Rice-fish symbiosis agricultural heritage astonishes senior UN official

Original headline: FAO Director-General Graziano visits Qingtian, Zhejiang

Rice-fish symbiosis system astonishes senior UN official

Online image caption: On June 5, UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Graziano came to Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, to inspect China's first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems protection pilot site - the Qingtian rice-fish symbiosis system. Photo by People's Daily Online reporter Xing Xue

San Nong Zhi Tong Che comprehensive report: Recently, after concluding the series of events of the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva immediately traveled from Xi'an to Qingtian, Zhejiang. Accompanied by Niu Dun, former Vice Minister of Agriculture and Ambassador of China's Permanent Representation to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies, and Huang Xuming, Vice Governor of Zhejiang Province, he inspected the Qingtian rice-fish symbiosis system, China's first Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) project. This was also his first dedicated inspection of a GIAHS protection project in Asia.

In June 2005, the Qingtian rice-fish symbiosis system was designated by the FAO as one of the first batch of 6 GIAHS protection projects, and it was also China's first.

GIAHS: Has won broad international consensus

"We proposed the initiative to protect Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems in 2002, with the aim of protecting the knowledge and experience accumulated by farmers around the world over thousands of years. We firmly believe that the precious heritage created by our predecessors will not only benefit the present generation, but also future generations," Graziano said.

Why have agricultural heritage systems survived to this day? Niu Dun pointed out that it is because they embody advantages such as high yield, good quality and strong disease resistance. While generating relatively high economic benefits, they also maintain a good interaction with nature, producing important ecological benefits.

Now in China, "both the central government and local governments attach great importance to this," Niu Dun said. This year's No. 1 Central Document clearly proposed "carrying out a general survey and protection of agricultural heritage." On March 30, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a notice, comprehensively deploying the general survey of agricultural heritage nationwide.

As for the protection of agricultural heritage, it is now winning more and more consensus. It is not only welcomed by many developing countries, but has also attracted the attention of some developed countries, and the influence of GIAHS is growing.

The "APEC Beijing Declaration on Food Security" adopted at the 2014 "Third APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Agriculture and Food" emphasized the need to "intensify efforts by all economies to protect agricultural heritage and support the efforts of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in relation to Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems."

The just-released "G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting Communiqué" pointed out that they "welcome the promotion of appropriate models conducive to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, including inheriting and carrying forward good agricultural practices, such as the work on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) carried out by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization."

Qingtian: Worthy of being the first protection pilot

During the inspection, Graziano visited the Fangshan Township Farming Culture Education and Exhibition Center with great interest, watched the "Fish Lantern Dance" and "Hundred Birds Dance" performed by primary school students and villagers, and excitedly experienced transplanting rice seedlings and releasing fish fry in the fields, and held discussions and exchanges with local farmers.

"I am very glad to see that China's traditional farming culture is still full of vitality, is very good for the protection of the natural environment, and is also a model of sustainable development." During the inspection, Graziano expressed appreciation for Qingtian's work from time to time. "I am pleasantly surprised by what I have seen here. The protection significance of this project has gone beyond agriculture itself. For example, it has brought many job opportunities and driven local tourism. It has set a global example for the rational use of resources without destroying the environment."

Liu Kun, head of Fangshan Township, told a reporter from China Science Daily that in order to improve the local capacity for agricultural heritage protection, expand production functions, and pass on farming culture, the local government has carried out a great deal of work and produced very good results. It has not only produced "Asian Model Farmer" figures such as Jin Yuepin, mobilizing farmers' enthusiasm for growing rice and raising fish, but has also, through various means such as building a "Farming Culture Park" at schools, compiling science education materials, and "Fish Lantern Dance" performances, helped children recognize the importance of agricultural culture from an early age and actively participate in protection and inheritance activities.

Min Qingwen, current chairman of the FAO GIAHS Scientific Advisory Group and deputy director of the Center for Natural and Cultural Heritage Research at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has long been responsible for implementing the GIAHS China project, told reporters that thanks to the heritage site brand and protection measures, compared with 2005, although the income of villagers in Longxian Village has now increased and their housing has improved, the area of rice-field fish farming has not decreased. This is truly rare in an era of rapid urbanization and industrialization.

"In the past, farming cattle were eliminated; now, farming cattle are protected," Yang Dahai, director of the Industrial Affairs Division of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture, joked. He had previously served for many years as director of the agricultural machinery bureau, and one of his current tasks is agricultural heritage protection. For him, who came from a plant protection background, this is also work he is very interested in.

Protection: Special attention should be paid to functional expansion

Agriculture not only embodies economic functions, but also has many other functions, such as ecological, cultural and social functions, and these are even more prominent in agricultural heritage sites. In Min Qingwen's view, 11 years of China's protection practice shows that agricultural heritage sites are the best testing ground for developing multifunctional agriculture and promoting the integration of the "three industries."

"There should be a sense of urgency in agricultural heritage protection; this is a very valuable treasure," Yang Dahai observed. China's "three industries" are developing relatively quickly, and homogenization in leisure agriculture is widespread, with single content and a lack of core competitiveness, while agricultural heritage sites have unique advantages. For developing leisure agriculture and rural tourism, agricultural heritage is a very good lever for enhancing the soft power of agricultural culture and the competitiveness of the rural economy. In turn, developing leisure agriculture and rural tourism helps better explore the connotations of agricultural heritage.

Graziano suggested that consideration should be given to carrying out unified planning for all of China's GIAHS, creating a unified brand, establishing a tourism route network, and advancing the development of rural tourism in heritage sites. "This is very attractive to people accustomed to traditional tourism." (Reporter Wang Hui)

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