted that compared with many advanced international regions, China is still not a strong facility horticulture country; our gaps with developed countries in yield, labor productivity, and water and fertilizer use efficiency are not small. Our facility equipment capacity is very strong, but we have not formed products with independent intellectual property rights and Chinese symbolic elements. In particular, at present we do not have a unified industry organization, no standard production specifications, and we still lack some long-term sustained support policies and a complete socialized service system. Li Zhi, director of the conference organizing committee, said that greenhouse technology is different from any previous mature science and technology; it is a completely new, interdisciplinary and comprehensively applied intersecting technical field. To enable the healthy development of the facility industry, since 2002 the annual meeting has been used each year to review the gains and losses of facility horticulture development, allowing all links of the industry to communicate at all levels while promoting the sound development of the industry. Industry participants at the meeting said one after another that over the past 14 years, through the annual meeting as a research platform, they have held face-to-face exchanges with representatives of advanced industries nationwide and internationally, updated concepts, solved problems, and further understood producers' new demands for horticultural facilities in various places, market dynamics and the latest technological progress, so as to adjust their respective development strategies in a timely manner.

This summit invited 50 domestic industry experts from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Northwest A&F University, Beijing University of Technology and others to conduct three days of discussions on topics including the development trends of the facility horticulture industry, innovation and transformation, and industry technology, policies, achievements and “Internet+” management. Experts at the meeting proposed that China has already become a major facility horticulture country, and how to seize the momentum to become a world facility horticulture power in the future requires people of insight across the entire industry to discuss together. Yang Qichang, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and chairman of the Greenhouse Engineering Committee of the International Society for Horticultural Science, gave a keynote report titled “The Road to a Strong Facility Horticulture Country——Reference and Reflection on the Development Paths of Developed Countries.” He said that looking at several facility horticulture powers in the world, all of them formed uniquely characteristic strong facility horticulture countries by continuously overcoming difficulties and changing unfavorable conditions. What are we lacking, and in response to our needs, what should we focus on developing in the facility horticulture industry? This is what must be considered in moving toward a strong facility horticulture country. Yang Qichang proposed a 16-character formula for a strong facility horticulture country: technology leadership, industrial support, talent guarantee, and improved services. First, future development should establish a greenhouse system centered on energy saving, heat preservation and efficient resource utilization. The area of a single solar greenhouse should reach 1200-1500 or even more than 2000 sq m in scale, and the land utilization rate should be raised from the current 40% to more than 90%. Applying heat preservation and heat storage technology to the large-scale and multi-span development of greenhouses, and China being able to explore a new path in this regard, would be an important contribution to the world. Second, improve the utilization efficiency of solar energy and renewable energy, combine the soilless cultivation technology already mature abroad with the seasonal climate characteristics of Chinese greenhouses to form a cultivation system with Chinese characteristics, develop smart soilless cultivation, and raise the level of mechanized equipment. Third, there must be a whole-industry-chain mindset, forming a complete industrial chain of mechanical equipment coordination from seedling raising, sowing, cultivation, harvesting, processing, grading and packaging, to improve the industrial efficiency of the entire industry. Fourth, strengthen the talent strategy, including innovative talents with international vision, innovative R&D talents, enterprise talents for international market development, and professionalized farmers. On these foundations, establish a complete and supporting socialized service system, establish long-term sustained and stable national support and subsidy policies, encourage financial institutions to invest and support, let the four horses of government, enterprises, research institutions and farmers drive together, let scientific research collaborate with agriculture and connect with farmers, closely combine achievements with actual production, truly realize the seamless connection of farmers, enterprises and scientists, let specialized varieties and cultivation techniques be widely applied, and share technology and achievements, forming a huge industry with great contribution and influence to world facility horticulture.

Expert representatives at the meeting said that this year the facility horticulture industry has seen good news again and again. This year's No. 1 Central Document proposed improving comprehensive agricultural production capacity, the Ministry of Agriculture proposed creating standard gardens for horticultural crops, and the just-concluded Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee proposed vigorously promoting agricultural modernization, developing resource-saving and environment-friendly enterprises, developing efficient low-carbon agriculture, and carrying out green and clean production, all of which are closely related to the facility horticulture industry. Moreover, the national “Belt and Road” strategy plans to build international facility horticulture cooperation demonstration zones in more than 50 countries along the route, and it is hoped that industry colleagues will seize the opportunity and jointly create a better tomorrow for China's facility horticulture industry in integrated development.

This conference was co-hosted by China Greenhouse Network, the Henan Provincial Flower Association and the Zhengzhou Municipal Flower Association.