The practice of relying on chemical fertilizers to boost crop yields has been severely overstretched

For a long time, China's agricultural situation has been one of a large population and little arable land. According to statistics from relevant departments, China's population increases by an average of 17 million per year, yet the area of arable land is gradually decreasing. In the past, there was even a year in which arable land shrank by 10 million mu. Although in recent years the relevant state departments have implemented numerous protective measures, the reduction of arable land still cannot be ignored.

Under such circumstances, how can the demands of industrial development and of a growing population for agricultural products be met?

"The only feasible way for China to increase agricultural output is to raise the yield per unit area," said Liu Haiming, general manager of Beijing Aerospace Hengfeng Technology Development Co., Ltd. He stated that increasing yields is closely related to many factors and management practices, including crop varieties, fertilizers, climate and farming systems, among which fertilizers are closely tied to yield; without sufficient fertilizer, it is difficult to raise crop yields. Without sufficient grain and feed, it is also impossible to produce large quantities of livestock, poultry and aquatic products, and humanity cannot obtain enough high-quality food. Therefore, it can be said that fertilizer is the food of crops.

The application of organic fertilizer is a traditional concept in China's agricultural production. From 1950 to 1960 after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the vast majority of the country's fertilizer resources relied on organic fertilizer to supply crop needs. But relying purely on organic fertilizer as the nutrient source for crops made it difficult to raise yields and could not solve the problem of feeding the entire population; the most painful lesson was that many people starved to death at the time in places such as Anhui and Shandong.

To make up for this problem, after China began introducing large amounts of chemical technology, the rapid increase in chemical fertilizer use caused the proportion of organic fertilizer to decline. According to statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, from 1960 to 1970, world grain output nearly doubled, of which grain produced by expanding the sown area accounted for 22%, while grain produced by raising the yield per unit area accounted for 78%. Of the increase in per-unit yields, the role of chemical fertilizer application accounted for 40%-60%. Undoubtedly, the use of chemical fertilizers has played a huge role in increasing both the yield and income of China's agriculture.

However, the massive use of chemical fertilizers in later periods also brought a series of problems. For example, the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is now less than 30%, and the remaining portion is leached into the ground under rainfall and irrigation conditions, thereby polluting groundwater. This not only causes enormous economic waste but also has an enormous impact on the environment, causing the nitrate content in groundwater to rise rapidly. As is well known, nitrates are precursors of nitrosamines. To date, as many as 300 kinds of nitrosamines have been discovered, of which 90% have been proven to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic, seriously threatening human health.

Moreover, the massive application of chemical fertilizers also causes the drawbacks of declining soil fertility, soil compaction and continuously rising agricultural production costs, and relying on chemical fertilizers to achieve increased yields and income has become unsustainable. It is precisely under such circumstances that Aerospace Hengfeng has been striving to explore effective ways to improve fertilizer utilization, achieve increased yields and income, and improve the soil environment. It is also precisely because of its precise control and unique insights regarding sustainable agriculture, along with ten years of consistent technological innovation, that the microbial fertilizers produced and developed by Aerospace Hengfeng have opened a new path and set sail into blue oceans in the global market economy.

Regarding how microbial fertilizers can raise yields and achieve increased output and income, Liu Haiming said: First, during the life activities of microorganisms in the soil, the microbes in bacterial fertilizer produce large amounts of hormone-like substances; after these substances come into contact with plant roots, they can effectively regulate crop metabolism and stimulate crop growth. Second, the rich organic matter can also improve soil aggregate structure and reduce soil compaction, thereby making the soil loose, which is conducive to aeration, water retention, fertilizer retention and root development, providing crops with a suitable microecological growth environment. Third, the microbes in bacterial fertilizer grow and reproduce in large numbers at plant roots, thereby forming dominant microbial communities, inhibiting and reducing the opportunities for pathogenic bacteria to invade and reproduce, and playing a role in alleviating crop diseases. There is no doubt that all of these provide the most basic guarantee for raising crop yields.

At present, Aerospace Hengfeng's microbial inoculant products have already been widely applied in tobacco bases in Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing, in potato planting bases in Zhangjiakou, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, in the **Construction Corps' 4th, 5th, 10th and 13th Agricultural Divisions, as well as in Shandong's soil testing and formula fertilization and integrated water-fertilizer projects, with remarkable yield-increasing effects. According to local agricultural technology extension personnel in **Altay, the winter wheat there using Aerospace Hengfeng's highly concentrated inoculant products has basically increased its yield by more than 20%, which can be described as injecting a new force at a time when grain yields are gradually declining.