The transformation and upgrading of agriculture in a major country must follow the path of sustainable development
As an important focal point for transforming the agricultural development model, strengthening resource protection, enhancing ecological construction, and promoting sustainable agricultural development represent our Party's scientific grasp of the laws governing our country's agricultural development in the course of ecological civilization construction. They serve as the foundational support for the transformation and upgrading of the entire national economy under China's new economic normal, and are also a strategic choice for accelerating the building of a Beautiful China and realizing the Chinese Dream. Achieving sustainable agricultural development is not only the inherent requirement and fundamental goal of transforming the agricultural development model, but also the inevitable path for the transformation and upgrading of agriculture in a major country. Only when agriculture achieves sustainable development can it be proven that the transformation of the agricultural development model has succeeded, and only then can it be demonstrated that our country's agricultural transformation and upgrading has embarked on a successful path.
Looking back at history and surveying the world, few national policies can release maximum effectiveness over the long term; as long as a policy can drive the development of productive forces at a particular historical stage, it can be considered a good policy. Previously, to solve our country's food problem and provide strong support for national industrialization and urbanization, reclaiming wasteland for farming and enclosing lakes for farmland were encouraged. In particular, the integrated use and coupling effects of external inputs as well as agricultural science and technology and mechanical equipment greatly enhanced agricultural production capacity, successfully providing adequate food and clothing for over a billion Chinese people. But at the same time, this “high-consumption” and “high-pollution” mode of agricultural production has also increased threats to resources and the environment, including the safety of human survival itself. Faced with the conspicuously lit “red light” of resources and environment, if the traditional extensive production mode is allowed to continue, the foundation of agricultural development will inevitably be shaken. This is like a car on the road: seeing the red light at the intersection ahead, if instead of slowing down and stopping one steps hard on the accelerator, the danger is truly unimaginable. For agriculture in a major country like ours, we can no longer take the old path of sacrificing ecology and environment; we have reached the critical juncture where we must “hit the brakes” and “transform the model.”
Every transformation of development mode in the course of human social progress manifests as the advancement and upgrading of civilization. Promoting sustainable agricultural development is both a self-transcendence of “industrialized agriculture” and an inheritance and development of agrarian civilization. It means attaching the wings of ecology to the body of modern industrial civilization and carving a striking marker of “Chinese characteristics” onto the world map of agricultural modernization.
The working people of ancient China achieved great success in exploring harmony between humanity and nature, having once created a splendid and brilliant agrarian culture. At present, we must fully explore and inherit the ecological concepts and practical wisdom of traditional agriculture, and more actively utilize modern biological and information technologies, new materials, and advanced equipment. We must fully rely on natural forces, making the greatest possible use of renewable resources and biological energy in local ecosystems, while also adopting appropriate artificial measures, rationally using chemicals, and rationally constructing a coupling system of water, soil, light, and heat resources. Specifically, on the one hand, we must save water and control fertilizer and pesticide use, incurring no new debts. We should vigorously develop water-saving irrigation, promote soil testing and formulated fertilization, advance scientific and precise pesticide application, and promote the resource utilization of waste such as straw, livestock and poultry manure, and plastic film. On the other hand, we must treat pollution and purify the soil, and repay old debts. We should focus on remediating heavy metal pollution, addressing groundwater over-extraction, strictly controlling development in ecologically fragile areas, and allowing over-exploited arable land, grasslands, water areas, tidal flats, and forests to recuperate.
Transforming the agricultural development model and achieving agricultural ecological balance is both a development issue and a livelihood issue. It not only helps reduce agricultural non-point source pollution, ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products, and improve farmers' production and living conditions; it also helps tap ecological value, build agricultural brands, enhance agricultural efficiency, and increase farmers' incomes. Of course, promoting sustainable agricultural development is a systematic and long-term project. It requires coordinating the relationship between ecological environmental protection and comprehensive agricultural benefits, properly handling the relationship between short-term interests and long-term interests, and also calculating the distribution of ecological and economic benefits among regions as well as coordinating the relationship between agriculture and other industries. This requires the government to do a great deal of work in planning, policy guidance, capital investment, and coordination services. It requires using incentive mechanisms to stimulate the ecological consciousness of new type of business entities to participate in sustainable agricultural development, using institutional design to strengthen the sense of responsibility of governments at all levels for improving agricultural resources and environment, and using market-oriented operating methods to attract social capital and resources to participate in agricultural non-point source pollution control and rural environmental remediation. We must rally the strength of the whole society to promote the transformation of the agricultural development model and achieve the coordinated unity of economic, ecological, and social benefits.
Accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model means requiring and guiding the transformation and upgrading of modern agriculture with the concept of sustainability. We must act now, concentrate our efforts, and let agriculture truly become a wisdom industry of harmony between humanity and nature, a sustainable industry where development and ecology mutually reinforce each other, and a people-benefiting industry where increased production and income go hand in hand with environmental friendliness, providing an inexhaustible driving force and lasting support for the sustainable development of the entire country.