Action Plan for Zero Growth in Chemical Fertilizer Use, Ministry of Agriculture Pushes Forward with Focus

On May 19, the Ministry of Agriculture held in Beijing a meeting on advancing and implementing the “Action Plan for Zero Growth in Chemical Fertilizer Use by 2020”, to further implement the relevant requirements of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agriculture, unify thinking, and clarify tasks. The meeting emphasized that agricultural departments must fulfill their duties, take the initiative, and effectively put all work measures in place, so as to make new and greater contributions to advancing scientific fertilization, safeguarding national food security, and achieving sustainable agricultural development.

The meeting pointed out that the widespread use of chemical fertilizers has played an irreplaceable role in enabling China to achieve consecutive years of grain harvest increases and effective supply of important agricultural products, but excessive use of chemical fertilizers in some areas has also caused problems such as increased production costs, agricultural environmental pollution, and farmland degradation. Against the backdrop of increasingly tight resource and environmental constraints, great efforts must be made to advance scientific fertilization and effectively reduce the unreasonable use of chemical fertilizers. Carrying out the action plan for zero growth in chemical fertilizer use is a major measure for implementing the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee on “transforming the development model, adjusting the structure, promoting development, and benefiting the people”, and is also an important task for safeguarding national food security, transforming the agricultural development model, and achieving sustainable development, and is of great significance.

The meeting emphasized that the action plan for zero growth in chemical fertilizer use is a systematic project and an arduous task, which requires overall arrangement and comprehensive measures, and even more requires clear thinking, scientifically formulated goals, and practical and feasible measures. In terms of thinking, it is necessary to rely on scientific and technological progress, innovate service mechanisms, transform fertilization methods, deeply advance scientific fertilization, and take the path of sustainable development featuring high yield and high efficiency, cost savings and efficiency gains, and high quality and environmental protection; in terms of paths, it is necessary to advance precision fertilization, adjust the structure of chemical fertilizer use, improve fertilization methods, and replace part of chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers; in terms of goals and measures, it is necessary to achieve the “three improvements and one strengthening”, namely improving the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers, the utilization rate of organic fertilizer resources, and the basic soil fertility of farmland, strengthening the cultivation of new types of business entities, advancing appropriately scaled operations, and guiding scientific fertilization.

The meeting required that target tasks be refined, technical measures be made concrete, work responsibilities be strengthened, and multiple measures be taken simultaneously and through multiple channels, advancing region by region and implementing item by item, to solidly push forward the action plan for zero growth in chemical fertilizer use. At the broad level, all localities should actively take action, and in conjunction with work such as soil testing and formula fertilization, farmland quality protection and improvement, and high-yield creation, promote the action plan for zero growth in chemical fertilizer use; at the specific level, it is necessary to highlight key crops, key areas, and key links, carry out pilot projects for fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement, accumulate experience, explore models, and step up efforts to advance them, establish and improve the inter-provincial coordination and promotion mechanism for pilot projects on fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement for corn, vegetables, and apples, further improve the intra-provincial work promotion mechanism for pilot projects on fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement, and establish a performance assessment mechanism for the action plan for zero growth in chemical fertilizer use.