Academician Li Wenhua: China needs to take the road of diversified agricultural development

"It is more meaningful to link the study of agricultural cultural heritage with the solution of what kind of road To take in China's agriculture." On June 5, Li Wenhua, an 89-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, attended the symposium on the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Natural and Cultural Heritage Research Center of the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and for more than three hours, the elderly sat in the venue and listened carefully to the speeches of each speaker. Since he became the director of the center 15 years ago, he has been like a banner, condensing a cross-regional, cross-unit, and interdisciplinary research team, so that China's agricultural cultural heritage research from scratch, from small to large. Nowadays, some of China's theoretical, method and mechanism research in this field has taken the lead in the world, providing scientific support for the protection of the world's agricultural cultural heritage.

The excavation, protection, utilization and inheritance of agricultural cultural heritage originated from the "Globally Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage (GIAHS)" conservation initiative launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2002. According to the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, globally important agricultural cultural heritage refers to "a unique land-use system and agricultural landscape formed by the long-term co-evolution and dynamic adaptation of rural areas and their environment, which are rich in biodiversity and can meet the needs of local socio-economic and cultural development and contribute to the sustainable development of the region." ”

According to Researcher Min Qingwen, deputy director of the Research Center for Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China is the earliest responder and active participant in the FAO Globally Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage Initiative. At present, a total of 62 agricultural heritage sites in 21 countries around the world have been selected as "GlobalLy Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage", and China accounts for 15 seats, which is the largest number of countries in the world. In addition, China is also the first country to carry out the excavation of national agricultural cultural heritage, the first to issue national management measures, the first to start monitoring and evaluation work... China's scientific papers and works in this field also rank first in the world.

"The study of agricultural cultural heritage sites is by no means limited to a few heritage sites selected, we must strengthen the excavation of the roots and soul of agricultural cultural heritage," said Academician Li Wenhua, speaking of future development. He believes that these heritage sites that inherit cultural traditions can provide some ideas for the current agricultural development of our country. Now advocating the combination of agriculture and forestry management, ecological agriculture, under-forest economy... Many of the examples come from agricultural heritage sites. "What exactly are roots and souls?" Where is the most precious thing? How can we spread more to other places and use these home-grown things to solve practical problems in our agricultural development. ”

"We can absorb some valuable things from history," he suggested, in the process of participating in the study of global agricultural cultural heritage protection, "to understand more, everything that is good should seize the opportunity, learn well, and absorb the essence of the world, rather than thriving." When nature gives us problems again, we use China's wisdom to sum up everyone's experience and establish a diversified path of China's agricultural development. It is different from other countries, and some shadows of other countries can be found. This is in line with the actual conditions of our multi-ethnic, complex terrain and long-established agricultural development. ”

"We seem to be working silently, but in fact we are all laying the foundation for a big system and contributing." Academician Li Wenhua encouraged young researchers to link the study of agricultural cultural heritage more with national needs and solve practical problems. (Liu Li)

Source: Science and Technology Daily