January 9, 2012

China to strengthen agricultural technology this year

China will focus on agricultural technology for this year's rural work in an effort to boost modern agriculture development and ensure farm production and supply, according to the annual central conference on rural work.

The Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC) issues agricultural development guidance in its first working document at the beginning of each year to stress the agriculture as the top priority of the government's work.

"As resource elements for grain production are tight, there is limited room for continuing to expand planting area and it's very difficult to keep enhancing the unit yield as well," said Han Changfu, the Minister of Agriculture.

"The agricultural production is also entering a high-cost stage with uncertainties in diesel supply and high level of labour cost," he added.

The country has become more and more dependant on imports of some farm products in recent years. China imports 80% of its soy demand. It also turns from a net corn exporter to a regular importer. Meanwhile, its cotton and sugar imports respectively accounts for around 20% and 15% of domestic consumption.

Scientific and technological advancement and transformation of the agriculture growth pattern will be the key and fundamental solutions to developing a modern agriculture, as environment and resources impose greater constraints, Han said.

The agricultural technology mainly includes research and development on seed breeding and production, and GMO technology, utilisation technology for fertiliser and pesticide, agriculture mechanisation, farm product processing. Experts say that the core is the seed technology, adding that China still has a big room in improving seed breeding and production technology.

The national plan for advancing the development and innovation of agricultural science and technology in the 2011-15 period also emphasises the development of seed breeding and agricultural machinery sectors. It specifies that China will exert great effort to speed up the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements and lift the contribution rate of agricultural technology to more than 55%, 3 percentage points higher than that at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).

Meanwhile, the plan also stresses that in the coming years, technological innovation remains the top priority for the stable development of China's agricultural sector, especially for innovation in seed breeding, and R&D of the mechanisation of agricultural production.