How to deal with cadmium pollution in rice-growing areas in southern China? National scientific and technological teams join forces for consultation
The issue of heavy metal pollution in agricultural products concerns the people's “food safety” and has become a focus of attention for the whole of society. On March 29, the launch meeting of the Innovation Action for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Heavy Metal Pollution in Rice in Southern China was held in Hunan, led and organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, with the nation's strongest expert team gathered together to “diagnose and consult” on heavy metal pollution, responding to social concerns with active action and providing technical support for ensuring grain production and the quality and safety of agricultural products.
According to Liu Zhongqi, project leader and researcher at the Agro-Environmental Protection Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, heavy metal pollution in China, especially cadmium pollution in rice in southern regions, has been formed by the superposition of many kinds of pollution over a long period, including water pollution, air pollution and solid waste pollution. It covers a wide range and a large area, and compared with air pollution and water pollution, it is not easy to detect, is highly concealed, persists for a long time, is cumulative, and is difficult to remediate. At present, research on heavy metal pollution prevention and control technology mainly remains at the level of single technologies, most of which are still in the research and trial stage, lacking integrated supporting technologies, with low economic efficiency, weak operability, limited scope of application and low actual remediation efficiency. Especially in the remediation of heavy metal pollution, mature comprehensive technical measures that suit China's national conditions, can be replicated and easily promoted, and are suitable for large-scale farmland treatment have not yet been found.
The prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in agricultural products is a long-term and arduous task. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to it and have made a series of arrangements for comprehensive prevention and control work. This year's No. 1 Central Document clearly proposed to effectively carry out heavy metal pollution prevention and protection work; recently the State Council specially approved the “Master Plan for Tackling Prominent Problems in the Agricultural Environment (2014-2018)” and the “National Plan for Sustainable Agricultural Development (2015-2030)”, making heavy metal pollution prevention and control an important part and putting forward clear requirements and target tasks.
Therefore, with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries and commissions, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences took the lead, breaking through the boundaries of departments, disciplines and institutions, and organizing cross-disciplinary and cross-field collaborative research. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences concentrated the country's advantageous forces and made the first regional development-type collaborative innovation action of its science and technology innovation project focus on the comprehensive prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in rice, and the comprehensive prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in rice first focused on the treatment of “cadmium pollution in rice”.
Chen Mengshan, Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that this collaborative innovation action launched the largest and strongest scientific research team in the country in recent years. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences alone invested more than 160 scientific and technological experts, and also integrated expert resources from Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi and other places, strengthening complementary advantages and solving practical problems. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences concentrated the country's top experts and worked closely together to carry out collaborative innovation in different links, from the characteristics and migration and transformation patterns of heavy metal cadmium pollution, to process prevention and control, end-of-pipe treatment and comprehensive prevention and control technology demonstration for heavy metal pollution in rice, striving to form a series of advanced, applicable and easy-to-implement technical systems suitable for different regions, and truly solving hot and focal issues facing sustainable agricultural development, such as heavy metal pollution, from the technical level, and providing technical support and services for government decision-making.