Study On The Restricting Factors And Countermeasures For Sustainable Intensified Grain Production Technology Application In Smallholder Farming System

It is key strategy to close grain yield gap while improve resources use efficiency for sustainable development of China. However, how to promote the technology application in large scale small farming systems has been a common challenge for both the governments and scientists. The Center for Resources, Environment and Food Security (CREFS) of China Agricultural University initiated the Science and Technology Backyard (STB) at Quzhou County, Hebei Province and Lishu County, Jilin Province in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Based on STB platform, this study evaluated the restricting factors and countermeasure of technology application for sustainable intensified grain production at Quzhou County and Lishu County by employee survey data and field experiment data. The main conclusions were as follows:1. There are plenty of factors constraining the yield gap in two study area, which include the less enthusiasm of farmers on grain production, poor education of farmers, small scale of farmland, leg behind farming infrastructure, the distempered service and extension system. Along with the land scale expanded, the constraining factors changed accordingly. It shows that the dominant factor in Lishu County (relative professional farmers) is the weak market service system rather than farmers’ insufficient knowledge.2. To elevate farmers’enthusiasm towards new technologies, farmers participation innovation approach was implemented, which make it possible for farmers to adopt the technologies easily and quickly. For example, results in Quzhou County and Lishu County over past five to seven years show that farmers who participated in technologies innovation closed the yield gap from 32.1% and 38.5% to 4.1% and 14.5%, respectively. Farmer’s participation had meat the perception both of scientists and farmers themselves. It not only achieved scientists’ desire for high yield and high resource use efficiency, but also met farmers’ desire for high labor productivity and economic profit. In comparison to traditional management practices, the labor productivity and ratio of cost-benefit on wheat of leading farmers were increased by 35.7% and 105.6%, respectively, and 73.4% and 115.2% on maize. The corresponding effects were increased 159.8% and 23.6% at Lishu County. Getting high labor productivity and economic profit has increased farmers enthusiasm to participate in technologies innovation. The number of leading farmers increased from 45 to 71 at Quzhou County and from 396 to 2520 at Lishu County.3. Targeting at the poor knowledge base of farmers, the service modes named "four zero" (zero-distance, zero-fees, zero-threshold and zero-day) helped to enhance farmers’knowledge level. In comparison to the control village, farmers in STB village became more knowledgeable than their counterparts regarding the key technologies. The knowledge level on key technologies of STB farmers in Quzhou County was 20.6 percent higher than the farmers in control villages. The knowledge level on key technologies of the lead farmers in Lishu was 28.1 percent higher than the traditional farmers.4. Targeting at small scale of farmland and poor farming infrastructure, the unique farmers’ organization mode named combining land for uniform practice (CLUP) at Quzhou County and "leading farmers and cooperation" at Lishu County had efficiently reduced the production cost. For example, in comparison to traditional management farmers, the production cost of farmers in Quzhou STB villages decreased by 9.3% on wheat and 10.7% on maize, respectively. The production cost of farmers in Lishu "leading farmers and cooperation" mode decreased by 3.6%. Secondly, these two modes had both increased the development of mechanization. For example, the adoption rate of soil-pan-loosening tillage practices in Quzhou STB villages was 20.5 percent higher than the control villages. The adoption rate of no-tillage planter in Lishu "leading farmers and cooperation" mode was 87 percent higher than the traditional farmers. Thirdly, the CLUP mode at Quzhou County had increased the adoption rate of sowing maize at the right time through improving the efficiency of irrigation facilities.5. Targeting at the distemperedness service and extension system, the Science and Technology Backyard in the two counties established platforms to coordinate the efforts from universities, enterprises and local governments and improved their service. For example, starting in 2010, Quzhou County added 20 full-time agricultural technicians to promote the adoption of STB recommendations and allocated subsidy to boost the adoption of soil-pan-loosening tillage practices. Meanwhile, private enterprises cooperated with STBs as well, their service mode started to shift from "you come and buy what I have in stock" to "I can supply what you need".6. The transdisciplinary approaches conducted in STBs have successfully broken the restricting factors for grain production step by step and then close yield gap while improve resource efficiency and economic profit of farmers. For example, during 2009-2014, the population, grain production, rural per capita agriculture income and fertilizer consumption at Quzhou County increased by 15%,36%,79% and 12%, respectively.