Assuming that the global organic carbon stocks of 2-meter-deep soils increase by 4‰ per year, the current global carbon emissions from fossil fuels could be significantly reduced or even offset. While this is not impossible, increasing soil carbon stocks in agriculture can be achieved through high-quality sustainable land management and an increase in soil organic matter.
As the country with the largest crop planting area in the world, the mainland has a large area of farmland and a huge agricultural volume. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, the grain sowing area of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in the country will be 1.78 billion mu, and the annual vegetable sowing area in 2022 will be about 340 million mu, and the fruit planting area will reach 197 million mu. The Action Plan for Carbon Peaking Before 2030 issued by the State Council clearly proposes to promote carbon emission reduction and sequestration in agriculture and rural areas, and vigorously develop green, low-carbon and circular agriculture.
Source: The early May 2024 issue of "Xiaokang" magazine. Photo by Ning Ying
However, there are still many challenges on the road to sustainable agricultural development. How to improve agricultural production efficiency by further optimizing the layout of new quality productivity? How to strengthen the protection of the agricultural ecological environment, so as to achieve a virtuous circle of agricultural development and ecological protection? How to promote the integrated development of agricultural industry and enhance the overall competitiveness of agriculture? These are all questions that we need to think deeply about and solve. In the context of green development, sustainable agricultural development has become an important direction of agricultural modernization in the mainland and even in the world.
Innovative agriculture promotes low-carbon development
Biodiversity for food and agriculture is one of the most important resources not only on the continent, but also on the planet, and in order to more effectively protect the common habitat of mankind, in addition to new energy technology and new material technology, agricultural technology is also an urgently needed technology in developing countries. In this regard, Zhou Jinfeng, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the Green Society), said, "With advanced agricultural technology, there is no need for people to convert primary forests or tropical rainforests into farmland on a large scale, and they can effectively promote ecological protection and meet people's food and living needs at the same time." In this regard, we have been actively working to explore. As early as a few decades ago, Professor Qian Xuesen proposed that arid areas and desert areas may become important grain producing areas in the future. Large-scale collaboration with developing countries to support the transfer of agricultural technology will play a major role in addressing the synergies between food and climate issues. ”
In order to help achieve the dual carbon goals and promote sustainable development, in 2022, the Green Society established a new series called "Low Carbon Workshop" in the Carbon Reduction Development Series to publicize people's efforts and attempts to reduce carbon emissions, including innovative measures such as bicycle repair shops, ecological farmland, reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and using ecological and natural methods as much as possible to achieve carbon emission reduction, which have achieved good results. Through the construction of low-carbon workshops, specific carbon reduction models will be formed, and carbon emissions will be effectively reduced through changes in technology, methods and practices. As a demonstration of green development, the Low Carbon Workshop encourages extensive participation from all sectors of society. At the same time, the carbon emission reduction formed by the low-carbon workshop will also promote the entry into the carbon trading market in the future.
In March this year, another low-carbon workshop landed in Wuhan. Ideally, assuming a 4‰ increase in global organic carbon stocks in 2-meter-deep soils per year, current global carbon emissions from fossil fuels could be significantly reduced or even offset, while increasing soil carbon stocks in agriculture can be achieved through high-quality sustainable land management and an increase in soil organic matter. As a result, the establishment of the "4/1000 Low-Carbon Landscape Farm" of Wuhan Low-Carbon Workshop can be described as an exploration and practice of a diversified path of low-carbon emission reduction. At present, the farm has completed the selection and trial planting of planting varieties, in the low-carbon technology management of the farm, with the whole process of low-carbon production as the entry point, the use of compost that meets the requirements of low-carbon production, as well as the mulching that can filter the sun's rays and is conducive to the growth of vegetables, combined with scientific management cycles and methods, increase the content of soil organic matter, improve the ability of soil carbon sequestration and carbon sequestration, and through regular testing of soil quality and data collation, the formation of low-carbon production results report, and strive to build a low-carbon ecological agriculture demonstration site in small watersheds.
In addition, Wuhan's "4/1000 low-carbon landscape farm" will also feature landscape agriculture, on the basis of natural agricultural landscape, adopt the tripartite cooperation model of "landscape design team + technical experts of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences + local farmers", and create a "small, refined and beautiful" exquisite agriculture through the mixing of vegetables of different colors and types, attract tourists and tourists, and build a low-carbon green farmland science education base.
Improve the soil carbon sequestration function of farmland
Under the guidance of the national "dual carbon" strategy, how to promote agricultural transformation and upgrading and green and efficient development is also one of the problems that need to be solved urgently. (Source: "Xiaokang" magazine, early May 2024.) Photography / Ning Ying)
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a 1% increase in soil and farmland organic matter would be equivalent to a net CO₂ absorption of 30.6 billion tonnes from the air. However, long-term field experiments have shown that straw returning has limited effect on the increase of soil organic matter in farmland, and there are problems such as breeding pest diseases and causing soil acidification, so it is urgent to explore the technical methods for the rapid improvement of soil carbon sequestration function in farmland. Zhao Wanping, deputy to the 14th National People's Congress and vice president of the Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that although the mainland has a farmland soil carbon sink measurement method that uses biomass biochemical cracking bioengineering technology to sequester carbon in farmland, there are still problems such as small project support, limited pilot promotion area, imperfect data monitoring network, and insufficient docking with carbon sink accounting and trading. In this regard, Zhao Wanping suggested that first of all, we should strengthen the project approval in the rapid improvement of farmland soil carbon sink function and promote the large-scale application and promotion of technology. "It is recommended that the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly establish a project, organize experts in relevant fields to demonstrate the technical plan for farmland carbon sequestration and emission reduction of the technology, and organize relevant units to implement it."
Under the guidance of the national "dual carbon" strategy, how to promote agricultural transformation and upgrading and green and efficient development is also one of the problems that need to be solved urgently. In November 2022, the Green Society Standards Committee compiled the first standard for the measurement of farmland soil carbon sequestration - "Farmland Soil Carbon Sequestration Technology Evaluation Standard Part 1 Current Season" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard"), and at the same time, the Green Society Ecological Revitalization Fund uses ecological technology to increase soil organic nutrition, activate soil microorganisms, enrich soil biodiversity, effectively supplement organic trace elements, and continuously and rapidly increase soil organic matter by more than 3‰ in a planting season, so as to achieve healthy soil cultivation and improve soil carbon sink capacity. Reducing carbon emissions has become a means to rapidly improve the function of soil carbon sinks. The rapid and sustainable improvement of soil organic matter is a carbon neutrality solution that is being explored around the world, which can realize the simultaneous planting of crops and the increase of soil organic matter, which is suitable for China's national conditions.
Agricultural carbon sequestration has great potential, but there is still a long way to go. Therefore, the Green Society Ecological Revitalization Fund suggests that, firstly, strengthen the establishment of projects in the rapid improvement of farmland soil carbon sequestration function. To promote the large-scale verification and application of this technology, it is recommended that the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly establish a project, organize experts in relevant fields to demonstrate the technical scheme of farmland carbon sequestration and emission reduction of this technology, and organize relevant units to implement it. Secondly, a pilot area for the rapid improvement of farmland soil carbon sequestration function should be built to promote the scientific and orderly implementation of the project. Due to the diversity, seasonal differences and regional differences of farmland soil carbon sequestration, it is recommended to select representative areas in Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan and other provinces and regions, and build 20 pilot areas for the rapid improvement of farmland soil carbon sequestration function with multi-point and multi-crop soil carbon sequestration function in farmland, facility greenhouses, orchards, etc., with an area of 2000 mu. Thirdly, a monitoring network of farmland soil carbon cycle data was established to scientifically evaluate the function of farmland soil carbon sequestration. It is suggested that a monitoring network of farmland soil carbon cycle data should be established in the qualified pilot area, and a key database of soil carbon cycle should be formed through the application of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and random detection in accordance with the requirements of the Standard, and a regional farmland soil carbon cycle model based on new technologies should be constructed to scientifically evaluate the function of farmland soil carbon sequestration. Finally, the scientific accounting and certification of farmland soil carbon sequestration should be strengthened to promote the healthy and stable development of farmland soil carbon sequestration trading market. Based on the pilot test area, according to the farmland soil carbon cycle model, docking with the carbon sink certification body, determining the accounting principles and processes, project boundaries, baseline identification, accounting methods, monitoring and other requirements of the project carbon sequestration emission reduction in accordance with the requirements of verifiable, repeatable and reviewable, with relevant institutions as the implementation body, the declaration and implementation of farmland soil carbon sink projects, the scientific accounting and certification of regional farmland soil carbon sinks, and the project docking with the carbon sink market.
Accelerate the promotion of efficient water-saving irrigation
Water scarcity is an important factor restricting local social and economic development, especially in agricultural production, natural precipitation is difficult to meet the needs of crop growth, and agricultural production needs to consume a large amount of water resources. According to some data, agricultural irrigation accounts for more than 85% of total water use in arid and semi-arid regions. It is not difficult to see that agricultural water consumption is the main consumption of water, and the key to saving water and reducing consumption is also in agriculture.
In recent years, the mainland has done a lot of work in promoting the construction of agricultural water conservation, and has successively promulgated the "Opinions on the Implementation of the Most Stringent Water Resources Management System", "National Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015-2030)", "Opinions on Promoting the Development of Water-saving Service Industry by Implementing Contract Water-saving Management", "Implementation Plan for Adding 100 Million Mu of High-efficiency Water-saving Irrigation Area in the 13th Five-Year Plan" and other policy documents conducive to water-saving irrigation agriculture. Among them, the "Opinions on the Implementation of the Most Stringent Water Resources Management System" issued by the State Council proposes that by 2030, the water use efficiency will reach or be close to the world's advanced level, and the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water will be increased to more than 0.6.
However, there are still problems of extensive management and low irrigation efficiency in agricultural water use in arid and semi-arid areas of the mainland, which not only cause a lot of waste of resources, but also restrict the sustainable development of agriculture. For example, the promotion of agricultural water-saving irrigation construction in arid and semi-arid areas of the mainland is constrained by the management mode of small farmers, the awareness and habits of water use of growers, the operation and management mechanism and grassroots management, and the cost of water treatment, and there are problems such as insufficient policy guidance, insufficient technology promotion, and insufficient planning and management, resulting in many growers not knowing much about the advantages and technologies of water conservation.
Therefore, the research office of the Green Society suggested that from the aspects of policy, technology, management and other aspects, increase the construction of water-saving irrigation agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas, and comprehensively investigate the distribution of farmland with high-efficiency water-saving irrigation, according to the self-pressure conditions, water quality, planting crop types and other factors, determine the degree of difficulty and constraints in the construction of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technology in each region, as well as geographical distribution, area, etc., and the irrigation technology and water consumption of farmland that have been implemented with high-efficiency water-saving irrigation. At the same time, these data should be made public on the corresponding platforms of each province or autonomous region on a regular basis, so as to provide basic data for public participation in the construction of efficient water-saving irrigation.
Growers are reluctant to invest in high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technology, which may be due to lack of awareness of water-saving, limited mastery of planting technology, lack of understanding of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation technology, and insufficient understanding of costs and benefits. The small-scale peasant economy is an important factor restricting the construction of water-saving irrigation agriculture on the mainland, and the Green Society suggested that we try to build a demonstration farmland for unified farmland management and implement unified management of planting structure and irrigation. Through the demonstration and leading role, we will continue to break through the constraints brought by the dispersion of farmland. At the same time, it is also recommended to rely on the demonstration base to strengthen the publicity and training of other growers, so as to accelerate the construction of water-saving agriculture and help achieve the goal of "reaching or approaching the world's advanced level of water use efficiency by 2030".
Source: Xiaokang magazine, early May 2024
Author: Yuan Shuai
Production: Li Xu Proofreader: Li Xuying
Review: Gong Zimo