Amidst increasingly severe environmental pollution, food safety has become one of the most pressing livelihood issues globally and in our country. Accelerating the development of green and organic agriculture, and gradually making it the dominant mode of agricultural development, is not only the fundamental guarantee for the food safety and nutritional improvement of China's 1.3 billion people, but also a strategic move of milestone significance in the history of Chinese farming civilisation.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
1. The Historical Inevitability of the Emergence and Development of Green and Organic Agriculture文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
Since the dawn of human history, agricultural production has roughly gone through the developmental stages of primitive agriculture, traditional agriculture, petroleum agriculture, and green organic agriculture. Modern agriculture relies not only on the heavy consumption of petroleum products to provide power, but the means of production it uses—such as chemical fertilisers, pesticides, additives, and plastic sheeting—also take petroleum and natural gas as their energy sources and raw materials, hence it is also known as “petroleum agriculture”. Although this petroleum agriculture, equipped with industry and science and technology, has significantly increased land productivity and labour productivity, the long-term excessive use of chemical substances such as fertilisers and pesticides has led to soil degradation, heavy metal residues exceeding standards, and increasingly severe environmental pollution and food safety issues. According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, between 2 million and 5 million agricultural workers are poisoned by pesticides worldwide every year, resulting in 40,000 deaths.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
In the second half of the 20th century, after experiencing the environmental degradation brought about by petroleum-based agriculture, some developed countries in the West took the lead in exploring ways to transform agricultural development. In 1931, British botanist Albert Howard was the first to propose the concept of organic agriculture. In 1972, as the global green movement reached its peak, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) was established in France. Organic agriculture maintains and enhances the health of soil, plants, animals, humans and the planet as an indivisible whole, protecting the environment while safeguarding the health and welfare of current and future generations. According to the 2010 report The World of Organic Agriculture, 35 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide are currently used for organic agricultural production.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
Certified by specialised agencies, China has now initially formed a pollution-free, safe, high-quality, and nutrient-rich green and organic agricultural industry system. Among them, green food is divided into Grade A and Grade AA. Grade A requires the limited use of restricted synthetic chemical production materials during the production process, while actively adopting biotechnology and physical methods to ensure that product quality meets the standards for “green food”. Grade AA requires that no chemically synthesized pesticides, fertilisers, additives, veterinary drugs, or production materials harmful to the environment and human health are used during production; instead, soil is enriched, pests and diseases are controlled, and product quality is protected or enhanced through techniques such as using organic fertilisers, growing green manure, and adopting biological or physical methods (equivalent to organic agriculture). Because both green food and organic food originate from environmentally friendly agricultural industry systems that restrict or avoid chemical substances, people collectively refer to these two types of agriculture as green and organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
2. Essential characteristics and advantages of green and organic agriculture文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
Green organic agriculture is a profound transformation of traditional and petroleum-based agriculture, a qualitative enhancement and leap forward in human farming methods, and a new agricultural model that achieves harmony between man and nature, as well as a win-win outcome for development and the environment. Its essential characteristics and advantages can be summarised as follows:文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(1) Standardisation of norms. One of the essential characteristics of green and organic agriculture is that, through a series of normative guidelines, agricultural technology and management are standardised—there are technical regulations for production, guidelines for the use of inputs, dedicated labels for products, certification and licensing for operations, and direct traceability to the place of origin if problems arise. These standards, norms and guidelines ensure market demand over a given period, as well as high product quality, safety, low consumption and high efficiency. When technology or practices change, the corresponding standards and norms are revised to incorporate the latest technological achievements in order to meet new demands in production, exchange, procurement and sales. According to statistics from relevant departments, the total number of industry standards currently implemented for green food in China reaches 152. The state has even stricter standard regulations for organic agricultural products, which apply to the entire process of organic agricultural production.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(2) Technological advancement. Green organic agriculture not only adopts traditional intensive farming techniques, modern crop breeding, and advanced production and processing technologies, but also creates higher-level technical models that comply with ecological, economic, and social livelihood laws. The technological content of its production, processing, preservation, packaging, distribution, and other links is much higher than that of traditional agriculture and petroleum agriculture, thus achieving a win-win situation for economic and ecological benefits. Nano-enhanced fertilizer researched by ecological economics experts can reduce the use of ordinary chemical fertilizers by 30% to 50% while increasing the average yield of crops such as rice, wheat, and corn by 10%, and that of vegetables and fruit trees by about 20%.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(3) High production efficiency. Green organic products are of good quality and pollution-free, with high value, high prices, and obvious efficiency advantages. Baojia organic celery hearts in Zhangqiu City, Shandong Province are priced at 30 yuan per kilogram, super-grade celery shoots at 180 yuan per kilogram, and the average income per mu is 15,000 yuan, which is more than 4 times higher than that of ordinary celery. The premium packaged organic Chinese cabbage in Jiaozhou City sells for 45 yuan per head, and the average household income of vegetable farmers is 100,000 yuan. The “black peanuts” cultivated by the Qingdao Nanzhai Apple Planting Professional Cooperative have zinc and selenium contents that are 48% and 101% higher than those of ordinary peanuts respectively. Coupled with selenium-rich and green food certification, they sell for 50 yuan per kilogram. A market research report in Beijing in 2009 showed that although organic food is much more expensive, most consumers are still willing to buy it. 文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(4) The circularity of resources. Green organic agriculture emphasises organic inputs and biological measures, recycling agricultural and livestock waste for reuse. This not only creates value and benefits, but also enriches soil fertility and optimises the environment, representing a genuine “circular economy” model. Practices such as returning crop straw to fields and using it for gasification power generation, biogas projects for human and livestock manure, the use of bio-bacterial fertilisers, and biological pest control have all achieved good economic, social, and environmental benefits. Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, processes pig manure into primary organic fertiliser, which eliminates non-point source pollution while generating economic benefits. Furthermore, grapes grown with this fertiliser are large, sweet, and have a good colour, with a wholesale price more than triple that of grapes grown with chemical fertiliser. Zhucheng, Shandong Province, has promoted the straw biological reactor technology across more than 200 vegetable greenhouses in the city, using straw to replace chemical fertiliser, which reduces costs by 50%, increases vegetable yields by over 50%, and increases farmers“ incomes by over 40%. According to expert calculations, green organic agriculture uses no or limited petrochemical material inputs, which can reduce carbon emissions by 20% to 50%, making it a true ”low-carbon agriculture".文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(5) The public welfare nature of production. Developing green and organic agriculture not only provides safe, pollution-free food, but also extends the industrial chain and expands employment, achieving remarkable results in benefiting people's livelihoods. According to research by experts, organic plant products contain more dry matter, minerals, and antioxidant micronutrients, higher levels of trace elements such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin C, iron, copper, and zinc, as well as secondary metabolites with anti-cancer and heart disease-preventing properties. Because green and organic agriculture focuses on the collection and application of organic fertilizer, and implements refined farming and livestock management as well as marketing, it has absorbed a large number of rural labourers into employment and entrepreneurship. The 11 standardised green food bases established across different regions in Gansu Province have nurtured more than 260 leading industrialised enterprises, over 1,300 farmers' professional cooperatives, and nearly 10,000 distribution brokers, cumulatively achieving the employment of over 5 million workers and generating over 2.5 billion yuan in labour income. The income of workers engaged in the green food industry is twice that of ordinary farmers.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(6) Sustainability of development. Green organic agriculture replaces chemical fertilisers with organic farmyard manure and highly toxic pesticides with biotechnology, rationally allocates agricultural inputs, conserves resources, and optimises the environment, ensuring the sustainability of agricultural development. Xiangyin County in Hunan Province has developed green organic agriculture through ecological technologies such as seed selection, returning straw to fields, the “pig-biogas-paddy” ecological model, soil testing and formulated fertilisation, and vibrational insect-killing lamps. Domestic sewage, domestic waste, and livestock and poultry manure in residential areas are basically harmlessly treated and resourcefully utilised, the utilisation rate of crop straw has reached 100%, the usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has been greatly reduced, spider-based natural enemies of pests are diverse and abundant, aquatic organisms in ditches, ports, and channels are dense, no pest and disease damage can be seen in the fields, and high yields, superior quality, high efficiency, and environmental improvement have been achieved.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
3. Current Situation and Prospects of China's Green and Organic Agriculture Development文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
China's green and organic agriculture started in the 1990s. Compared with 1997, the cultivation area and physical total volume of national green and organic products in 2008 increased by 6.8 times and 13.3 times respectively. Among them, the total number of enterprises using the green food logo has grown at an average annual rate of 24.7% since 1997. Green and organic food has become a “hotspot” for consumption by residents in large and medium-sized domestic cities, a “bright spot” for agricultural product exports, and a “growth point” for the adjustment and optimisation of the agricultural structure. However, the development scale of China's green and organic agriculture is limited, and the number of varieties is also small, with the output of major bulk products accounting for only about 5% of the total volume of similar products nationwide. Compared with the rapidly increasing domestic and foreign consumption demand, the existing types of agricultural products, production scale, and supply capacity are all inadequate.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
China is rich in agricultural resources and possesses unique advantages and conditions for developing green and organic agriculture. These primarily include: (1) Rich and diverse species and natural resources. The cultivated plants, livestock and poultry, fish, edible fungi, and insects developed and utilized in Chinese agriculture already exceed 10,000 species. Various regions have bred numerous agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery products that are rich in local characteristics and renowned both at home and abroad. These regions possess the natural environments and traditional techniques suitable for developing green and organic agriculture, which, once developed, can form large batches of distinctive, diverse, and highly competitive well-known products and production bases. (2) Abundant organic fertilizer resources. According to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture, the total annual output of organic fertilizer nationwide reaches 4.88 billion tonnes, including 2.04 billion tonnes of livestock and poultry manure, 2.02 billion tonnes of compost and retting manure, 700 million tonnes of straw resources, over 100 million tonnes of green manure, and over 20 million tonnes of cake fertilizer, capable of providing more than 60 million tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium nutrients. Vigorously developing and utilizing organic fertilizers can not only provide sufficient nutrients for crops, increase soil organic matter content, and improve soil physical and chemical properties, but can also transform agricultural waste, thoroughly address non-point source pollution, and improve the quality of agricultural products, while simultaneously opening up new growth points for agricultural development. (3) Production and processing technologies and crafts for agricultural products rich in local and ethnic characteristics distributed all across the country. Fully exploring and utilizing these technologies and crafts and combining them with modern technologies is of inestimable and significant importance for developing green and organic products and achieving product value addition and efficiency enhancement. (4) Urban and rural residents“ demand for and recognition of green and organic food are growing day by day. The production methods, consumption concepts, and brands of green and organic agriculture have gained recognition from an increasing number of enterprises, farmers, and consumers. (5) The Party and the government have made strategic decisions on remedying the ecological environment and building modern agriculture. The formulation and implementation of a series of major strategic guidelines and policies—such as ”taking the path to new industrialisation“, ”establishing and applying the Scientific Outlook on Development“, ”accelerating the transformation of the development mode“, and ”developing the circular economy"—will provide powerful momentum and policy guarantees for the development of green and organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
According to forecasts by relevant departments, during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the growth rate of China's green and organic agriculture will remain above 10%. By 2015, the number of enterprises nationwide effectively using the green food logo will reach 8,800, with 23,000 products; the total number of organic food enterprises will reach 2,000, with 11,000 products; 300 new standardised green food raw material bases will be built, bringing the total number of standardised green food raw material bases to 800, with a total base area of 150 million mu. Supervision of green and organic products will also be strengthened, and the pass rate of product quality random inspections will remain above 98%. By 2030, the proportion of China's green and organic product cultivation area to the total arable land area is likely to reach about 25%, the usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides will each decrease by about 50%, the proportion of organic fertiliser usage will increase to 70%, and soil organic matter will generally increase by 1 to 3 percentage points. By 2050, the proportion of green and organic product cultivation area to the total arable land area will rise to about 40%.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
IV. Countermeasures and suggestions for promoting the development of green and organic agriculture in China文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
Place the development of green and organic agriculture on the agenda of Party committees and governments at all levels, and earnestly strengthen leadership. The transition from traditional agriculture and petroleum-based agriculture to green and organic agriculture is a profound revolution in the agricultural field. It is of great and far-reaching significance, as well as arduous and complex in its tasks. Only when Party committees and governments at all levels place it on their agendas, take personal charge, and strengthen leadership can it be promoted effectively. This includes determining the development strategy for green and organic agriculture, setting goals, tasks, countermeasures, and measures; formulating plans for phased implementation; strengthening policy support to mobilise the enthusiasm of enterprises, production bases, and farmers; and using model examples to drive the entire endeavour.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(2) Strengthen public opinion and publicity to unify ideological understanding. Developing green and organic agriculture first requires establishing advanced ideological concepts and mastering scientific and technological knowledge. Although people's environmental and food safety awareness is gradually increasing, the majority still know very little about green and organic agriculture, harbouring various one-sided understandings and ideological resistance. It is essential to step up publicity, including holding special lectures and presentations, inviting experts, scholars and certification body professionals to give advocacy reports; compiling teaching materials to popularise related knowledge; organising on-site meetings to summarise and promote successful exemplary experiences, etc. Through multiple channels and methods, publicity and education on green and organic agriculture should be carried out in depth to inspire people to emancipate their minds and update their concepts, truly transforming the development of green and organic agriculture into a conscious action for rural cadres and the broad masses.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(3) Cultivate operating entities and build supporting platforms. The characteristics of green and organic agriculture—standardised, regulated, industrialised, and high-tech—dictate that the development of this sector must be led and driven by leading enterprises, professional cooperatives, or technological development institutions. To scale up and strengthen green and organic agriculture, prime importance must be attached to the development of leading enterprises, providing them with necessary support in funding and technology; research units and personnel should be encouraged to participate in the development of green and organic agriculture; and leading enterprises should be guided to form “communities of shared interests” with bases, cooperatives, and farmers through contracts, services, asset linkages, and other forms. The business model of “leading enterprise + professional cooperative organisation + base farmer” should be actively promoted to continuously expand the scope of close-knit interest linkages.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(4) Strengthen scientific and technological support to resolve key technical issues. Green and organic agriculture restricts or avoids the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which places entirely new demands on agricultural science and technology, urgently requiring scientific and technological innovation and support. Efforts should be concentrated on achieving breakthroughs in key technologies: ① Breakthroughs in organic fertiliser production and application technology. Focus on the transformation and utilisation of organic fertiliser resources such as crop straw, agricultural waste, and livestock and poultry manure, striving for major breakthroughs in matching technologies and equipment. ② Breakthroughs in biopesticide development technology. With the popularisation of chemical pesticides, the use of traditional indigenous pesticides in China has gradually declined. In fact, through modern technological development, indigenous pesticides not only have good pest control effects but also cause no chemical damage. New technologies and methods for biological disease and pest control should be vigorously developed to reduce and replace highly toxic and persistent chemical pesticides. ③ Breakthroughs in improved seed breeding technology. Protect local specialty varieties, strengthen the domestication of wild resources and the breeding of new varieties, and continuously develop new high-quality seeds and seedlings that are resistant to pests and diseases, possess strong stress resistance, and have wide adaptability. ④ Breakthroughs in specialty product processing technology. Some of the specialty product processing technologies passed down through Chinese folk traditions have been adapted for new product development, some have stagnated, and some are on the verge of being lost. If traditional local processing technologies are improved and integrated with modern science and technology, it will greatly expand the market space for green organic agriculture and employment opportunities for farmers. ⑤ Breakthroughs in operating models. Relying on enterprises, associations, and professional cooperatives, social resources should be integrated to gradually establish a brand-new operating model for different green and organic products featuring unified standards, unified trademarks, unified marketing, unified pricing, unified packaging, and unified legal aid.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(5) Provide policy and legal support and protection for green and organic agriculture. Green and organic agricultural practices involve high standards, management and technical requirements, as well as significant infrastructure investment, thus necessitating support and protection. The state and regions with the necessary conditions should establish special funds for the development of green and organic agriculture; include relevant enterprises and farmers within the scope of financial support; give priority to providing special fund support and incentives for the construction of green and organic product bases, brand creation, and the research, development and promotion of scientific and technological projects; and implement fixed-amount subsidies for organic product production during the conversion period. Establish a promotion mechanism featuring “government support, leading enterprise drive, farmer participation and intermediary organisation services”. Strengthen the quality inspection of agricultural products and market management in accordance with the law, transforming “multi-headed supervision” into “unified supervision”. Intensify supervision over certified enterprises and their products, implementing dual management of “base” monitoring and “market” supervision to ensure the credibility of green and organic products and safeguard the interests of consumers.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
(6) Comprehensively tackle farmland pollution to create conditions for the development of green and organic agriculture. The use of highly toxic and highly persistent pesticides is strictly prohibited; environmental protection and safety certification shall be conducted for chemical inputs such as chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and they shall not enter the market without approval; the application of high-efficiency, low-toxicity and low-residue inputs such as biological pesticides, organic fertilisers and degradable plastic film shall be actively promoted and applied; the transformation of livestock enclosures, toilets and kitchens, and the construction of household biogas digesters as a link shall be actively implemented to vigorously develop the “pig-biogas-vegetable” ecological agriculture model, achieving harmless treatment of resources, high quality of products and diversification of benefits; the area of leguminous nitrogen-fixing crops and green manure crops shall be appropriately expanded; in northern dry-farming agricultural areas, protective tillage technologies such as straw mulching, no-till sowing, and subsoiling weeding shall be implemented; the construction pace of urban and rural sewage and waste treatment plants shall be accelerated to improve the rural ecological environment.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/
To develop green and organic agriculture, we must adhere to the principle of “proceeding in an orderly way and preferring quality over quantity” and under no circumstances lower quality standards. We must extensively carry out international exchanges and cooperation to continuously raise the development level of our country's green and organic agriculture.文章源自FOFCC-http://fofcc.org.cn/en/11262/