Hydroponically cultivated strawberries are harvested inShangjie, a village in Lingchuan county, the GuangxiZhuang autonomous region, in April. Scientific andtechnological authorities in Guangxi used a special 1.5million yuan ($245,000) fund to support hydroculture in thevillage after a water shortage. Photo by Lu Boan / Xinhua For Bai Qiangguo, 53, life on the wind-blown plains of central NingxiaHui autonomous region was like being frozen in time: the use ofexcessive pesticides and fertilizers to farm the reluctant land took itstoll on the little fertility there is in the soil. The land became sandierand sandier, increasingly prone to dust storms. But science is bringing the cycle to an end and giving farmers aharvest for the future. "Now I work on the land during the day, and use the Internet to sellmy wolfberries in the evening," Bai Qiangguo said. "I never thought Iwould have anything to do with high technology." Bai and the other farmers who benefited from wolfberry plantingtechnology in Ningxia are only a part of a much more ambitious planof the government to boost agriculture through technology. "If we bring technology into agriculture in the Ningxia Hui autonomousregion, one of the country's poorest rural regions, we can do it in anyregion in China," Zhang Laiwu, vice-minister of science and technology, told China Daily. This does not mean just adding new technology into crop planting, or to replacing labor withmachines. Instead, it is a more complex systematic reform: farmers working in commercialized farms, usinghigh-tech equipment to improve both production and quality of the crop. On top of this, theentire community will benefit through the processing industry, logistics, and financial servicessystem. The result will be that skilled talent will be attracted to agriculture. "The essential factors in traditional agriculture include land, natural resources, like water andlabor. But now we will integrate new productive factors like technology, modern managementtheory and social services," he said. Although the methods of industrial agriculture, such as techniques for achieving economies ofscale in production, are common in developed economies and increasingly prevalentworldwide, China's agriculture remained "old-fashioned", Zhang said. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the per capita disposable income of urbanresidents was 21,810 yuan ($3,520) in 2011, three times the rural per capita income of 6,977yuan in the same year. "The gap is much larger than the global average," Zhang said. To make things worse, more and more farmers are leaving their land for the cities, causinglabor shortages in rural areas. In 2012, China had 262.61 million migrant workers, according tothe bureau. "The most important thing is to train farmers who are capable of making money fromagriculture," Zhang said. Between 2009 and 2012, the ministry sent 240,800 science and technology specialists to ruralregions. Zhang Shengming, 48, was one. In 2007, Zhang contracted 13.3 hectares of land in Ningxia for wolfberry plating. He found that pesticide and fertilizer abuse was common. Zhang established a group of farmers who set strict restrictions on the use of pesticide andfertilizers. It soon attracted 537 households. By 2012, the number of households planting wolfberries in the town had increased from 80 (in2007) to 1,050, producing a yearly income of 6,350 yuan per person. The specialists, distributed in 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, set up8,401 agriculture-related businesses by the end of 2011, covering 57.56 million people in ruralareas. They managed to achieve 2.68 billion yuan in profit, according to the Ministry of Science andTechnology. Zhang also launched projects to build agricultural science and technology parks nationwide. Since 2001, 73 agricultural science and technology parks have been built, and these help trainfarmers in the most modern and productive methods of farming. "The parks are like the headquarters of our agriculture industry - they combine each link on theindustrial chain, from R&D to products, and cultivate more agricultural talent for us," Zhangsaid. The National Agricultural Science and Technology Zone of the Yellow River Delta (Bin Zhou),located in Shandong province, is an example for the integration of technology and agriculture. In April, four digital "jackstraws" were installed on an experimental plot in the zone. The"jackstraw", a robot based on the Internet of Things technology, inspects the status of cropsand sends the information back to the user's cellphone. "This means you can sit in your couch and farm the field via your cellphone," Zhang said. |
對于53歲的白強國來說,時間似乎凝固在寧夏平原上:農民們為了勉強度日,在本就貧瘠的土地上施用大量的農藥和化肥,年復一年,這種耕種方式又反過來使得土地更加貧瘠。 直到十年前,這里生活的人們還一代代地重復著這樣低效率的勞作,直到科學的枸杞種植技術和嚴格的用藥制度傳到了這里,使村民的生活出現了新的改變。 “現在我白天在田里種地,晚上回家上網銷售我地里的枸杞,”白強國說,“原來我從沒想過,我還能和高科技的東西沾邊。但是現在我卻每天都在應用互聯網,這真是太奇妙了!” 然而,不僅是白強國,甚至包括寧夏所有像他一樣享受到科學種植技術的好處的農民,都僅僅是我國實現現代農業全盤計劃中的一小部分。 “既然我們能把現代農業帶到寧夏,那么全國還有什么地方是我們做不到的嗎?”中華人民共和國科學技術部副部長張來武在接受中國日報專訪的時候說。 在張來武眼中,現代農業可不僅僅是在作物培育中應用新技術,或是以機械代替人工勞動那么簡單。相反,現代農業“不是傳統的第一產業概念,而是以現代服務業引領的一、二、三產業的有機結合體,”張來武說。 “不僅做一產,還要做二產、還要做三產,用現代服務業引領現代農業。原來有微笑曲線的兩端,高附加值的兩端在背后,這邊抓產品研發,這邊抓市場品牌,現代物流配送,找金融,市場信息手段,都是微笑曲線的兩端,干了就賺錢,”他說。 張來武強調,隨著從傳統農業向現代農業的快速轉型,農業的核心要素將由土地、水等自然資源,轉變為科技進步和人力資本;是以科技等現代生產要素的綜合投入為基礎,以現代物質條件、工業化生產手段和先進科學技術為支撐,以社會化的服務體系相配套,用現代經營方式和組織形式進行管理的“產業化大農業”。 農業的產業化,在世界范圍內,是隨著18世紀末英國工業革命而誕生的。在產業化農業中,無論是農作物還是牲畜、家禽、漁業,都以工業化的方式生產和銷售。同時,產業化農業還擁有一系列的輔助手段,比如形成規模效應的經濟工具等。 “改革開放30多年來,我國農業、農村發展取得了舉世矚目的成就。但由于歷史原因,農村發展滯后于城市的狀況仍然沒有得到根本改變,城鄉二元結構依然存在,城鄉發展差距仍在擴大,”張來武說。 據國家統計局發布的數據,2011年城鎮居民人均可支配收入(21,810元)是農村居民人均純收入(6,977元)的3倍多,遠高于世界平均水平。“未來30年,我國面臨的最大挑戰就是如何破解城鄉二元結構,”張來武說。 隨著城鄉二元結構的差距不斷擴大,越來越多的農業人口離開自己的土地,到城鎮里生活,造成了農村地區的相對勞動力短缺。據統計,2012年我國已經有26261萬農民工。 “傳統農業是以小生產為特征的‘小農經濟’,以原材料和低端加工為主,科技含量少、規模小、商品率低。只有用現代經營方式和組織形式進行管理的‘大農業’,才能貫穿了第一、第二、第三產業,形成較高的利潤率,”張來武說。 要搞現代農業,首先就要有人,有專業從事農業的職業農民,而科技部、農業部、教育部等九個部委一起抓的農村科技特派員項目就為中國培養了第一批職業農民。 截至2011年底,全國科技特派員隊伍已達24.08萬人,法人科技特派員7298家,比上一年增長了57%。 張生明就是全國24萬科技特派員中的一名。2007年寧夏回族自治區西夏區政府將團結村確定為萬畝有機枸杞種植基地,張生明承包種植精品園200畝,發揮有機枸杞種植的示范作用,帶動了全鎮萬畝有機枸杞生產的發展,為農民增收打下堅實的基礎。張生明發現,當地枸杞種植戶較為分散,且過量施用農藥和化肥的情況非常普遍。于是,在張生明的大力倡導下,組織村民自發成立了枸杞種植專業合作社,主要從枸杞種植、收購、儲藏、加工、銷售、新技術推廣、咨詢服務等方面進行管理,吸引了537名社員。 通過提高枸杞的品質,使得枸杞的售價大幅提高,全鎮枸杞種植戶由過去的80多戶發展到現在的1050戶,其中團結村537戶,種植面積達到5000余畝,直接經濟效益年產值2600萬元,凈利潤1800萬元。直接受益人數2400余人,間接受益人數6780人,枸杞收入占農民人均收入的70℅,年節約成本資金220多萬元。農民人均純收入從2006年的1758元提高到2012年的6350元。 “這是我們農村特派員的一個好例子,現代農業需要培養職業農民。改造傳統農業,提高勞動生產率,最直接、最有效的途徑就是依靠科技提高勞動者綜合素質,培養一批職業化的現代農業大軍,”張來武說。 截止2011年底,全國有31個省(區市)開展了科技特派員農村創業工作,組建利益共同體1.6萬個,創辦企業8401家,其中龍頭企業2642家,實施科技開發項目2.48萬項,直接參與農戶446萬戶,輻射帶動農民5756萬,創業獲利26.8億元。 此外,國家還大力推進國家農業科技園區建設,帶動不同區域現代農業產業發展。2001年科技部會同農業部、水利部、國家林業局、中國科學院、中國農業銀行等開始國家農業科技園區建設。截止目前,全國已經建立了73個國家農業科技園區。2012年全國農業科技園區核心區建成面積300多萬畝,園區各類融資總額達到1880多億元,入住園區企業總數6218家。園區實現年產值近3000億元,組織科普講座培訓工作超過1萬次,轉化科技成果近1000項,受益農民100多萬人。 “我們要把這種園區作為一個抓手,使得我們的服務基地,信息化總部,產業鏈的聚集,企業家的培育都在這里產生著聚集效益,”張來武說。 比如,黃河三角洲(濱州)國家農業科技園區就為市場運作、成果轉化上搭建了良好的平臺。今年4月,在無棣縣柳堡鎮“渤海糧倉”核心試驗區內,與風力發電相類似的四座設備坐落其中,它被稱作“智慧稻草人”。這些“稻草人”通過物聯網技術實現對農作物生長環境綜合信息進行智能監測,是集農作物種植環境信息數據采集、存儲、傳輸和管理于一體的無人值守的農業綜合信息智能監測系統。 “有了這些智慧稻草人,未來的農民只需要坐在自己家里的沙發上,通過手機監控,就可以知道田地里作物的情況了,”張來武說。 “既然我們說,農業現代化是系統設計,那么,科技部當然是承擔這個系統設計的主管部門,維護這個系統,支持這個系統的政策制訂部門,”張來武說。 “我們將利用國家的資源,科技計劃,政策資源,去發現,去支持企業家們,甚至于職業農民們在市場競爭中產生的創造。這種創造加以協調,加以認可,加以推廣,加以發揚光大,這是最重要的使命。要謙虛的走進市場一線,走進職業農民中間,去看看我們能為他們做點什么。” (中國日報記者程盈琪編譯) |