Scientific Fertilization Boosts Modern Agricultural Development
On October 22-23, the 16th National Fertilizer Information Exchange and Product Trade Fair, hosted by the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, was held at the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center in Guangxi.
Focusing on the theme of “advancing scientific fertilization and serving modern agriculture,” this Fertilizer Twin Fair organized activities including fertilizer product display and trading, a keynote report meeting, the “Farmers” Era Forum, national agricultural-enterprise cooperation formula fertilizer extension exchanges, and a national soil testing and formula fertilization work achievement exhibition. It attracted more than 500 fertilizer enterprises from across the country to exhibit, and numerous distributors and large-scale growers came to observe, with professional visitors exceeding 30,000.
Focusing on Product Innovation and Showcasing Ten Years of Achievements
The product display at this National Fertilizer Twin Fair set up five major exhibition areas: compound fertilizer, new-type fertilizer, fertilizer machinery, packaging equipment, agricultural materials products, and soil testing and formula fertilization achievements, concentrating on displaying new products, new technologies and new achievements of fertilizer and related production enterprises.
The reporter saw at the site that in addition to fertilizer products, there were also displays of soil improvers, soil water-retaining agents, straw decomposition agents, plant growth regulators, soil and fertilizer analysis and testing instruments, fertilizer processing and application machinery, agricultural water-saving and water-fertilizer integration facilities and other products. Among them, the display of new-type multifunctional fertilizer products occupied half the total, becoming a major highlight of this Fertilizer Twin Fair and demonstrating the achievements China’s fertilizer industry has made in independent research and development and product innovation.
The soil testing and formula fertilization project began implementation in 2005 and this year has entered its tenth year. During the Fertilizer Twin Fair, soil and fertilizer technology extension departments from across the country comprehensively displayed, through pictures, text, video, physical objects and other forms, the main achievements made in soil testing and formula fertilization work in various places over the past ten years.
Transforming the Development Mode and Advancing Scientific Fertilization
“Scientific fertilization can bring increased yield and improved benefits, while unreasonable fertilization can bring increased costs and environmental damage. Transforming the agricultural development mode, improving the utilization efficiency of agricultural inputs, and advancing scientific fertilization are inevitable choices for developing modern agriculture.” Zeng Yande, Director of the Planting Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, said at the opening ceremony of the Fertilizer Twin Fair that over the past decade, China’s grain output increased by 342.5 billion jin, vegetables increased by nearly 200 million tons, and fruit increased by 80 million tons. The sustained and stable growth of agricultural product output is inseparable from the role and contribution of fertilizers. Since 2005, the central government has strongly supported soil testing and formula fertilization, achieving remarkable results. According to estimates, the per-unit yield of major grain crops increased by 9%-10%, cumulative unreasonable fertilization was reduced by more than 10 million tons, and the fertilizer utilization rate reached more than 33%, 5 percentage points higher than in 2005. While achieving these results, rich experience has also been accumulated, laying the foundation for scientific fertilization.
To realize the Chinese Dream, the foundation lies in “agriculture, rural areas and farmers.” Zeng Yande said that a strong agriculture cannot do without the increased production and income brought by scientific fertilization; a beautiful countryside cannot do without the energy conservation and emission reduction brought by scientific fertilization; and prosperous farmers cannot do without the cost savings and efficiency gains brought by scientific fertilization. He hoped that with the platform of the Fertilizer Twin Fair, fertilizer research institutions, enterprises and users would join hands, strengthen exchanges, jointly plan the major strategy of scientific fertilization, advance the sustained and stable development of agriculture, and make new contributions to ensuring national food security.
Highlighting the Exhibition Theme and Taking the Pulse of Industry Trends
The keynote report meeting of the National Fertilizer Twin Fair has become an important stage for policy interpretation, information release and innovative thinking on industry development in China’s fertilizer industry.
At the keynote report meeting, Zeng Yande, Director of the Planting Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, gave a speech titled “Modern Agriculture and Scientific Fertilization,” explaining the development of modern agriculture and scientific fertilization in China. Chen Shengdou, Director of the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center, made a detailed analysis of the domestic chemical fertilizer market situation in 2014 and predicted the market trend for 2015. The paper “Higher Crop Yields at Lower Environmental Cost” by Professor Zhang Fusuo of China Agricultural University and others was published in the UK journal Nature and caused a huge response in the global industry. At the keynote report meeting, Professor Zhang Fusuo’s report based on this content pointed out the direction for the future development of scientific fertilization.
With the vigorous development of new-type agricultural business entities, large-scale growers, farmers, cooperatives and other new-type agricultural business entities are becoming increasingly active on the agricultural stage and have become a new force in developing modern agriculture. The traditional agricultural materials marketing model has entered an era of change, and fertilizer marketing has entered the era of farmers. The organizing committee of this National Fertilizer Twin Fair specially organized the “Farmers” Era Forum and Training. The training activity took “The Farmers Era: Looking Forward to Harmony among Soil, Fertilizer and the Environment” as its theme and organized more than 300 large-scale growers and farmers from areas around Nanning to attend, inviting relevant experts to explain scientific fertilization and soil fertility improvement techniques for crops such as rice, sugarcane, banana and citrus, and to publicize and popularize knowledge of scientific fertilization.