The area where formula fertilizer has been applied has reached 360 million mu-times

Since the beginning of this year, agricultural departments at all levels have carried out the soil testing and formula fertilization project in depth, focusing closely on the core task of promoting formula fertilizer, actively exploring new methods and new approaches such as agricultural enterprise cooperation, smart fertilizer blending terminal construction, and mobile phone information services, and vigorously guiding enterprises, new-type agricultural business entities and socialized service organizations to participate in the production, supply and service of formula fertilizer, which has driven the large-scale promotion and application of formula fertilizer. According to statistics, in the first half of the year, the national consumption of formula fertilizer for major grain crops was 5.3 million tons (converted to pure nutrients), and the applied area was 360 million mu-times, up 17.8% and 20% respectively compared with the same period last year; formula fertilizer already accounted for about 40% of the total fertilizer applied to major grain crops.

Relying on large enterprises and connecting with major cities and counties in advantageous production areas, demonstration models for agricultural enterprise cooperation in promoting formula fertilizer were created. Since 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture has carried out the agricultural enterprise cooperation action to promote formula fertilizer for 3 consecutive years, adopting the “100 enterprises linked with 100 counties” approach, and organizing more than 200 large and medium-sized fertilizer enterprises nationwide to produce and supply formula fertilizer for 100 counties advancing soil testing and formula fertilization as a whole. This year, the Department of Crop Production Management of the Ministry of Agriculture selected 19 major grain and cash crop counties and cities in 11 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Shandong and Henan, and cooperated with Sinochem Fertilizer Co., Ltd. to carry out the “creation of demonstration counties for agricultural enterprise cooperation in promoting formula fertilizer”, jointly building a group of typical models of scientific fertilization and exploring effective models for bringing formula fertilizer into villages, households and fields.

⟦NL> Relying on smart fertilizer blending terminals to meet individualized fertilization needs and build a grassroots formula fertilizer distribution and service network. Smart fertilizer blending terminals are fertilizer supermarkets and fertilizer “gas stations” built in the fields, and can better meet the requirements of fast, convenient fertilizer demand and use in agricultural production. In 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine jointly issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Formula Fertilizer”, giving a series of support policies to the development of smart fertilizer blending terminals and creating favorable conditions for the construction of grassroots fertilizer blending outlets.

Relying on information technology and applying the soil testing and formula fertilization expert system, an information service platform for promoting formula fertilizer was built. Since the implementation of the soil testing and formula fertilization project, all project counties (farms) have taken bringing soil testing and formula fertilization information such as fertilizer formulas and fertilization guidance opinions into households as a key task, adopting methods such as “formula cards into households and fertilization guidance opinions posted on walls” to let farmers understand reasonable fertilization amounts and fertilization methods. So far, more than 900 million fertilization recommendation cards have been distributed. At the same time, all localities have effectively strengthened the construction of the soil testing and formula fertilization expert system, using information technologies such as the internet, mobile phone text messages and touch screen inquiries, and adopting voices farmers can understand, information farmers can read and methods farmers can receive, to guide farmers in choosing and using fertilizer.