What is the water saving potential of agriculture
Our reporter Ji Leilei
The Ministry of Water Resources recently published a "report card" of agricultural water saving: In the past 30 years, the average annual water consumption of agricultural irrigation in my country has basically remained at about 340 billion cubic meters, accounting for about 56% of the total water consumption of the whole society.
The irrigated area, which accounts for about 50% of the country’s arable land, produces 75% of the country’s total grain and more than 90% of cash crops.
Chen Mingzhong, director of the Rural Water Resources and Hydropower Department of the Ministry of Water Resources, said that with the expansion of irrigation area, the increase of irrigation guarantee rate, and the steady increase of total grain output, the total amount of agricultural water consumption in my country has basically remained stable, and water-saving irrigation is indispensable.
Water is the lifeblood of Tian, and water-saving irrigation is related to food security.
With the continuous increase of irrigated area, what is the potential of agricultural water saving?
What are the difficulties?
How to solve the problem of shortage of funds?
Water Runnongfeng irrigation results show
Right now, it's a critical period for grapes to grow and mature.
In the vineyard base in Huqiu Village, Xingqiao Town, Jizhou District, Ji'an City, Jiangxi Province, drip irrigation and water-saving technology is being applied to 300 acres of grapes in the garden.
Looking at the gratifying grapes, Xiao Qinggen, the head of the base, was delighted, "After the implementation of the drip irrigation technology, the quality of the grapes has been greatly improved, the taste is better, and the income can be increased by 500 yuan per acre."
The economic benefits brought about by water-saving irrigation are more intuitive at Yinma Farm in Changma Irrigation District, Yumen City, Gansu Province.
“In the past, field channels run, leaked, seeped, and leaked seriously. In the past few years, the farm has successively constructed 12 high-efficiency water-saving (drip irrigation) projects. For example, Zhao Fuqiang, deputy head of Yinma Farm, said that onions consume a lot of water. In the past, flood irrigation with flood water consumed 600 cubic meters to 800 cubic meters per mu. Now Drip irrigation under the film consumes nearly 300 cubic meters of water per mu, alleviating the shortage of agricultural water on the farm.
"my country's special natural conditions and water resources endowments determine agriculture's dependence on irrigation. Vigorously building water conservancy projects, improving irrigation and drainage engineering systems, and promoting water conservation in agriculture are the inevitable choice for economic and social development and an inevitable requirement for national food security. "Chen Mingzhong said.
Data show that my country's agricultural water saving has achieved remarkable results.
As of the end of 2020, the national water-saving irrigation area has reached 567 million mu, of which the efficient water-saving area of sprinkler irrigation, micro-irrigation, and pipeline water delivery irrigation has reached 350 million mu, and the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water across the country has reached 0.565, exceeding the 13th Five-Year Plan "The goals set out in the outline of the national economic and social development plan.
The continuous construction and water-saving transformation of large and medium-sized irrigation districts have continued to advance.
A number of ancient irrigation projects such as Dujiangyan, Jinghui Canal, Hetao Irrigation District and Qingtongxia have revived their vitality; a large number of new large, medium and small irrigation areas such as Pishihang, Jingdian, Changma, Yindaluqin, etc. are being built one after another.
my country's effective irrigated area has grown from 240 million mu in 1949 to 1.037 billion mu at present, making China the world's largest irrigated country.
"Large and medium-sized irrigation areas are the main battlefield for the production of my country's main crops of grain, cotton and oil, as well as the main front for agricultural water saving." Chen Mingzhong introduced that in recent years, irrigation area reconstruction and construction efforts have been further increased, and the irrigation area has been seriously ill and "stuck-necked" projects. It has been effectively transformed, the supporting rate of key projects and the rate of intact facilities have been significantly improved, and the construction of water-saving irrigation projects has been successfully transformed from demonstration and promotion to regional large-scale promotion.
Use water to determine the land and tap the water-saving potential
Agricultural irrigation is a big water user, and the water saving potential is also the greatest.
Facing the start of a new journey of building a modern socialist country, how to serve rural revitalization and agricultural and rural modernization, farmland water conservancy still faces many shortcomings and problems.
As far as large and medium-sized irrigation districts are concerned, trunk and branch canals and drainage ditches in large-scale irrigation districts have problems of aging and disrepair, and the installation rate of water measuring and measuring facilities is not high; the idea of rebuilding light pipes still exists, management systems and mechanisms are not perfect, and the level of information technology is still very high. Low; maintenance funding gap is large; the implementation of agricultural irrigation water prices have been maintained at a low level for a long time, the implementation of water prices accounted for about half of the operating cost of water prices, the actual collection rate of agricultural water fees is less than 70%.
Chen Mingzhong said that in the next step, the water conservancy department will first pay close attention to the problems existing in the development and reform of irrigation districts, and promote the modernization and refined management of large and medium-sized irrigation districts.
The water-saving potential of the irrigation area of the Yellow River Basin is mainly in the upper reaches, that is, in the northwest region, and the link of the potential is mainly in the water delivery link.
Chen Mingzhong said that it is necessary to coordinate the various elements of landscape, forest, field, lake, grass, sand, and implement ecological concepts, technologies, materials, and crafts into the entire process of irrigation area modernization, so as to achieve high-quality development of irrigation areas.
Focus on the main grain-producing areas and the irrigation areas of the Yellow River Basin, carry out key irrigation and drainage engineering facilities that affect the effectiveness of the irrigation areas and are seriously ill.
Second, we must strictly manage agricultural water use.
"The water conservancy department regards water resources as the most rigid constraint, insists on determining land by water, determining production by water, implementing the source control of water intake permits, and implementing total agricultural water use control and quota management." Chen Mingzhong said, all provinces in the basin should Revise and improve local water quotas as soon as possible, and establish a water quota system covering major crops.
Under the premise of ensuring the sown area, yield and reasonable water demand of food crops, the agricultural planting structure should be adjusted according to local conditions, and the planting area of high water-consuming crops should be appropriately reduced.
In addition, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of smart irrigation districts.
The Ministry of Water Resources plans to focus on the modernized irrigation districts during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and guide qualified irrigation districts to build a digital irrigation district system that includes functions such as weather forecasting, crop demand, drought monitoring, and water source dispatching, so as to gradually realize irrigation district management and water dispatching. Digitization, intelligence and intelligence.
Solve funding problems with both hands
Large-scale water-saving projects have huge capital needs.
In addition to increasing financial investment, it is important to further play the role of the market and mobilize the enthusiasm of social capital.
"We must improve and improve the rural revitalization investment and financing mechanism, and ask for money from the market; rely on technological innovations brought by market forces to ask for technology from the market; let professional people do professional things, improve professional operation and maintenance efficiency and service levels, and ask for efficiency from the market ." said Wang Haoyu, chairman of Dayu Water Saving Group Co., Ltd.
Relevant explorations such as the transformation of large and medium-sized irrigation districts and the development of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation have also achieved certain results.
With national financial support, Wuqing District of Tianjin introduced Dayu Water Conservation Group. Through the implementation of rural domestic sewage treatment projects, government and social capital cooperation (PPP) projects have achieved global and systematic governance. The coverage rate of 301 villages reached 100. %.
At the same time, it solved the old difficult problem of capital and technology management, made it affordable and sustainable, and realized the utilization of sewage as a resource.
PPP projects have become an important source of funds for agricultural water conservation.
As of the end of May this year, there were 1983 projects in the water resources field with an investment of 1.1 trillion yuan; 1385 contracted projects with an investment of 766.5 billion yuan; and 841 construction projects with an investment of 453.6 billion yuan.
"The PPP model is a new engine for agricultural water saving and rural revitalization." Jiao Xiaoping, director of the Ministry of Finance and the Social Capital Cooperation Center, said that the decisive role of the market in resource allocation must be brought into full play to improve water resource utilization efficiency.
At the same time, encouraging the mobilization of social capital to invest in agriculture and rural areas, giving full play to social capital's specialization and innovation and creativity, and insisting on co-construction, co-governance and sharing can effectively solve the problem of "where does the money come from".
Recently, the Ministry of Water Resources and the National Development and Reform Commission formally issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Major Agricultural Water-saving Water Supply Project Implementation Plan."
After the implementation of the plan, it is estimated that 15 million mu of effective irrigation area can be added to the newly built large-scale irrigation area, and 9.8 million mu of irrigation area will be improved; 124 irrigation areas that implement continued construction and modernization will be able to restore 7 million mu of irrigation area and improve irrigation area by about 7 million mu. 81 million mu, the annual increase in grain production capacity is 5.7 billion kilograms, and the total grain output will reach about 80 billion kilograms.
Chen Mingzhong said that in the future, the water conservancy department will "make efforts with both hands" on the basis of increasing government input, further innovate the investment and financing system and mechanism, make good use of local government special bonds, encourage and attract social capital to participate in project construction and operation, and raise funds through multiple channels. Implement project construction funds.