The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) has announced the mid-to-long-term development goals and key tasks of the "Wotian Science and Technology Action" to provide scientific and technological support for serving China's strategy of sustainable farmland use and solving key problems in cultivated land.

The action, unveiled on Dec 15 in Beijing, aims to solve the contradiction between cultivated land degradation and high crop yield in stages by launching several major types of scientific and technological arable land research, consolidating basic scientific and technological work, and building scientific and technological innovation platforms.

CAAS President Wu Kongming said China uses 9 percent of the world's arable land to feed about 20 percent of the world's population, thanks to the production potential released by the land.

But overall, China has less per capita arable land, less high-quality arable land, and less potential arable land resources. Therefore, it is urgent to accelerate the scientific and technological innovation of cultivated land and accelerate the scientific protection and utilization of cultivated land, said Wu.

According to Zhou Wei, chief scientist of Cultivated Land Science and Technology Innovation of the CAAS and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, in the face of glaring problems in China's northeastern black land, northern dry land, southern paddy land, southern upland, saline-alkali land, facility farmland and reserve arable land, the action will aid in the development of core technologies and carry out full-chain technological innovation to solve major technological problems.

"Northeast China is facing severe challenges such as soil erosion, soil organic matter decline, and soil compaction," Zhou said.

In response to these problems, the action will establish a black soil fertility evolution and obstacle reduction mechanism, as well as develop protective cultivation and high-efficiency crop rotation technology, efficient products and equipment, the integration of northeast black soil quality improvement technology models and demonstration applications.

The National Cultivated Land Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) holds an unveiling ceremony on Dec 15 in Beijing. [Photo/CAAS]

In addition, the action will include strengthening the long-term basic work of science and technology and building a major platform for scientific land cultivation to give play to the supporting role of agricultural technology in the protection and utilization of cultivated land and the improvement of soil fertility.

Zhou said he hopes the action will ensure that by 2030, the degradation of cultivated land quality will be effectively curbed, the farmland fertility of the demonstration area will be increased by one level, and crop yields will increase by more than 10 percent.