Governments need to better harness technology to improve rural
livelihoods, officials and academics agreed on Friday at an
international workshop on agriculture and rural development in
Beijing.
As well as increasing the level and application of agricultural
technology, speeding up the transfer of farmers to non-agricultural
jobs is a key to China's problem of sluggish rural income growth,
Justin Lin, a leading Chinese expert, told the workshop.
The two-day gathering, sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture
and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
discussed the future of rural areas and agriculture in an
urbanizing and globalizing world, as well as the prospects of
agricultural technology development.
Speaking on Friday's opening ceremony, FAO Director General
Jacques Diouf said harnessing the best of modern science and
technology is a challenge.
"We need the best of modern science and technology to meet the
challenges of an increasingly commercialized and globalized
agricultural sector, and to provide new impetus for addressing the
age-old problems of production variability and food insecurity of
rural populations living in marginal production environments," he
said.
Diouf's point was echoed by M.S. Swaminathan, president of the
Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who said
population-rich but land-hungry countries such as China and India
have to produce more grain per unit of land and water with
diminishing per-capita availabilities.
"Such a challenge can be met only by harnessing the best
technologies and blending them with our heritage of ecological
prudence," Swaminathan said.
Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin said China has embarked on a
strategy of revitalizing agriculture through science and
technology, and has made headway in areas such as
bio-technology.
In addition, a "Fine Seed Project" carried out in China since
the mid-1990s has ensured that 95 percent of the seeds for major
crops are top-grade seeds, the minister said.
Diouf said that in most countries, the scientific, political,
economic or institutional basis is not yet in place to provide
adequate safeguards for bio-technology development and application,
or to reap all the potential benefits.
Justin Lin, director of the China Center for Economic Research
at Peking University, said the
authorities should facilitate translation of agricultural
technology and research results into productivity, and promote
innovations in agricultural technology.
As the ratio of per-capita net income between urban and rural
residents has expanded to 3.2:1 last year from 1.8:1 two decades
ago, Lin said moving more farmers to non-agricultural sectors will
turn many food producers into consumers.
(China Daily September 10, 2005)