Chinese farm products face a tough time as the country's weak, albeit huge, agriculture sector has increasingly integrated into the world economy due to China's WTO membership. China's foreign trade on agri-products in 2004 likely bled red at 5.5 billion USD, compared with a surplus of more than 2 billion in 2003, turning China into a sheer importer of agri-products from an exporter.

Actually, two things did not go on the way as people had expected for the country's WTO membership. On one hand, it had been thought that foreign automobiles would have flocked into the country. On the other hand, the rosy picture for Chinese agri-products exports has proved to be nothing but over-optimism.

Chinese exporters who used to have faith in labor-intensive agri-products, such as horticulture, poultry and aquatic products, have found their orders were shrinking, although there was a slight increase in vegetables exports.

Chinese agri-products are facing dual pressures on the international market. The low level of industrialization of China's agriculture leads to poor productivity and high costs. Statistics shows that human costs for corn, wheat, rice, bean, cotton and rapeseed make up 45 percent of the whole costs on average while developed countries spend less than 10 percent on manpower.

The standardization, quality and safety are also prominent problems. In addition, at least 80 percent of agri-products are processed products in developed countries while only some 20 percent are in China.

China is on its way toward the modernization of its traditional agriculture. In this process, the scientific innovation and application of agricultural engineering is the top priority. Holand, Israel and US have set paradigms for a perfect combination between the agriculture engineering, agricultural bioscience and agricultural economic and management art.

China has also launched many agricultural research projects in recent years. It has the most extensive protected horticulture in the world, covering more than 2.1 million hectares. Protected culture is developing so fast, especially in the north of the country, that it offers one third of the vegetables supply for the domestic market.

The 3S technologies (remote sensing, geographic information system and global positioning system) and computer based smart systems mark a new age for agricultural information technology. A monitoring network on agricultural resources integrating sensing technology, geological database makes it possible to work out assessment on any changes of arable land, growth of crops and natural disasters.

In 2006, China will grow super hybrid rice across the country if the newly developed plasmas pass the testing later this year. The project has been included in this year's No.1 Document issued by the State Council which is devised to bring prosperity to the rural economy.

The project is led by Yuan Longping, "Father of Hybrid Rice". He expects the extra output brought by super hybrid rice to feed another 70 million population every year if 200 million mu of such rice is grown.

Last year, the 11 patches of 100-mu land yielded 800 kilograms per mu with three of them exceeding the record for two years in a row. This was realized one year earlier than scheduled.

One of the pilot patches in Fujian, in particular, harvested 928.3 kilograms of rice per mu. China has developed 12 plasmas of super hybrid rice so far. Another two will be tested in demonstration land.

Yuan's hybrid rice is recognized as a great contribution to the fact that China's arable land, which accounts for merely 10 percent of the world's total, feeds 22 percent of the world's population. It is expectable that the super hybrid rice will play an even bigger role in securing the country's grain supply once it is applied around China.

These model land will help promote the super hybrid rice in the future. Yuan's institution offers a documentary to farmers which tells them what hybrid super rice is and how it should be sown. Farmers will also have access to technical support and training programs from scientists and agricultural technicians.

Recently the commercialization of transgenic rice has aroused great controversy in China. Yuan does not resist the technology. Actually he disclosed that the third phase for the hybrid super rice would use the molecule-marker technology. The project which targets at 900 kilograms of harvest per mu has been initiated this year, one year earlier ahead of schedule. But he stressed that the application of gene technology should be very prudential.

Protection of intellectual property rights is another challenge that China's agricultural sector faces now. Take the super hybrid rice as an example. Although legally it is under the protection, rights infringement still has happened. And the extensive cropping and complicated partnership on R&D all add to the difficulty of effective protection.

The experience of foreign businesses, however, is another story. They collect wild resources in China and develop new plasmas. Then, armed with intellectual property rights they impose expensive patent royalties on Chinese farmers who buy seeds from them.

For example, China is the place of origin for soybean. 90 percent of wild soybean which has been identified in the world can be found in China. As special qualities of wild soybean are very important to grow better soybean, breeding and bio-engineering companies are vying for wild soybean.

In recent decades, US has collected soybean resources in most areas in north China, including wild varieties. The drain of these resources has turned China into the biggest soybean importer in the world from the biggest importer. Many soybean plasma resources have been taken away, upgraded, and sold at premium by foreign companies.

One of the underlying reasons for this problem is the under developed agriculture. Now the solution to the "three agricultural issues"(agriculture, rural areas and farmers) is on the top agenda of China's policy. The central government understands very clearly that a comprehensive well-off society would not be possible if the country's agriculture lagged behind. It gives strategic top priority to the sector in policy making, makes strenuous efforts on protecting arable land, and offers special care to farmers.

Yet the intrinsic momentum is absolutely necessary besides the push start. It is a consensus that industrialization of the agriculture is the way to sharpen the competitiveness of the sector in the post-WTO era. And in this process of industrialization innovation and effective protection of innovation are of utmost significance.

(People’s Daily February 18, 2005)