Good farmland is what makes it possible to produce high-quality organic agricultural products
Agricultural modernization is the fundamental direction of agricultural development. Modern agricultural development has three major goals, namely: quantity security, quality security and ecological security.
The “three securities” of modern agriculture - quantity, quality and ecology - create the conditions for organic agriculture
For quantity security, the primary task is to ensure the effective supply of grain and other major agricultural products. From 2004 to 2014, China's grain production enjoyed eleven consecutive years of bumper harvests. The “eleven consecutive increases” are a miracle and a standout highlight of agricultural and rural development. But the grain security situation we face remains very severe. In the next 7-8 years, the annual increase in grain demand will be around 20 billion jin. Besides grain, we must also ensure that everyone has cooking oil, vegetables, fruit, tea and clothing. Last year's Central Rural Work Conference clearly put forward the national grain security strategy under the new situation, namely the 20-character guideline of “rely mainly on ourselves, base ourselves on domestic production, ensure production capacity, import appropriately, and support with science and technology”. Therefore, ensuring supply remains the primary goal of agricultural production and development. The Chinese people's rice bowl must at all times be held firmly in our own hands, and our rice bowl should mainly be filled with Chinese grain.
⟦NL> For quality security, the key measure is to vigorously develop high-quality and safe agricultural products. The root and the key to the quality and safety of agricultural products both lie in the production stage. To raise the level of quality and safety of agricultural products, it is necessary to standardize the agricultural production process, vigorously develop standardized and clean agricultural production, develop pollution-free agricultural products, green food, organic agricultural products and geographical indication agricultural products, and strengthen the cultivation of high-quality agricultural product brands. In recent years we have carried out the establishment of standard horticultural crop gardens and implemented the “variety, quality, brand” three-quality improvement action for high-quality agricultural products, which has played a very good role in raising the level of quality and safety of horticultural crop products. We must also control fertilizer, control pesticides and control additives. Through deeply carrying out soil testing and formula fertilization, unified prevention and control of crop pests and diseases, and green prevention and control, we should promote simple and easy-to-learn technologies that farmers can understand at a glance, learn at once and see results from immediately, and guide farmers to apply fertilizer and pesticides scientifically.
For ecological security, the core requirement is to accelerate the transformation of the agricultural development model. Modern agriculture must not only meet the needs of the present generation and provide more and better agricultural products and a good ecological environment, but also leave space for survival and development for future generations. At present, the problems we face, such as tightening constraints on agricultural resources and worsening of the ecological environment, are very prominent. But in sharp contrast to the scarcity of resources, the agricultural production model remains very extensive: one side is hard up, while the other is wasteful, and if this goes on for long, we will inevitably eat ourselves out of house and home. We must grasp protection and truly reduce the excessive intensity of resource development. We should implement strict regulatory systems for agricultural resource development, for the production and use of inputs, and for compensation for environmental pollution damage and accountability; promote high-efficiency fertilizers and low-residue pesticides, and develop water-saving agriculture, dryland farming, circular agriculture and standardized large-scale breeding, using technology to promote sustainable agricultural development. We should accelerate the treatment of prominent agricultural environmental problems. We should increase investment, treat water and land, improve the agricultural production environment, and let the overdrawn agricultural resource environment gradually recuperate and achieve sustainable use.
Whether considered from the angle of quantity security, quality security or ecological security, the proposal of the modern agriculture path has pointed out the direction and created the conditions for the development of organic agriculture in China. Looking across the whole world, all developed countries have gone through a process of transition from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, and Chinese agriculture likewise cannot bypass the hurdle of resource, environmental and ecological constraints. If we do not begin now to proactively resolve ecological and environmental constraints and take the path of sustainable development, then in the next 5-10 years we will face an even more severe crisis of agricultural resources and the ecological environment.
Organic agriculture should focus on the “four excellences”
The development of organic agriculture in China began in the early 1990s. After 20 years of development, it has gone through a transformation of continuous market expansion, continuous expansion of bases and varieties, and gradual recognition by the government and the public. Generally speaking, China's organic agriculture is at a turning point from relying on exports to basing itself on the domestic market, and from dispersed single development to overall industry-wide promotion. It can be foreseen that the domestic market share of organic agricultural products will show a rapid upward trend in the next 5-10 years. But at present there are still quite a few problems in the development of organic agriculture. Because some enterprises seek quick success and instant benefits, domestic organic food has in recent years seen some problems of lacking integrity, which have already affected public trust in organic food.
The development of China's organic agriculture should closely revolve around the goals of “quantity security, quality security and ecological security”, base itself on the reality of agricultural production, strengthen technological research and integrated promotion, strictly enforce production procedure requirements, and explore different development models according to local conditions. The focus should be on the “four excellences”. First, choose a superior production environment. Clean and safe soil, water and air are the foundation for developing organic agriculture. Second, select excellent varieties. Cultivating and promoting product varieties suited to the reality of China's agricultural production through a combination of introduction and independent research and development is the key to developing organic agriculture. Third, apply high-quality production technologies. We should comprehensively promote ecological cultivation techniques such as trellis cultivation, yield control for quality improvement, fruit bagging, green prevention and control of pests and diseases, and full-ripe harvesting, as well as standardized production models such as facility-based, mechanized and labor-saving production. Fourth, cultivate excellent brands. We must firmly establish brand awareness, create a group of organic agricultural product brands recognized by consumers, make full use of various production and marketing matchmaking events, build display and promotion platforms, increase publicity, enhance brand visibility and raise market share.