Grain production must increase both output and quality

This year China's grain production has achieved an “eleventh consecutive increase”, a remarkable achievement secured against the backdrop of China's slowing economic growth, and one worth celebrating.

Yet amid the rejoicing, we must also recognize that although output keeps rising, compared with developed countries China's grain production still cannot shake off an extensive production model that relies on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and flood irrigation to raise yields. At present, China's average fertilizer application per mu is 21.2 kg, 4.1 times the world average; the average fertilizer utilization rate is around 30%, 20 percentage points lower than in developed countries. Grain production clearly shows the characteristics of “heavy farming, heavy water, heavy fertilizer”.

Fertilizer input is considerable, yet the utilization rate has been declining year after year, and it also easily causes soil compaction, leading to a decline in arable land quality. At present, the average organic matter content of China's arable soil is only 1.8%, down 0.35 percentage points from the early 1990s. Even the most fertile black soil in Northeast China has an organic matter content of only 2.9%, down 1 percentage point from the 1980s. The extensive farming model not only overdraws soil fertility and production capacity, but also very easily leads to farmland pollution, triggering safety problems such as excessive heavy metals in agricultural products.

⟦NL> China's annual grain output has stood firmly above the 1 trillion jin mark for seven consecutive years. In the future, while ensuring overall volume remains stable, we must pay even more attention to improving grain quality; while increasing “quantity”, we must also achieve “quality” excellence.

A key to “quality” excellence is to pay more attention to the quality and efficiency of grain production and, relying on good methods and good seed varieties, vigorously raise the contribution rate of science and technology in grain production. The experience of developed countries shows that when a country's per capita GDP enters the stage of 8,000 to 10,000 US dollars, the input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in grain cultivation will show a trend of not increasing but decreasing. At present, China is advancing toward this stage, and it is very important to abandon “heavy farming, heavy water, heavy fertilizer” and let science and technology become the main force in raising per-unit grain yields. Last year, the contribution rate of China's agricultural scientific and technological progress reached 55.2%, still a clear gap from the more than 90% of Germany, the United Kingdom, France and others, so there is still ample room for improvement in invigorating grain production through science and technology.

The most intuitive embodiment of “quality” excellence is to pay more attention to the quality of agricultural products. With the improvement of China's agricultural productivity and changes in the consumption structure, the relationship between supply and demand of China's agricultural products is gradually shifting from a seller's market to a buyer's market. After meeting the basic need for food and clothing, people are paying more and more attention to “safety on the tip of the tongue” and “deliciousness on the tip of the tongue”; they not only want to eat enough and eat well, but also want to eat healthily. Faced with this change in demand, only by shifting agricultural production from a primary pursuit of quantity to placing equal emphasis on quantity and quality can we better serve the people and promote the healthy development of agriculture.