On Dec 18, 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs held a news conference to release the latest data on chemical fertilizer and pesticide utilization efficiency. In 2019, the overall utilization of agrochemical on 3 food crops was 39.2% for chemical fertilizers and 39.8% for pesticides, which respectively increased by 4 percent and 3.2 percent over 2015 and is expected to reach the target of 40% by 2020.
Since China started the “Action Plan for the Zero-growth of Chemical Fertilizer and Pesticide Uses by 2020” in 2015, utilization efficiency has become an important and most frequently adopted indicator for scientific use of agrochemicals:
Fertilizer utilization- Ratio between the nutrient uptake of the treated crop and total nutrient used;
Pesticide utilization- Ratio between pesticide deposited on the treated crop and total pesticide used。
Each1-percent increase in utilization efficiency can help China to save as much as 500,000 tons of urea or 30,000 tons of plant products, equivalent to 1.4 or1.7 billion Yuan of farming cost, and the carbon emission reduction could comparable to 464,000 tons of fire coal or 321,000 tons of natural gas.
MoARA explained various experts have been invited to design the measurement and both international-accepted practice and China’s actual situation were considered. Over 1000 field trials on 12,000 groups of crops have been completed and 55,000 growers and 2,200 professional organizations have been surveyed.
The ministry has arranged the test and calculation every 2 years since 2015 and steady improvement has been achieved, owing to wide acknowledgment among consumers, farmers and industries, as well as 3 substantial moves attributable:
Technology extension-MoARA facilitated the application of soil testing and formulated fertilization, mechanized fertilization, irrigation & fertilization integration, organic fertilizer substitution, biological and physical pest control. Up to now, 128.66 million hectares of arable land has been treated with soil testing and formulated fertilization, accounted for 89.3% of the total area. 53.33 million hectares of the area has been treated with green pest control technology；
Green Agrochemical- 16.33 million hectares of the land has been treated with new-type fertilizers such as soil-releasing fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizer and the treated area of organic fertilizers exceeded 36.6 million hectares. Around 30% of crop protection products were replaced from the market every year and 5000 tons of pesticide adjuvants and over 500,000 plant protection machines have been used；
Professional agricultural service- Over 80,000 business entities have been formed, offering specialized services such as integrated fertilization and integrated pest management and their market penetration in the top 3 major crops was 40.1%.
MoARA hope efficiency improvement in agrochemical uses can play an even greater role in China’s agricultural quality enhancement and green development and will accelerate technological extension in food production regions, horticultural crop regions and facility vegetable regions and the replacement of the outdated products and machinery, as well as secure more financial support to professional service entities.
