Organic fertilizer utilization up 20%, Ministry of Agriculture releases national data
On October 29, the Ministry of Agriculture held a national on-site meeting on farmland quality construction in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. It was learned at the meeting that next year the Ministry of Agriculture will vigorously advance the protection and improvement of farmland quality, with soil fertility enhancement, soil improvement, nutrient balance, and quality restoration as the main contents, and with high-standard farmland project completion areas, cultivated land requisition-compensation balance project areas, and areas with prominent farmland quality problems as the implementation priorities, focusing on improving the intrinsic quality of farmland to lay a solid long-term foundation for grain and agricultural production.
The foundation of food security lies in farmland, and the key lies in farmland quality.
The meeting pointed out that the foundation of food security lies in farmland, and the key lies in farmland quality. Over the years, agricultural departments at all levels, while effectively carrying out farmland infrastructure construction, have actively advanced farmland quality construction, providing strong support for promoting consecutive years of grain production increases and the sustained and stable development of the planting industry, but a long-term mechanism for farmland quality protection has not yet been established. At present, degraded farmland accounts for more than 40% of total farmland area, the black soil layer in Northeast China is thinning, soils in the South are acidifying, the plow layer of the North China Plain is becoming shallower, and in particular some supplementary farmland is of relatively low quality grade and other problems, seriously affecting farmland output, while farmland pollution and long-term high-intensity, overloaded utilization also pose threats to the quality and safety of agricultural products and the sustainable development of agriculture.
The meeting emphasized that in the current and forthcoming period, for farmland quality construction work, in terms of development philosophy, it is necessary to strengthen the “two concepts” and improve the “two mechanisms”, namely establish the concept of “equal emphasis on quantity and quality” of farmland resources, establish the concept of a “quality red line” for farmland protection, improve the management work mechanism, improve the construction compensation mechanism, gradually achieve normalized, law-based and standardized farmland quality management, explore and promote the establishment of compensation policies for farmland construction and protection, and provide funding guarantees for farmland quality construction.
In terms of development goals, centering on achieving quantitative safety of agricultural products, quality safety of agricultural products and agricultural ecological safety, raise the level of field facilities and basic farmland fertility, improve the farmland quality environment, and ensure that by 2020, 800 million mu of high-standard farmland that is concentrated and contiguous and yields stable harvests despite drought or excessive rain will be built; basic farmland fertility will increase by 0.5 grades, soil organic matter content will increase by 0.5 percentage points; the utilization rate of organic fertilizer resources will increase by 20 percentage points, straw return to the field will reach 80%, zero growth in pesticide and chemical fertilizer use will be achieved, and problems such as farmland acidification, salinization and pollution will be effectively controlled.
In terms of development paths, coordinate the present and the long term, production and ecology, engineering and technology, and agricultural machinery and agronomy, and highlight the four key points of “improve, cultivate, protect, control”. Among them, “improve” means improving soil, with the focus on improving obstacle soils such as acidified and salinized soils and improving cultivation methods; “cultivate” means cultivating soil fertility, with the focus on increasing soil organic matter content and raising basic farmland fertility; “protect” means protecting water and fertilizer, with the focus on promoting soil testing and formula fertilization and integrated water and fertilizer management, advancing deep plowing and deep loosening, and promoting contour planting; “control” means controlling pollution and restoration, with the focus on controlling the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, blocking and controlling heavy metal and organic pollution, and controlling agricultural film residue.
The meeting required that the task of farmland quality construction is long-term and arduous, and agricultural departments at all levels must promote the formulation of plans related to farmland quality construction, actively coordinate and strive for funding input, make every effort to complete the designation of permanent basic farmland and the quality acceptance of supplementary farmland, effectively strengthen the construction of the farmland quality monitoring system, accelerate the legislative process for farmland quality protection, and make greater contributions to promoting stable grain production increases, sustained increase in farmers' incomes, and the sustained and healthy development of the agricultural and rural economy. Meeting delegates visited the Yangzhou City farmland quality construction site, the national soil testing and formula fertilization data platform, and the Jiangsu Province farmland quality management data center.