Promoting New-Type Fertilizers: Find the Right Approach and You'll Achieve Twice the Result with Half the Effort
China is a major country in fertilizer production and consumption, as well as a major country in fertilizer innovation and development. In recent years, China's fertilizer market has essentially been regulated independently by domestic forces, without the impact and influence on our market from multinational conglomerates that the seed and pesticide industries have encountered. The fundamental reason is that new-type fertilizers have played a crucial role. At present, new-type fertilizers with independent intellectual property rights in China have become the most dynamic highlight, bright spot and selling point in the domestic market, forming an emerging fertilizer industry with unique Chinese characteristics.
1 Soil testing and formula fertilization drives a surge in fertilizer technology innovation
New-type fertilizers are improvements, refinements and innovative breakthroughs based on traditional fertilizers, and are a concentrated reflection of scientific and technological progress in the fertilizer industry. Since the Ministry of Agriculture launched the soil testing and formula fertilization initiative nationwide in 2004, over the past 10 years, new-type fertilizers have emerged in large numbers in China, becoming the most active group in the innovative development of the agricultural inputs industry. The core content of the large-scale emergence of new-type fertilizers is innovation in fertilizer technology, including: innovation in raw materials (such as the combination of macro, secondary and trace elements; the combination of organic and inorganic materials; the addition of functional components and additives, etc.), innovation in process technology (such as high-tower granulation, chemical synthesis, fermentation preparation, etc.), and innovation in product design (such as slow and controlled-release fertilizers coated in layers with different materials, water-flush fertilizers suitable for channel irrigation, fully soluble instant drip irrigation fertilizers, and pesticide-fertilizer products that also provide pest and disease control, etc.). Most critically, the large-scale implementation of soil testing and formula fertilization in China has greatly promoted innovation in people's thinking and concepts.
Market demand is the source of momentum for the rapid development of new-type fertilizers. In recent years, China's traditional bulk chemical fertilizer capacity has been excessive. Especially today, with soil testing and formula fertilization that supplements whatever is deficient and with diversified demand, single-nutrient, fixed-ratio, mass-produced fertilizers have created a contradiction between the mass production of large fertilizer enterprises and the individualized needs of farmer users. Logistics channels that once flowed smoothly have encountered blockages, becoming the weak point and vulnerability of bulk chemical fertilizers. Blending fertilizer according to formula and secondary processing, turning bulk fertilizers that previously went directly into farmland into raw material fertilizers, has become a trend in the development of the fertilizer industry. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture released regional formulas, which to some extent accommodated both the fertilizer quality of large enterprises and the technical needs of agricultural production, and the supply-demand contradiction was somewhat eased. Even so, new-type fertilizers with multiple added functions, due to their strong targeting, remain a hot selling point welcomed by farmer users.
2 Promoting new-type fertilizers requires attention to methods and approaches
Promoting new-type fertilizers requires attention to publicizing comprehensive benefits, and fertilizer price should not be the criterion for evaluation. New-type fertilizers often have relatively higher costs due to complex processes, high technological content, and investment in development and production, which naturally makes their prices higher than traditional fertilizers, becoming an unfavorable factor for farmers' voluntary acceptance and application. In earlier years, slow and controlled-release fertilizers, because of their high price, were called "aristocratic fertilizers" by farmers, fertilizers they could not afford, and were not accepted, facing great resistance. In response, the National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center focused its promotion strategy on publicizing the concepts that "the fertilizer price is high, but the benefits after use are even higher" and "high input, high output," and helped farmers do two calculations: first, one-time fertilization, effective throughout the growing period, saving labor, effort, worry and cost; second, the slow release of fertilizer effects improves fertilizer utilization efficiency, which is equivalent to saving fertilizer and reducing waste. Especially in the Northeast, where the "one-shot" fertilization method is customary, the effect of increasing yield and income is very obvious, and the overall calculation is more cost-effective than using other fertilizers. The National Agricultural Technology Extension Service Center organizes a national on-site exchange meeting every year. After three or four years of effort, slow and controlled-release fertilizers gradually gained acceptance among farmers and became a popular fertilizer for ordinary people.
⟦NL> High-priced fertilizers should first be used on high-efficiency crops. In the early stages of promoting slow and controlled-release fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers and integrated water-fertilizer technology, all followed this path. Greenhouse vegetables, fruit trees and horticulture, because of their high income and good returns, make farmers willing to invest, unafraid of high fertilizer prices, and seeking only good fertilizer quality. Years of practice have proven that using high-efficiency crops as initial demonstration bases before large-scale promotion is the necessary path for new-type fertilizers to enter the extension field, and is also the best entry point for organizing promotion and application.
The promotion of new-type fertilizers should also start from the most suitable regions. In order to fully demonstrate the functional advantages of new-type fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers should be combined with integrated water-fertilizer technology as much as possible; slow and controlled-release fertilizers should be applied as much as possible in the main production areas of tall-stalk crops and crops where topdressing is inconvenient; fertilizers with soil-loosening, water-retaining and cold-resistant functions should preferably be used in arid, semi-arid and areas with insufficient irrigation conditions. Therefore, choosing the right region is half the battle for successful promotion.
It is important to combine with major projects currently being promoted and implemented on a large scale. For example, combining with soil testing and formula fertilization projects, with high-yield grain creation initiatives, with high-standard farmland and standard orchard construction, and with projects such as the Northeast water-saving and grain-increasing project. Integrating into national major projects is equivalent to entering the expressway of promotion and application.
New-type agricultural operating entities should be taken as demonstration users, promotion backbones and service priorities. The common characteristics of large-scale farming households, family farms and farmer planting cooperatives are: relatively large production scale, educated and experienced, technically proficient and good at management, proactively embracing new science and technology, and having strong influence and driving force locally, capable of playing a good demonstration and promotion role. Therefore, they should be the focus of new-type fertilizer distribution and services.
3 Testing and demonstration of new-type fertilizers should not be oversimplified
Correctly understand and recognize the "three-step" sequence of testing, demonstration and promotion. This is an issue that should not be a problem, but the realities we encounter in daily work remind us that it still needs attention. Some fertilizer enterprises I have come into contact with in my work still have significant deviations in their understanding and recognition of the three-step sequence required for new-type fertilizers to enter the promotion field. Especially when discussing arrangements for testing, I encountered many refusals, saying it was unnecessary, that testing had already been done and results obtained. But when asking in detail about which regions, which crops, and who conducted the tests, problems emerged: first, some oversimplify and proceduralize promotion work, testing only a single crop, thinking that if a test was done on corn, it could be promoted on wheat and other crops; second, test sites are not representative, thinking that if a test was done in one county, it could be promoted across the province or even the whole country, and some set up no plot replication, with controls that lack comparability; third, the testing units are not qualified, being either village groups or individual farmers, or the enterprise's test plan is unprofessional, the test report is non-standard, and some test result reports do not even have an official seal, and simply cannot serve as scientific and technological basis for demonstration and promotion. Applied testing is the first step into promotion. Having tests on different crops also requires tests on different varieties. Even for the same variety of the same crop, tests are needed under different yield targets, different soil conditions, different regional types and different fertilization methods. When problems are encountered during promotion, further testing is needed. Therefore, testing is not accomplished overnight; it must accompany the entire process of promotion activities. Applied demonstration is the display of mature technology on the basis of standardized testing, and also the verification and improvement of supporting technologies. It is like the pilot testing stage in industry; only after success can it enter promotion. Therefore, testing, demonstration and promotion must follow a sequence, and also form a mutually dependent and organically integrated unity. They should be scientifically recognized, correctly understood and implemented in a standardized manner.
The evaluation of fertilizer use effects needs to be standardized. For many years, China's agricultural technology extension work has been carried out vibrantly and has become the main force in invigorating agriculture through science and technology. However, the evaluation system for extension effectiveness that supports extension work has not yet been fully established and widely applied, resulting in the lack of unified and standardized evaluation criteria and management measures for the application effects of fertilizers and technologies, becoming a weak link in the promotion of new technologies, new achievements and new products. In particular, some achievement development units tend to cite extreme data in external publicity, using a single point to represent the whole, which is counterproductive, reduces credibility and affects promotion.
Enterprises should take on the primary role in promoting materialized technologies. The Agricultural Technology Promotion Law has clarified the "one main body, multiple participants" model for China's agricultural technology promotion. With social progress and changing circumstances, the leading role of the national agricultural technology extension service system will certainly be further strengthened. However, the primary role in more frontline practical agricultural technology extension service activities should be played by enterprises, especially in the promotion and service of materialized technologies. Therefore, in the promotion of fertilizers and technologies, enterprises should particularly strengthen their awareness of social responsibility, focus on credibility building, create more public-interest atmosphere, downplay commercial overtones, track after-sales effects, and serve agriculture wholeheartedly. This is an obligatory duty for enterprise survival and development under the new situation.