Investigation And Recommendation On Developing Protected Agriculture In Tianjin

The striking feature of modern agriculture is protected agriculture, thus developing protected agriculture is the key for agriculture modernization. Agriculture in Tianjin is typical urban agriculture. Several factors are believed to have contributed to the necessity of developing protected agriculture in Tianjin, including restricted land use, the imbalance of seasonal food supplies, increasing population, food consumption, and the demands for off-season fresh products.Thought protected agriculture project in Tianjin was initiated comparatively early in China, protected agriculture development was left far behind Beijing and Shandong Province. Compared to traditional farm field production, protected agriculture brings high yield and year-round production; nevertheless, the relative high initial investment and high cost to ensure winter production, especially in cold region, like Tianjin curbed its extension.To promote protected agriculture projects in Tianjin, this paper focused on three aspects: construction, production and marketing, and raised the following suggestion to enhance protected agriculture development in Tianjin:(a) Improve marketing channel and focus on contract farming to build market-led commercial agriculture, link producers to buyers and reduce the number of intermediate processors to maximize farmers benefits, (b) Establish web-based information platform for dissemination of timely information on demand-supply, forecast market trends and guide planting, and help farmers to combat plant diseases, insects, pests and weeds, (c) Perfect farm insurance policies to protect farmers livelihood, and provide a range of insurance to cover the vary things farmers depend on to earn a living, (d) Improve agricultural subsidy, control food price and provide a safety net for farm households, aid farmers with research, loan, and insurance programs under the lead of Department of commerce and agriculture, (e) Provide farmers education and training (f) Link protected agriculture to tourism.