It is time to accelerate the construction of an agricultural powerhouse - Scholars from the Alliance of Young Scientists on Global Food Security share their views
Recently, Laixi City, Shandong Province has strengthened and improved the digital management level of agricultural production, and built a multi-dimensional digital agricultural planting guarantee model that integrates sky and ground to serve the field.
The picture shows pilots operating plant protection drones to spray in the Digital Agriculture Industrial Park in Xiagezhuang Town, Laixi City (February 2, drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng
【Today's Viewpoint】
◎ Zhang Jiaxin, reporter of this newspaper
Farming for Bunben, Bengu Bunning; Farming is the outline of the country. An agricultural power is the foundation of a modern socialist power.
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China drew up a grand blueprint for building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and proposed for the first time to accelerate the construction of an agricultural power.
This year's Central Document No. 1 further proposed to build an agricultural power with strong supply security, strong science and technology equipment, strong management system, strong industrial resilience and strong competitiveness.
Building an agricultural power is not only an important measure for China to build a modern socialist power, but also an important part of the development of global agricultural modernization, which will certainly have a far-reaching impact on global agricultural development and food security. Recently, Chinese and foreign young scholars from the Global Alliance of Young Scientists for Food Security have had a heated discussion and exchange of ideas.
Consolidate the foundation of food security in all aspects
Consolidating the foundation of food security in an all-round way is the bottom-line goal of building an agricultural power, and it is also a strategic guarantee for promoting Chinese-style modernization. Mao Rui and Xu Runcheng of the China Rural Development Research Institute of Zhejiang University believe that the global supply chain of China's agricultural products has good resilience under multiple shocks and plays an important role in ensuring food security, but at the same time, it also faces multiple impacts in terms of external dependence, source concentration, seed industry and key technologies, which aggravates the potential risks of the global supply chain to China's food security.
Deer Rahut, vice chair of research at the Asian Development Bank Research Institute, stressed the need to invest more in cutting-edge agricultural technologies to improve the sustainability of production on its limited land. In addition, China should continue to invest in food storage and distribution systems to reduce food waste, such as investing in refrigeration facilities and efficient logistics networks to ensure that food is stored and transferred safely and efficiently.
Yang Dan, School of Economics and Management of Southwest University, believes that strong agricultural supply security ability is the basic characteristic of an agricultural power, and ensuring the effective supply of primary agricultural products is also the top priority in building an agricultural power.
Ensuring the stable supply of grain and important agricultural products has always been the top priority in building an agricultural power. Zhao Xia of the School of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University believes that it is necessary to base ourselves on the domestic and continue to improve production capacity from multiple angles such as pre-production, production, post-production, policy improvement, subject cultivation, and scientific and technological innovation.
Cultivate a team of talents for building a strong agricultural country
Young scientists are the most active and innovative force in global solutions to food and inequality, and will certainly be an agricultural powerhouse and a major force for global agricultural development.
Li Zhaohu of Huazhong Agricultural University said that the vast number of young people, especially young scientists, should be encouraged to do scientific research that stands tall and benefits the people, cultivate the agricultural feelings of young scientists, expand more channels to promote talents, let them show their talents in agricultural scientific and technological innovation, better contribute to the high-quality development of agriculture and the construction of an agricultural power, and help them realize the value of life in the construction of an agricultural power and global agricultural development.
Tang Jianjun of the College of Agriculture and Rural Development of Chinese Minmin University believes that improving the leadership system and working mechanism and focusing on building a team of rural talents will provide a strong guarantee for accelerating the construction of an agricultural power.
Lena Kuhn, an associate researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Development in Transition Economy in Germany, believes that China should further improve the actual digitalization of farms, especially the digital literacy of farmers. She points out that in Germany, about two-thirds of farm managers have obtained vocational degrees, including vocational training, technical schools or other types of higher agricultural schools. Vocational training takes 2 years, during which time students spend half of their time at school and half on farms to learn about production technology, marketing, etc. Although China is still at a different stage of its demographic transition than Germany, at some point in the future, digitalization may not only be an option, but an inevitability.
Xiong Hang, School of Economics and Management of Huazhong Agricultural University and Institute of Macro Agriculture of Huazhong Agricultural University, pointed out that under the background of digitalization and intelligence in agriculture and rural areas, it is time for China to accelerate the construction of an agricultural power. To make up for the shortcomings of key science and technology, stimulate the vitality of various elements, and break through important core technologies, the key is to effectively give full play to the enthusiasm of scientific researchers.
Scientific and technological cooperation to promote global food security
Tang Jianjun believes that we should proceed from the two aspects of productive forces and production relations, and solve the problem of driving science and technology and reform to accelerate the construction of an agricultural power. At the same time, international cooperation is also an important aspect of consolidating the foundation of food security, and we must adhere to the equal emphasis on "bringing in" and "going out", make full use of the two markets and two resources, and ease domestic resource constraints.
Xiong Hang also said that to accelerate the construction of an agricultural power, it is also necessary to enhance international competitiveness. As the world's largest producer of agricultural products and an important importer and exporter of agricultural products, enhancing the international competitiveness of agriculture is the proper meaning of China's construction of an agricultural power.
Khalid Khan, an associate professor of economics at Pakistan's Balochistan University of Information Technology, said China should prioritize international food security cooperation and find innovative solutions to food security problems, such as soil erosion, water scarcity and climate change. In addition, China can take the lead in promoting equitable global trade policies and participate in the Global Initiative to Eradicate Poverty, ensuring food security in countries vulnerable to climate change. Overall, China will play an important role in advancing global and national food security in the coming decades. (Science and Technology Daily)