Low-carbon agriculture focuses on integrated innovation
Recently, China's agriculture and rural areas have actively responded to climate change, and have achieved remarkable results in promoting carbon reduction, green expansion and growth. The "2023 China Agricultural and Rural Low-Carbon Development Report" points out that at present, the carbon emission intensity of China's major agricultural products is on a downward trend, and the stable and safe supply of food and important agricultural products is being ensured with a lower agricultural carbon emission intensity. The time has come to develop low-carbon agriculture.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has successively introduced low-carbon development policies in agriculture and rural areas, such as "one control, two reductions and three basics", "five major actions for agricultural green development" and "ten actions" for agricultural and rural carbon emission reduction and sequestration, aiming to reduce the intensity of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, improve the carbon sequestration capacity of farmland soil, and continuously contribute to the realization of the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
Low-carbon agriculture adopts low-energy, low-pollution, and low-emission production methods, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural production processes while maintaining or improving the yield and quality of agricultural products. Many places have actively explored the efficient development model of low-carbon agriculture and achieved certain results. For example, Heilongjiang continues to develop new models such as intelligent and automated production management, which are not only more low-carbon and environmentally friendly, but also greatly reduce production costs and bring a batch of higher-value agricultural products. Some local digital and intelligent modern agricultural parks realize automatic life cycle monitoring of fruits and vegetables through central environmental control and monitoring and control systems, etc., which can save at least half of the cost compared with traditional shed production, and can also produce high-quality vegetables to meet the needs of the market "vegetable basket". The new model reflects the positive functions of low-carbon agriculture in reducing agricultural emissions, improving production sustainability, and promoting the transformation and upgrading of rural economy.
At present, low-carbon agriculture still lacks subversive key technologies to increase production and reduce emissions, and lacks a production model that efficiently reduces pollution and carbon emissions, and produces high yields and emission reductions. Giving full play to the role of innovation can continue to make up for shortcomings and promote the green and low-carbon development of agriculture. At the same time, the integration degree of the integrated low-carbon agricultural model applicable to the region is still low, and it is urgent to break through the bottlenecks such as the lack of integration of the agricultural emission reduction model, and the lack of synergy between low-carbon development and quality and efficiency improvement. In this regard, some places are actively exploring, such as Suining, Jiangsu Province, to build a "protective embankment" against agricultural non-point source pollution, Tongxiang in Zhejiang Province to implement full-cycle management of agricultural inputs, and Wuyi Mountain in Fujian Province to develop a green and beautiful ecological tea garden model, all of which reflect the effect of integration and coordination.
Breaking through bottlenecks and making up for shortcomings is inseparable from innovation. In the next step, we should focus on key areas such as fertilizer, aquaculture, carbon sequestration, and planting, carry out technology research and development and model innovation, strengthen the research and development of green and low-carbon agricultural core technologies and equipment such as methane emission reduction in paddy fields, low-carbon emission reduction of livestock and poultry, and improvement of farmland carbon sinks, and actively explore emission reduction and carbon sequestration technologies. At present, China has formulated the "Implementation Plan for Agricultural and Rural Carbon Emission Reduction and Sequestration", compiled a list of scientific and technological innovation needs for agricultural and rural emission reduction and carbon sequestration, and all localities should combine the actual situation to increase innovation in technology and other fields to form a green and low-carbon agricultural development model suitable for themselves.
Low-carbon agriculture is interdisciplinary, cross-field, complex and technologically complementary, and it is necessary to pay attention to integrated innovation and realize synergy in technology and other fields. A cross-unit, interdisciplinary, and cross-team cooperation mechanism can be established to build a platform for government, industry, academia, research and application. For example, the construction of high-standard farmland, which has achieved remarkable results in recent years, is due to the concerted efforts of all localities and departments to increase the adoption rate of new technologies such as water-saving irrigation while reducing carbon emission intensity, reflecting the synergistic effect of increasing grain production and carbon emission reduction.
The development of low-carbon agriculture requires the joint participation of the government, enterprises, scientific research institutions and farmers, and the improvement of government policies, the technological innovation of scientific research institutions, the transformation of farmers' cognition and the effective docking of the market are indispensable. China's agriculture has a low carbon intensity to support stable production and supply and food security, which is not easy to come by, and we should cherish the results and make long-term contributions, so as to contribute to the continuous realization of bumper yields and incomes, and green and low-carbon development.
