PEOPLE TO PEOPLE AMBASSADOR PROGRAMS
AGRONOMY DELEGATION TO CHINA
August 12 – 25, 2005

INTRODUCTION

In the early morning hours of August 15, 2005, the delegation of 12 agronomists and 5 guests gathered at LAX airport in preparation for a 1:55 am departure to Hong Kong to launch the 2005 People to People Ambassador Programs Agronomy Delegation to China. Traveling together for 12-plus hours to Hong Kong, plus spending another 4 hours together in the Hong Kong airport, allowed the delegates to become well acquainted. While some of the agronomists knew each other before gathering in LA, others had never met. Most of the guests had not previously met the other delegates or guests. After a lengthy layover and delay, due to weather in Beijing, the delegation arrived at the hotel in Beijing around 5 pm. Prior to our arrival at the hotel, our national guide, Mr. Tony Zhao, had prearranged the details of registration and bag handling to allow us to move in quickly and be ready for our overview briefing.

The delegation of 12 agronomists brought over 250 years of expertise in the profession in a number of disciplines within the field of agronomy. The mix of private consultants, entrepreneurs, academicians and industry representatives was an asset to the discussion sessions. The expertise of the delegates included sod production (1), plant physiologist (2), plant breeders (2) and soil fertility-nutrient management (7). In addition, several of the group members has expertise in soil management and tillage. Each member of the team has a strong interest in the practical application of science to production agriculture.

August 16, 2005
Orientation and Briefing on China (Presenter- Tony Zhou- National Tour Guide)

China has 22% of the world’s population (1.3 billion people), with only 12% of the arable land (approximately 284 million acres -114 ha) available in the world to use to produce food and fiber. There are 23 provinces, plus 4 municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin. There are also 5 autonomous regions, including Tibet and Zinjiang in the west, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia and Guangxi.

The majority of the population (92%) is Han people, with the remaining 8% being distributed among 55 other ethnic groups. Mandarin is the official language of the country, but there are at least 150 dialects spoken, many different enough that communication between people of different dialects is difficult. Primary religions include Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, with minorities of Christians and Muslims.

The delegation had an opportunity to visit with fellow agronomists in 3 cities in China (Fig. 1). Each of these cities, Beijing in Northeast China, Xi’an in Central China, and Kunming in South Central China offered markedly different agricultural and cultural perspectives. Beijing was a large metropolitan area that offered the delegation an opportunity to visit with aronomists from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and professors from the University of Beijing. Xi’an was also a large metropolitan area, but the delegates had an opportunity to visit the new campus of Northwest A&F University. Kunming, located at a much higher elevation provided the delegation an opportunity to visit a rural village and to observe progress being made with the corn breeding program at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Observing the diversity from location to location gave the delegation a better perspective of the problems and opportunities of Chinese agriculture.


August 17, 2005 – a.m.
Institute of Crop Science
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
No. 12 Zhongguancun South Street
Beijing 100081, China
Participants from Institute of Crop Science
Ming Zhao- professor crop physiology, Tianfu Han - professor soybean breeding, Li Jian-Sheng - professor & vice director National Maize Improvement Center of China

Professor Zhao provided an excellent overview of Chinese agriculture, including statistics on crop production, China’s population, cropping systems and environmental concerns. This information set the stage for discussions that followed with our Chinese colleagues.

Information gained from Professor Zhao follows:

China inhabits 9% of the world’s arable land, with 21% of the world population. Their productive agriculture allows them to provide a substantial portion of the food and fiber needed for this large population, plus in some cases, significant amounts of product to export into the world market. In 1978, communes were eliminated, with agricultural production being placed in the hands of the people. Each person was allotted 0.1 ha (.25 acres) of land. China is the world leader in wheat and rice production and second only to the U.S. in corn production. Exports of agricultural products from China in the form of grain exceed $2 billion U.S. Such exports have been increasing at a rapid pace the last several years.

As a percentage of their diet, the Chinese populace consumes more grain and less meat, fruit and sugar than Americans do. As the economy of China continues to grow, the Chinese populace is shifting its diet from grain to meat, a shift that will ultimately require increased productivity of grains to provide the feed necessary to produce the meat.

Since China is a very large country, it has a significant divergence of climates. Such climatic differences determine the cropping patterns that are used. With accumulated degree days (C based), up to 3,400 C, rice, wheat, corn and soybean are the dominant crops; when degree days increase to over 4,000, multiple cropping, including such rotations as rice-regrown rice- rape or soybean; rice-wheat are possible. Multiple cropping corn-rice or corn-wheat is very common. An integrated system of rice, with ducks and/or fish has proven to be an effective rotation.

Problems facing Chinese agriculture include: erosion, both wind and water; sand storms; drought; water supply (irrigation accounts for 40% of water used in China); manure management; nutrient pollution; and plastic film. In some areas, reduced tillage is being used to reduce both wind and water erosion, but in other areas, much of the residue is removed from the field and used for fuel, thus exposing the soil to increased erosion. Fertilizer consumption, as well as livestock waste production, have increased rapidly (nearly 50% increase in fertilizer in the last 10 years, as well as production of 400 million tons of manure) in the past few years. This large increase without development of nutrient management plans has resulted in an increase in water pollution. The country also faces problems with increased heavy metal pollution from industrial waste. Elements of primary concern include Cd, As, Cr and Pb.