What can an academic conference bring to the fields?
The 2015 Sixth National New Fertilizer Academic Symposium was recently held in Jinan, Shandong. What practical problems can an academic conference on new fertilizers actually solve for fertilizer reduction and agricultural production? After listening to the conference for a day and a half, the reporter discerned the efforts of the participating experts - adjusting research and development direction to serve the fields.
Since their birth, new fertilizers have naturally carried a "blue-blooded" image of high cost. Making new fertilizers affordable and bringing them into large fields is not only necessary for agricultural modernization and fertilizer reduction, but also one of the ways for the fertilizer industry to improve quality and efficiency.
The "three major issues" raised by Dr. Shen Bing, conference organizer and director of the New Fertilizer Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science, pointed directly at large-field production. He said that by 2020 China will achieve zero growth in fertilizer use, and this goal is pushing the fertilizer industry to accelerate transformation and upgrading, while new fertilizers face unprecedented development opportunities. Zero growth in fertilizer use must rely on "major products, major formulations, and major crops." "Major products" refers to conventional urea, diammonium phosphate, potassium chloride and other nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium single-element fertilizers and conventional compound fertilizers; these products should be modified to enhance efficiency and improve utilization efficiency. "Major formulations" refers to soil-testing formula fertilization for compound fertilizers, with broad formulation ranges, strong adaptability within large regions, large-scale production at bases, and relatively low production costs. "Major crops" refers to crops planted over large areas and broad ranges, such as corn, rice, wheat, cotton, vegetables, and fruit trees; these crops have wide planting regions and large fertilizer demand. Shen Bing believes that only by solving these three major issues can fertilizer utilization efficiency be improved and zero growth be guaranteed.
Researcher Zhao Bingqiang, chief scientist of the new fertilizer team at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and also a leading figure of the "Fertilizer Value-added Industry Technology Innovation Alliance," delivered a report full of the atmosphere of bountiful harvests in the fields. He said that value-added fertilizer is a type of efficiency-enhancing fertilizer, specifically referring to fertilizer-modified efficiency-enhancing products produced by adding natural active substances such as alginic acids, humic acids, and amino acids during fertilizer production. From 2014 to 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture used new value-added fertilizer products including zinc humic acid urea and zinc humic acid ammonium phosphate in high-yield wheat demonstration counties in 17 provinces across the country. In Dezhou, Shandong, they cooperated with the municipal agriculture bureau to set target yields in 12 counties and urban districts of 800 kg per mu for winter wheat, 1000 kg per mu for summer corn, and 1800 kg per mu overall. In 2014, farmer Zhang Xinyue in Linyi County applied zinc humic acid urea and diammonium phosphate and achieved a wheat yield of 701 kg per mu, and was praised as that year's "Wheat Grain King." He believes that building China's green fertilizer system requires the drive of scientific and technological innovation and the research, development, and production of new fertilizers with environmental and yield-increasing benefits.
Professor Cao Yiping of China Agricultural University, who has answered farmers' fertilizer technology consultation calls for 10 years, first emphasized farmers' feelings and reactions. She said that although China's new fertilizers are developing rapidly, the scientific evaluation system is weak, the market is chaotic with mixtures of true and false, superior and inferior products, and there are many new fertilizer terms, making it difficult for farmers to judge and causing them to shrink back. To help farmers use new fertilizers well and ultimately obtain benefits, full-process agrochemical services are very important. Production and sales enterprises and grassroots agricultural technicians need to work together to provide full-process services, and especially must value after-sales service; otherwise problems easily arise.
Chen Mingliang, deputy director of the Fertilizer Institute of the Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry, believes that new fertilizers include slow/controlled-release fertilizers, biological fertilizers, commercial organic fertilizers, multifunctional fertilizers, efficiency-enhancing fertilizers, and water-soluble fertilizers. Looking at China's existing fertilizer standards by product variety, there are 28 standards for other and new fertilizers, accounting for 15% of the total. At present, the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Fertilizers and Soil Conditioners is drafting 18 fertilizer standards and planning to revise 16, which will comprehensively consider trends in fertilizer field application such as high efficiency, compounding, long-lasting effect, diversification, multifunctionality, and low carbonization.
To truly bring new fertilizers into large fields and solve the problems of fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement, not only farmers need science popularization, but enterprises also need science popularization. Researcher Bai Youlu, chairman of the Chinese Society of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Science, pointed out that the society should base itself on the construction of the national fertilizer system, clearly serve the industry, and jointly build science popularization bases with enterprises. In fact, enterprises very much need strengthened theoretical guidance, because many "innovations" appeared more than a hundred years ago, and scientific application is always more practically valuable than "hype." Enterprises should devote more energy to serving grain yield increases and contributing to environmental safety and sustainable agricultural development. Peers especially need tolerance, because encounters are always brief, while healthy competition and cooperation will last longer.
An academic conference is also brief, but like a focusing lens it gathers insights and a pragmatic spirit from all sides. If deeply explored, its impact on agricultural production will be realistic and far-reaching.