UF/IFAS extension explores crop protection partnerships with China

Regardless of where a farm exists on the globe, one thing is certain: the farmer in charge of it needs crop protection help to combat agricultural pests and diseases. Pests and diseases don’t stay put in the modern world, either; they are transferred from one nation to another, either through natural movement or through shipments of products.

Under such conditions, international partnerships become important in providing crop protection information to farmers. If a pest invades a new region, experts accustomed to dealing with it can give identification assistance and management advice to the region being invaded. Because concerns over food security, food safety, and agricultural trade continue to increase, there is a need to build partnerships for training, early detection, and accurate diagnosis of pests, plant diseases, and invasive species.

That’s why UF/IFAS extension has begun exploring crop protection partnerships with China, a major U.S. trading partner. A team of five UF/IFAS extension faculty, headed by Dr. Pete Vergot, the Extension District Director for the Northwest District, visited the People’s Republic of China as a part of a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service scientific exchange program. The trip was an excellent professional development experience for the UF/IFAS faculty and will benefit Florida’s extension programs through exposure to new ideas and information and the potential for shared monitoring of the spread of pests and diseases.

The Florida team met many Chinese colleagues and presented to them several UF/IFAS Extension programs and the UF/IFAS Distance Diagnostic Information System (DDIS), which Florida’s extension faculty use to identify agricultural pests and diseases. A system like DDIS has the potential to protect agriculture through early detection and can be implemented in different nations through the International Plant Diagnostic Network (IPDN).

The Florida team learned that crop protection is an important issue in China’s agriculture. The Chinese have established county and regional crop protection stations and each county assigns extension agents to work in the area of crop protection.  The UF/IFAS faculty found it very interesting to discover that several of the Chinese institutions they visited have a program similar to DDIS, such as the Jiangsu Agricultural Pest Information System. They also learned that China’s extension system—unlike Florida’s—is under the Ministry of Agriculture and various levels of the local government.

The UF/IFAS faculty had a busy schedule, visiting Chinese agricultural institutions. They met with colleagues at the National Agro-Tech Extension & Service Center (NATESC), which provides technical leadership for China’s extension system, and learned that its main programs are: 1) crop protection, 2) animal husbandry, 3) aquaculture, 4) farming machinery, and 5) economic management.

The Florida team also attended meetings at the Information Center and Crop Protection Center at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS); the Agricultural Demonstration Center in Guangdong; various plant protection agencies and extension offices at the county, municipal, and provincial level in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces; and three universities: China Agricultural University, Nanjing Agricultural University, and South China Agricultural University. In addition, the team attended China’s Sixth National Agricultural Expo.

Through these meetings, the UF/IFAS team gained first-hand knowledge of China’s extension system, programs, and information technology (IT) projects. China’s extension system uses the Internet, mobile phones, TV, and demonstration centers as the primary means to deliver information to farmers, but also uses flyers, newspapers, and wall maps.

The counties visited now have high speed Internet connections to all farmers, thanks to the Chinese government’s implementation of its “three agriculture” policy, a tri-partite national policy that refers to the word “Nong,” which can mean, variously: Agriculture, Farmers, and Villages/Rural Areas. Policy related to these three areas is therefore called China’s “three agriculture” policy, which impacts a vast sector of China. The government wants to:
  modernize agricultural equipment,
  use modern science and technology to transform agriculture,
  use a modern industrial system to impact agriculture in a positive way,
  develop a “modern philosophy” to lead farmers into adopting modern production agriculture,
  improve agricultural irrigation systems, and
  increase the level of mechanization and the adoption of information technology to:
  improve land productivity,
  better use resources,
  improve agricultural productivity, and
  improve the quality of agricultural efficiency and competitiveness 

As part of this tri-partite policy, the Chinese government has already begun enacting reforms to modernize China’s agriculture, including investment in new infrastructure such as roads and communication systems (TV, mobile, and Internet) for rural areas in the nation. The members of the UF/IFAS delegation saw the information technology component in place and functioning effectively in the township their hosts took them to visit.  More and more farmers are now using the Internet to seek market information and to locate knowledge on pest and plant disease management.

If China is able to expand this IT network to every village, that alone would have a profound impact on China’s agricultural productivity.  If China is able to achieve the other goals in its “three agriculture policy,” expanding its production capacity, then the People’s Republic of China could be poised to become a major world player in the import/export of agribusiness products.

Clearly, China is planning far into the future in this area of national development. Given the response of village farmers to the availability of internet connections, it is equally clear that China’s farmers intend to take advantage of the new opportunities.  Keep your eyes on China as it develops its agricultural capacity, because there should be many, many opportunities for collaborative programs between China and UF/IFAS students, educators, Extension specialists, and expert scientists.