"Premature birth" data, "zombie" data, "beauty" data

　　Central environmental inspector approves fertilizer reduction in Dongting Lake area for fraud

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 28 (Reporters Qin Jiaofeng and Shi Weiyan) The county has reported the so-called statistical results on the direct reporting platform before the township has submitted it; it claims to have reduced the use of chemical fertilizers, but the reported figures have been the same for several consecutive years; The use of chemical fertilizers has actually increased, but statistics say it has decreased...

　　Recently, a reporter from "Xinhua Viewpoint" followed the Central Sixth Ecological Environmental Protection Supervision Group in the three cities of Yueyang, Changde, and Yiyang in the Dongting Lake District of Hunan Province and found that the locals concealed the truth in fertilizer reduction work and played “digital games” with fraud. Premature birth data, "zombie" data, and "beauty" data are often strange.

　　Statistics say “reduction” in successive years, but farmers say “no change”

　　The Dongting Lake Plain is the main rice producing area in my country, and agricultural non-point source pollution caused by chemical fertilizers is an important source of pollution in Dongting Lake.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the Action Plan for Pollution Control in Agriculture and Rural Areas in November 2018. It is proposed that by 2020, the use of fertilizers in the surrounding areas of Dongting Lake will be reduced by more than 10% compared with 2015.

　　Through comprehensive environmental improvement in recent years, the trend of environmental pollution in the Dongting Lake area has been curbed to a certain extent. However, the total phosphorus concentration of Dongting Lake, Yueyang Huarong East Lake, Changde Shanpo Lake, Yiyang Datong Lake and other lakes still exceeds the national level III water quality standard. The regional environmental pressure is huge.

The Communiqué of the Second National Pollution Source Survey published in June last year showed that the total phosphorus and total nitrogen emissions of the three cities in Dongting Lake District were 1,382 tons and 15,129 tons, respectively, accounting for 19.51% and 25.82% of the total emissions.

　　In the past two years, the three cities in Dongting Lake District have carried out fertilizer use reduction work.

According to statistics, after the 10% reduction target was proposed in 2018, the amount of fertilizer use in the three cities in the Lake District increased sharply from the previous month in 2019, and Yueyang and Yiyang even exceeded 10%.

Prior to this, the use of fertilizers in the three cities remained relatively stable for many years.

　　At present, the data of fertilizer use in 2020 has not been released, but comparing the fertilizer use in 2019 and 2015, Yiyang City in the three cities in the lake area has completed the goal of reducing the pollution by more than 10%, which is 16.2% ; Yueyang basically completed the target with a reduction of 9.9%.

　　However, the actual feelings of the local people are in contrast to the above-mentioned "beautiful" report card.

The reporter followed the inspection team on site visits in the three cities of the Lake District, and paid a return visit to nearly 30 farmers and major growers by phone.

The masses unanimously reflect that the use of chemical fertilizers has not decreased in recent years.

　　In Yuanjiang City, Yiyang City, the reporter learned about the fertilizer reduction of many farmers in the past two years based on the original record sheet of the follow-up survey of the fertilization situation of the farmers' plots provided by the Agriculture and Rural Bureau.

　　A farmer surnamed Shi in Yangluozhou Township said that three packages of compound fertilizer are required for each mu of two-season crops, each package is 80 kilograms, and the amount of fertilizer used per mu in the past two years is "similar."

　　In the land of Weidihu Township, Hanshou County, Changde City, a farmer who has grown more than 30 acres of vegetables introduced that he now mainly uses high-potassium compound fertilizer, which costs more than 200 catties per acre.

"If the fertilizer is not used heavily, it won't grow." In the past few years, the amount of fertilizer used "has not changed", and the temperature is low.

　　Strange statistics: "premature birth", "zombies" and "beauty"

　　The reporter followed the inspection of the inspection team and found that some grassroots departments were fraudulent in the process of fertilizer reduction, and there were many strange statistics in the statistics:

　　-"Premature birth" data.

　　Inspectors discovered that some county-level statistical departments have reported local fertilizer use on the direct statistical reporting platform even when the townships and towns under their jurisdiction have not yet reported the fertilizer use data.

　　The statistical online direct reporting platform shows that Hanshou County, Changde City reported data on February 3, 2021, and the use of chemical fertilizers in 2020 (equivalent to scalar amount) is 61,342.64 tons.

The person who filled out the form from the Hanshou County Statistics Bureau stated that the data reported was derived from the data reported by each township.

However, when the inspection team inspected the site on April 19, the Hanshou County Statistics Bureau could not provide a report on the amount of fertilizer used by each township in 2020.

　　The direct reporting platform shows that the Huarong County Statistics Bureau of Yueyang City reported on the amount of fertilizer used in 2019 on December 30, 2019, and the data was revised once on January 10, 2020.

However, a report from Wanyu Town for 2019 provided by the Bureau of Statistics showed that the filling date was January 16, 2020, which was later than the time when the platform data was finally reported.

　　-"Zombie" data.

　　According to the Huarong County Statistical Yearbook, Huarong County, Yueyang City used 172,060 tons of fertilizer in 2019 (physical amount), a decrease of 51,023 tons from 2018.

However, based on the data reported by 14 townships in Huarong County in 2019, the county used a total of 205,887 tons of fertilizers, which is 33827 tons higher than the data published in the yearbook.

　　What is even more puzzling is that, based on the statistical conclusion that is commonly called "decreased fertilizer use", the data reported by some townships has been exactly the same for several consecutive years.

The staff of Yushan Town, Huarong County provided three statistical tables showing that the town’s fertilizer consumption in 2016, 2019, and 2020 were all 31,680 tons.

According to the data provided by the Huarong County Statistics Bureau, in 2018, 2019, and 2020, the use of chemical fertilizers reported in Yushan Town was also 31,680 tons for three consecutive years.

　　-"Beauty" data.

　　According to the statistics of fertilizer application at field monitoring points in 2019 provided by Changde Agriculture and Rural Bureau, only 29 of the 112 monitoring points in the city applied organic fertilizer, and Hanshou and other places did not monitor the application of organic fertilizer.

However, according to the statistical table of chemical fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement technical measures provided by the bureau, Hanshou reported that it has achieved 977.4 tons of chemical fertilizer reduction through organic fertilizer replacement.

　　According to data provided by the Yuanjiang Agriculture and Rural Bureau, the local rapeseed area will be reduced by about 40,000 mu in 2020. Based on the reduction of 22 kilograms of fertilizer per mu, the total reduction will be 880 tons, accounting for 29.4% of the reduction that year.

However, according to the monthly report on the progress of soil testing and formula fertilization in various towns in Yuanjiang City, the rapeseed area in Yuanjiang City will actually increase by 50,000 mu in 2020.

　　The relevant person in charge of Yuanjiang Agriculture and Rural Bureau said that this situation was a "calculation error."

　　Household surveys are a mere formality, and the falsification of statistical data must be seriously investigated and dealt with

　　According to the "Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery Statistical Investigation System" of the National Bureau of Statistics, the use of chemical fertilizers is one of the conditions for agricultural production, and a comprehensive statistical reporting system is implemented.

　　A grass-roots statistical cadre admitted that in actual statistical work, the importance of data on fertilizer usage is not as good as GDP and fixed asset investment.

Some towns and villages report data, but report it verbally over the phone or via WeChat.

　　Hunan Province clearly requires household surveys on the application of soil testing and formula fertilization technology, but in some places the implementation is just a mere formality.

What's more, the Agricultural and Rural Bureau of Hanshou County not only failed to carry out relevant work seriously, but also temporarily fabricated false accounts to be payable to the inspection team.

　　According to the regulations on the responsibility of ecological and environmental protection in Hunan Province, the Provincial Statistics Bureau shall strengthen the construction of ecological civilization and the evaluation and monitoring of ecological environmental protection, and seriously investigate and punish the falsification of statistical data.

　　The inspection team believes that the party committees and governments of Yueyang City, Changde City, and Yiyang City do not fully understand the ideology of the three places, do not have a deep understanding of the relationship between fertilizer reduction and high-quality agricultural development, and do not have a deep understanding of the effect of fertilizer reduction on agricultural non-point source pollution control in Dongting Lake. The important significance of this is that the endogenous motivation to solve the agricultural non-point source pollution in the Dongting Lake area is not strong.

The implementation of agricultural and rural pollution control is not effective, and the fertilizer reduction work is not strict and untrue, perfunctory, and superficial.

　　In February 2019, on the basis of the National Action Plan for Pollution Control in Agriculture and Rural Areas, Hunan Province formulated and issued the "Implementation Plan for Pollution Control in Agriculture and Rural Areas in Hunan Province", again emphasizing the reduction target of fertilizer use in the surrounding area of ​​Dongting Lake and clearly defined requirements "Cities and prefectures formulate specific implementation plans or rules based on this document."

However, the inspector found that Changde City did not issue an implementation plan until August 2019, and Yueyang City and Yiyang City have not even formulated relevant plans so far.

　　The inspection team will further investigate and verify the situation, and do a good job of follow-up inspections as required.