Lookout | Working together to ensure fruit and vegetable autonomy - interview with Deng Xiuxin, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering

Deng Xiuxin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, from 2019 to 2020, China's fruit share (output + import-export) ranked among the top in the world, 2.3 times that of India and 6.6 times that of the United States

At present, the annual output of citrus has exceeded 50 million tons, ranking first in the world, and the export volume has exceeded 1 million tons. Many southern mountainous areas, reservoir areas and old revolutionary areas rely on the citrus industry to get rid of poverty and become rich

Today's development of the fruit and vegetable industry, the most worrying thing is not that it cannot be planted, but that it cannot be sold, so it is very important to develop moderately. Grasping the scale of moderate development requires the help of big data

Wen | Hu Yongshun, a reporter for the "Outlook" news weekly

After the abundant supply of carbohydrates, proteins and fatty foods that provide people with energy, fruits and vegetables have become the necessities for people to maintain good health and live a higher quality of life.

"Establish a big food concept and ensure the effective supply of vegetables, fruits and other foods, which is in line with the development needs of the happy life of the Chinese people in the new era." To ensure the supply of fruits and vegetables, it is not to continue to expand the planting area of fruits and vegetables, but to achieve high-quality development of the fruit and vegetable industry. Deng Xiuxin, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and chief scientist of the modern agricultural industry (citrus) technology system, said in an exclusive interview with The Outlook News weekly that data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2020, the mainland will produce 749 million tons of vegetables and 287 million tons of fruits, which has been able to meet consumer demand. In the future, the fruit industry should continue to adhere to the principle of "fruit trees going down the hill and not competing with grain and cotton for land", and vegetable production should be rationally laid out according to the needs of the population in large and medium-sized cities and avoid long-distance transportation. In addition, it is necessary to rely on the power of science and technology to improve the yield and quality of fruits and vegetables, ensure a balanced supply in all seasons, and reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers to ensure green and safe.

Deng Xiuxin is the first doctor of fruit trees in New China. Since the 1980s, Deng Xiuxin has been committed to solving the scientific problems restricting the development of the citrus industry, cracking the "code" of sweet orange genes, and promoting the basic research of Chinese citrus to gradually enter the world's first square. In addition, Deng Xiuxin led the team to expand the research field to all aspects of the industrial chain such as post-harvest processing, brand building and marketing, which strongly supported the construction of the mainland citrus industry system.

Recently, the reporter interviewed Academician Deng Xiuxin on how to get out of the road of high-quality development of the fruit and vegetable industry, he said: "Agricultural research, can not be closed to find the subject, to go deep into the field. Agricultural tech workers must calculate the input-output ratio, not only to consider technical feasibility, but also to consider economic feasibility and environmental friendliness. ”

The technology behind the abundant fruit plate

"Lookout": Please talk about the development of the fruit industry in the mainland.

Deng Xiuxin: Since the reform and opening up, the mainland fruit industry can be divided into three stages: First, before 1997, the supply exceeded demand, and by 1997, there was a large-scale structural surplus of agricultural products on the mainland, and the fruit could not be sold for the first time; the second was the basic balance of supply and demand from 1997 to 2008; the third was that the supply and demand after 2008 to the present were oversupply, but not absolute surplus, but structural excess, for example, a large number of concentrated listings in the same season caused by excess.

From the perspective of production scale, statistics show that the planting area of horticultural crops in the mainland accounts for about a quarter of the planting area of crops, and the output value is about half of the planting industry. Among them, the output of fruits (including watermelon) has increased by 18 times in the past 40 years; from the perspective of international comparison, according to the data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, from 2019 to 2020, China's fruit share (output + import - export) ranks at the forefront of the world, which is 2.3 times that of India and 6.6 times that of the United States. From a per capita point of view, China's per capita share of fruits has exceeded the international average.

There is no longer any consumer who cannot buy a certain fruit, but the fruit will be slightly higher or slightly lower in a certain season. Behind the abundant fruit plate is the power of scientific and technological progress.

First of all, through the selection and breeding of early, middle and late maturing varieties, the annual supply of fresh fruits has been realized. Now you can eat citrus all year round, apples, pears and other bulk fruits through technical measures such as air storage, the preservation time can reach more than 1 year.

Secondly, fruit production technology is gradually moving towards modernization. In recent years, the fruit industry has formed a relatively concentrated large-scale production. The integration of water and fertilizer and the mechanization of orchards have become a trend, and labor-saving cultivation has also been valued.

In addition, a large number of new varieties of fruit have been selected. In the past 40 years, the mainland has bred nearly 2,000 scion varieties and more than 40 rootstock varieties. The selected early red navel orange matures 20 days earlier than the existing early maturing varieties, and the selected late maturing variety Lun late navel orange matures in March to April, and can even hang the tree until May.

Lookout: What work have you done to promote the basic research of Citrus in China to enter the world's first square and industrialization?

Deng Xiuxin: At present, there are nearly 70 varieties of citrus cultivation area of more than 10,000 mu in the mainland, involving citrus, orange, orange, grapefruit, golden orange, lemon and other types. Through the upgrading of varieties, the harvest of maturity, the preservation of trees, the late harvesting of filming, the alternating results, and the improvement of post-harvest preservation technology and sorting and packaging, the fresh fruits are listed in all seasons. Citrus is on the market from September to January, and extends from the end of July to June of the following year.

This is inseparable from the efforts of the vast number of scientific and technological workers. Since the 1980s, our team has carried out a series of work in biotechnology and variety improvement:

On the one hand, a complete cell engineering technology system has been established, a new technology approach for the cultivation of seedless citrus varieties has been created, and a commercial seedless variety "Huayu No. 2" has been cultivated. Through the establishment of biological breeding methods, a new path has been opened to improving the quality of citrus and achieving seedlessness. Today, a number of local fine seeds are entering the track of improvement through this way.

On the other hand, the first case of sweet orange genome sequencing and genome sequencing of 7 other different citrus types was completed, and the key genes that controlled the polyembrymic traits were cloned, multiple genes controlling citrus red were analyzed, the citrus model materials that bloomed and produced in the year of sowing were excavated and created, and the genetic transformation and gene editing technology system was established to promote citrus breeding to design breeding. In the future, we can lock in agronomic traits such as citrus ripening, color, acid content, yield, and disease resistance, and cultivate varieties with better quality and stronger disease resistance.

At the same time, we have used conventional breeding technology to cooperate with relevant units to breed more than 10 new varieties such as "Hua Mandarin No. 2" high-quality lime, "Hua Mandarin No. 4" seedless lime, early maturing navel orange "early red", late maturing navel orange "Zong Orange" with special flavor.

In terms of industrialization, in order to cope with the impact of the mainland's accession to the WTO on the domestic citrus industry, we have set up a variety research and development and cultivation team under the organization of the former Ministry of Agriculture, introduced foreign advanced technology, combined with the government's macro layout, and demonstrated and promoted new citrus varieties in 9 major producing provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). We have also planned three citrus belts to increase the type of varieties and supply time, forming a citrus belt in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River dominated by late-ripening citrus, a citrus belt in Gannan, Shonan and northern Guibei with navel oranges as the mainstay, and a citrus belt in the Xijiang River Basin dominated by early-ripening and late-ripening wide-skinned oranges.

In less than 10 years, the shortcomings of China's small citrus production and small varieties have been changed, and production and exports have increased significantly. At present, the annual output of citrus has exceeded 50 million tons, ranking first in the world, and the export volume has exceeded 1 million tons. Many southern mountainous areas, reservoir areas and old revolutionary areas rely on the citrus industry to get rid of poverty and become rich.

The shortcomings of the development of the fruit and vegetable industry need to be solved

"Lookout": What are the shortcomings in the development of the mainland fruit industry?

Deng Xiuxin: There are still some problems in the development of the mainland fruit industry, mainly in the following aspects:

First, international competitive advantages are fading, and with the exception of a few fruits, the competitive advantage of mainland fruits has diminished as labor costs rise. Since China's accession to the WTO, tremendous changes have taken place in the international trade of agricultural products, and the total import volume of agricultural products has been increasing. The main reason is that in the past ten years, the rapid growth of labor costs on the mainland, coupled with poor standing conditions, low level of mechanical operation, and low production efficiency, resulting in fruit production costs compared with the United States has no advantage or even slightly higher, compared with Brazil and other southern hemisphere countries have almost no advantage, South America's cherry (cherry), South Africa's citrus into China in large quantities. The cost of fruit production in Southeast Asian countries is even lower, and the mainland imports a large number of bananas, dragon fruit, longan and other fruits every year.

Second, the cost per unit area has increased and the benefit has decreased year by year. More than 80% of the agricultural cultivation in the mainland are small farmers, and the small farmer economy has brought about an increase in the cost of agricultural production. Large-scale planting can reduce the cost of using fertilizers, pesticides and machinery.

Third, the size is inverted, and there is a misalignment of supply and demand. Tea, fruits and vegetables, rice, etc. are bulk products, in recent years, some places have excessively pursued the cultivation of high-end products, and finally left the consumption vision of ordinary people, the market is getting smaller and smaller; the characteristics of small agricultural products are greedy for large quantities, and it is easy to have excess production after becoming large, which in turn leads to a sharp decline in prices.

Fourth, the processing is not divided into physical properties, and it is deep. When it comes to fruit processing in many places, it is either winemaking or vinegar. However, not all fruits can be used to make wine like grapes, and the grapes used to make wine are also varieties with a sugar content (soluble solids content) of more than 20% and a thick and dark skin. In addition, only talk about technical feasibility and ignore economic feasibility. For example, some places develop lemon pectin deep processing, but the amount of lemon planting is small, the cost of pectin production is high, and the product is not competitive in the market.

Fifth, the scientific and technological research and development and promotion system do not match the production organization mode. Some scientific researchers neglect to solve problems in agricultural production, find topics behind closed doors, and scientific research results are difficult to apply to production. Teaching and internship places in agricultural colleges and universities are far apart, and some horticultural students do not graft fruit trees. How to get closer to production in scientific research and how to transform production problems into scientific research topics are worth thinking about and working together to solve.

Lookout: How do you view the development of facility agriculture?

Deng Xiuxin: The application of industrial technologies such as facility cultivation has solved the time and space limitations of vegetable and fruit production, and has contributed to the supply of vegetables in winter. Radish, cabbage, potatoes are the main types of vegetables that northern residents eat in winter, and greenhouses and other facilities such as agriculture make vegetable planting less and less constrained by regional, terrain and other spatial constraints, and people can also eat a wide variety of fresh vegetables in winter.

Studies have shown that due to climate influences, in addition to the plateau, the more suitable area for mainland facilities and greenhouses is 37° north latitude to 4 ° north and south expansion, that is, Henan Luohe to Shenyang, Liaoning. Over the years, the role of science and technology has pushed the area 1 to 1.5 degrees north. But now some colder places in the south and northeast are also developing facility agriculture, and the greenhouses in the south need to be cooled down in the summer and the greenhouses in the northeast need to be warmed in winter, which increases the cost of energy consumption. Some areas in the south have even built greenhouses on very precious fertile fields, which not only occupy the arable land for growing food crops, but also in the summer the temperature is too high to produce, the effect is not good;

Vegetables cultivated by facility agriculture are generally worse in taste and flavor than open-air vegetables, and the cost is also increased. In short, the development of facility agriculture to solve the problem of filling the gap in the supply of fruits and vegetables, we must measure its economic feasibility and market competitiveness, and at the same time need to look at the application scenario. The Gobi, the desert, island outposts and space stations are more suitable for the development of plant factories.

Digital agriculture is the way forward

"Lookout": How does big data improve the market risk avoidance ability of the fruit and vegetable industry? How to establish a big data system for the fruit and vegetable industry?

Deng Xiuxin: Using big data to guide agricultural production is the future development direction. Big data can use consumer demand data and agricultural product supply data to guide agricultural production. It can also guide farmers to carry out some agricultural management through remote sensing and other scientific and technological means.

Today's development of the fruit and vegetable industry, the most worrying thing is not that it cannot be planted, but that it cannot be sold, so it is very important to develop moderately. Grasping the scale of moderate development requires the help of big data. We explore the establishment of citrus yield monitoring and reporting system, every year before the listing of citrus, we will issue a yield forecast report, analysis of different regions, different varieties of citrus production changes, has been done for 9 consecutive years, the effect is very good. Analysis of agricultural production data reveals a trend that more than 7% of production is abnormally volatile. Once the citrus production data is found to be abnormally volatile, measures must be taken to avoid citrus not being sold or the price increase being too large.

At present, some e-commerce companies in the mainland have developed rapidly and provided sales data to let us know the preferences of people in different regions for different fruits and vegetables, but the overall sales data is not complete, and the data on the supply side is still missing. Only detailed data can provide a reference for the development of the fruit and vegetable industry. In the future, the competent agricultural departments should make great efforts to promote the establishment of a big data system for fruit and vegetable production, conduct professional analysis and application of data, and avoid blind development of the industry.

To establish a big data system for fruit and vegetable production, we must first have a top-level design. Make good use of the millions of talents in the national agricultural technology promotion system, each township needs 1 to 2 agricultural technology promotion talents to collect fruit and vegetable production data on a regular basis and upload them, forming a big data platform for fruits and vegetables. Second, set up special funds. In recent years, the state has improved after increasing investment, but the situation of "having money to raise soldiers and not money to fight wars" is still relatively common. Moreover, in view of the difficulty of data collection caused by the production of small farmers on the mainland, data collection work can be prioritized from the advantageous areas and cooperatives of concentrated contiguous areas.

"Lookout": To promote the higher quality development of the fruit and vegetable industry, what other suggestions do you have?

Deng Xiuxin: Strengthening the fruit and vegetable industry requires the joint efforts of the government, scientific researchers, commercial promoters and production entities, that is, the "3+1" model.

The transfer of land requires government support and coordination among many farmers. Scientific researchers should provide technical support to escort the development of the fruit and vegetable industry. Commercial promoters are responsible for building brands and developing markets. The main body of production is farmers or cooperatives. The development of the citrus industry in the past 40 years has proved that the fruit and vegetable industry should be bigger and stronger, and it is inseparable from the combination of "3+1". ■