Promoting green pest control technology requires clearing three hurdles
Based on earlier exploration and practice, several years ago, Kecheng District of Quzhou, Zhejiang, successfully established a “national-level demonstration zone for quality and safety of agricultural products for export food (citrus)”, and was also designated a “national demonstration zone for green crop pest and disease control”. Through the demonstration-driven approach, the results have also been quite notable, and Kecheng has built 39 registered citrus export bases. But at present, the application of green citrus pest and disease control technology in Kecheng is limited to export bases only, and its share remains rather small. There are three reasons why promotion is difficult.
⟦NL> First, the cost is relatively high. According to calculations, applying green control requires an initial investment of 230 yuan per mu, plus certain later operation and maintenance costs, while the pesticide cost of chemical control is 137 yuan per mu. For large growers, because pesticide and labor costs are effectively saved, it is generally acceptable; but for many smallholders, since they mostly apply pesticides themselves, labor costs are naturally not counted as a cost, so when facing the considerable one-time investment, they often shrink back.
Second, the pest and disease monitoring system is not complete enough. At present, across the citrus bases of more than nearly 200,000 mu in the whole of Kecheng District, there is only one pest and disease monitoring point, and the technical service team is very weak, resulting in the assembly, matching, optimization, integration, promotion and application of green control technology still needing further improvement.
Third, the spraying equipment for unified citrus pest control lags behind. The reporter saw in many farmers' homes that the citrus spraying equipment currently used is still the boom type from more than 20 years ago, and even the more advanced ones use a small gasoline engine to drive a plunger pump as power. Although equipment such as unmanned plant protection drones and dusters has long been available, due to the lack of matching pesticides, it is difficult to put them into practical application, and low operating efficiency has long seriously restricted the development of unified citrus pest control.
As Zheng Lizhen, head of the Kecheng District Plant Protection and Quarantine Station, said, unlike traditional agricultural technology promotion, the promotion of green control technology is obviously more complex, and only by continuously innovating in policies, mechanisms, and methods can farmers' enthusiasm be fundamentally activated. Once farmers feel that applying new technology is profitable, the promotion work will naturally fall into place.