Deputy Director-General of the United Nations: China's agricultural science and technology innovation has three major misunderstandings

2013-06-06 Developments

2013-06-05 From China Net

the book "Food Security-Challenges and Responses of the Century" by He Changchui, Deputy Director-General of the United Nations for Food and Agriculture, was released in Beijing today. The book points out that while fully understanding the importance and urgency of agricultural scientific and technological innovation to China's national food security and agricultural development, we should also face up to some misunderstandings of agricultural scientific and technological innovation in China's agricultural departments.

One of the misunderstandings: scientific and technological innovation is scientific research and scientific and technological leadership, and scientific and technological innovation is a "panacea" for the entire agricultural and rural development"

this view holds that as long as scientific research can be carried out and scientific and technological leadership can be achieved, all problems can be easily solved. In fact, agricultural science and technology innovation is the product of the joint evolution and interaction of the "double helix structure" of agricultural science and technology progress and application innovation; it is the interaction between scientific and technological personnel and agricultural producers and consumers in the process of agricultural production to tap demand, through agricultural producers and consumers to participate in the whole process of creativity, research and development to experimental promotion and application. Agricultural science and technology innovation includes five interconnected stages: basic research, applied research, demonstration experiments, popularization and application, and market entry. These five interconnected stages are indispensable. The current theory of scientific and technological innovation should be the theory of double helix structure, scientific progress and applied innovation interact with each other, interact and spiral up.

Agricultural science and technology innovation emphasizes the power of science and technology in the process of innovation, but it is not the invention of science and technology itself, but the value realization of agricultural science and technology invention. Agricultural science and technology innovation is not a pure scientific and technological concept. In fact, it should be an economic concept. Scientific research alone, without subsequent promotion and application, industrial production and market entry, cannot be called scientific and technological innovation. In addition, scientific and technological innovation can provide impetus for agricultural development, improve agricultural productivity and international competitiveness, but to achieve sustainable agricultural development and food security, a series of supporting measures, a sound policy environment and social and cultural environment are needed. Scientific and technological innovation is not a universal panacea ".

The second misunderstanding: that agricultural science and technology innovation is the research of high and new technology, is the leading science and technology.

This view has led to the blind pursuit of high-tech and high-tech research, the so-called "top-level design", the worship of "big science", and the blind enthusiasm for "big projects, big projects, and big topics". In the case of limited national resources, a large amount of resources and even the country's financial resources are blindly invested in these "big plans", "big projects" or large projects, and the cumulative agricultural technology innovation is dismissive, and even squeezes, "shut down and turn" Those traditional agricultural technology research has caused some traditional or non-mainstream practical disciplines and applied technology research to shrink or even disappear. Such misunderstandings and policy misinformation are common in many developing countries. In China, there was a period of time when thousands of troops fought against agricultural high-tech "biotechnology", repeated investment, resulting in waste, while traditional cross breeding and mutation breeding lacked financial support, and was once put into the "cold palace". Some practical cultivation techniques and soil and water conservation techniques have also been squeezed and neglected.

Practice has proved that it is precisely these neglected traditional breeding techniques and practical techniques that have made great contributions to China's food production and food security. Up to now, China has bred more than 2200 new wheat varieties using traditional breeding techniques, which has made outstanding contributions to China's wheat production. Although the development of modern biotechnology will inject new vitality into traditional breeding techniques, these traditional breeding techniques are still in a dominant position in crop variety improvement. It can be seen that the innovation of agricultural science and technology to improve agricultural productivity and national food security does not necessarily have to be devoted to high-input, "high-precision" agricultural technology. Low-cost, high-efficiency, modern and traditional organic combination of practical technologies can often make timely and greater contributions to the agricultural development and food security of developing countries. For example, "Sangji Fishery Field" is a model widely promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to the world.

Misunderstanding 3: Ignoring the important position and role of farmers in agricultural science and technology innovation

no matter when formulating the strategy of agricultural science and technology innovation or determining agricultural scientific research projects, we often adopt a kind of "behind closed doors", "tracking foreign countries" or "top-down" technological innovation and application innovation thinking, ignoring not only the role of farmers in agricultural science and technology innovation, but also the real needs of farmers as end users or beneficiaries. As a result, the supply and demand of scientific and technological innovation are disconnected, and the conversion rate of technological achievements is low, the efficiency and effect of scientific and technological innovation are not ideal. At present, the population of Chinese farmers still accounts for about 50% of the total population of the country. No country can compare with China in terms of rural scale and peasant population. This huge scale and demographic characteristics have formed one of the most basic and important national conditions of China's rural development and agricultural production. Any scientific and technological innovation that ignores the actual needs and functions of farmers will definitely fail in the end. Because as the most important leading factor in agricultural productivity, farmers are the key to the success or failure of agricultural science and technology innovation.

The experience and lessons of implementation show that it is effective and successful to formulate and implement agricultural science and technology innovation strategies and technical routes driven by farmers and agricultural production needs, based on or guided by the results of promoting agricultural production and food security. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency jointly adopted this demand-driven technological innovation based on application results, using nuclear technology to study successful bovine lung disease diagnostic technology, and helped many African countries to root out the disease. Botswana alone, It protects beef exports worth 90 million US dollars to EU countries every year.

When determining the strategy of agricultural science and technology innovation, we must understand the cost and efficiency of scientific and technological innovation, the relationship between scientific and technological innovation and scientific and technological progress, the balance of modern and traditional technology, the research of forward-looking innovation and traditional applied technology, the technology beneficial to small farmers and the proportion of intensive agricultural high-tech, resource-based and labor-intensive technology development and many other factors. In addition, the policy environment and social and cultural environment also play an important role in the success or failure of scientific and technological innovation, which is very important for policy makers.

(Responsible editor: Shixin)