Organic agriculture still has great room for development in China
Our newspaper, Luotian, Hubei, May 15 (Reporter Lei Yu, Correspondents Zhang Chaozhen, Liu Shimin) “With China accounting for 1/5 of the global population, its fertilizer use accounts for 1/3 of the world's total.” Zhu Yingguo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at Wuhan University, pointed out that China's organic agriculture still has great room for development and needs innovative science and technology and the training of a large number of scientific and technological talents to usher in a brand-new development opportunity for organic agriculture.
Academician Zhu Yingguo made the above remarks at the First China Organic Agriculture Conference held today. The conference was hosted by the Hubei Zhonglv Organic Agriculture Research Institute and attracted nearly 300 people from inside and outside the industry, including experts and scholars, investment and financing experts, agricultural entrepreneurs engaged in agricultural product production, and e-commerce operators from all over the country. Participants held discussions on multiple focus topics, including the strategic adjustment of China's rural economic structure, the current status and future development opportunities of the agricultural economy, organic agriculture branding and marketing promotion, and agricultural internet thinking, exploring the path of healthy and sustainable agricultural development.
Zhou Zejiang, world council member of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and vice chairman of its Asia Council, pointed out at the conference that organic agriculture has entered the 3.0 era and requires intensive and thorough work in 3 aspects: protecting resources, especially farmers' resources such as land, water sources, and seeds; increasing influence by greatly promoting the development of organic agriculture to improve the ecological environment, such as combating soil erosion and responding to weather changes, thereby producing safe and high-quality food; and improving the transparency of all links in the development of the organic industry. It was introduced that China's organic farmland area ranks fourth in the world. In 2013, the organic farmland area increased rapidly, but per capita organic consumption was less than two euros, so it is necessary to adjust the structure, stabilize growth, and embrace a brand-new development opportunity.