How to Use Agricultural Water Resources Efficiently in Arid Regions
“The water resources problem has become an urgent issue for our country to solve, and agricultural water use, which accounts for the largest share of the country's total economic and social water consumption, must follow the path of efficient water conservation.” The efficient use of agricultural water resources in arid and semi-arid regions became the focus of the China Democratic National Construction Association at this year's National “Two Sessions.”
The China Democratic National Construction Association pointed out in its proposal that China's agricultural water consumption accounts for about 62% of total economic and social water consumption, and the proportion is even higher in arid and semi-arid regions, which cover more than about 2/3 of the national land area. For every 0.1 increase in the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation, more than 30 billion cubic meters of water can be saved, representing huge water-saving potential, which is of far-reaching significance for alleviating the current contradiction between water supply and demand, developing ecologically friendly agriculture, and safeguarding national food security.
To further promote China's efficient water-saving irrigation efforts, the China Democratic National Construction Association suggests: governments at all levels should further raise their level of awareness, and raise their understanding of the efficient use of agricultural water resources from the strategic height of the country's sustainable development. The “National Efficient Water-Saving Irrigation Development Plan” should be organized and formulated as soon as possible, with the plan's tasks broken down and implemented down to provinces, prefectures, and counties, so as to provide a basis for the state to arrange subsidy funds and for local governments to integrate the use of agriculture-related and water-related funds, ensure that efficient agricultural water-saving construction is carried out in a unified manner in accordance with the already completed implementation plans, and improve the efficiency of fund use. The proposal puts forward the following specific suggestions:
——Further increase fiscal investment. Establish a long-term mechanism for investment in efficient agricultural water conservation. Establish a separate special investment subsidy plan. Increase investment in supporting facilities for efficient water-saving agriculture. Through fiscal subsidies, discounted loans, and other means, provide appropriate subsidies for efficient water-saving agricultural projects, and ensure that supporting funds for efficient water-saving irrigation projects are fully in place.
——Take measures suited to local conditions to achieve water saving, food security, and income growth in major grain-producing areas. In the national allocation of water resources, take into account the actual water shortage in major grain-producing areas and appropriately give preferential treatment to their relevant water source abstraction quotas. The state should increase the proportion of investment in large irrigation districts in major grain-producing areas and reduce local matching contributions. Raise the subsidy standards for various ecological projects such as afforestation and grassland ecological compensation and reward mechanisms.
——Promote the innovation and application of efficient agricultural water-saving technologies and achievements. For example, intensify research and development of degradable plastic film and focus on solving the problem of plastic film pollution. Produce as soon as possible low-priced degradable plastic film that can be applied on a large scale in engineering construction. At the same time, it is suggested that the state formulate and issue regulations for the recovery and use of plastic film, and through funding subsidies and policy support, encourage farmers to use 0.01 mm thick plastic film and recover it in a timely manner, and encourage enterprises to safely reuse recovered plastic film.
——Further innovate management mechanisms and gradually advance market-oriented reform. Highlight the basic attribute of state ownership of water resources, start with the division of water rights, do a good job in the top-level design of the system, use the verified area of the second round of land contracting as the baseline data, determine water rights on the basis of “land rights,” determine the initial water rights of farmers within the jurisdiction of irrigation districts, and use water rights trading centers as the platform and farmers' water user associations as the main body to carry out trading in an organized manner.