When it comes to agriculture, many people's stereotypical impression is about planting and raising pigs. Many technology enthusiasts also name their small farms after watermelons, tomatoes, and peppers, giving the younger generation the initial impression that it's not very trendy, leading them to reject studying agriculture. However, from the perspective of the entire agricultural industry chain and the multifunctionality of agriculture, modern agriculture is an important application scenario for new productivity.
The breakthrough lies in interdisciplinary collaboration and systematic approaches.
New productivity is represented by fields such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, low-altitude economy, quantum technology, life sciences, and digital economy. There are two fields directly related to agriculture, namely biomanufacturing and life sciences. There are also two fields indirectly related to agriculture, namely low-altitude economy and digital economy. For example, agricultural drones are actually part of both the digital economy and the low-altitude economy.
New productivity must be advanced productivity, but advanced productivity is not necessarily new productivity. New productivity is the productivity that can bring about original technological revolutions. Productivity includes labor, objects of labor, labor materials, or production tools. In agriculture, new quality labor refers to highly skilled individuals with original technological innovation capabilities, innovative industries with new formats and models, and original and cutting-edge technological achievements.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is advancing in sync with a new agricultural revolution. With the help of technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and cutting-edge biotechnology, we are expected to fundamentally reshape the agricultural production mode and deeply innovate various aspects of agricultural production. Geneticization, intelligence, engineering, greenization, and nutritionization will become new trends in agricultural development.
In 2018, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States proposed that by 2030, there will be five major technological breakthroughs in agricultural technology. The first one is interdisciplinary collaboration and systematic approaches. Traditionally, people viewed agriculture as a sector of biological science, but with the progress of technological revolution, agriculture will be a field where significant breakthroughs are made through interdisciplinary collaboration and systematic approaches.
There are three main paths for new productivity to lead the construction of a strong agricultural nation:
First, breakthroughs in the originality of technological innovation in traditional agricultural production areas. This does not refer to marginal improvements in traditional agricultural production areas but rather disruptive technological innovations that are completely different from existing technological routes in terms of principles and approaches, capable of replacing existing technological solutions, such as biological breeding.
Second, the introduction and concentration of completely new production elements in the agricultural field. The most typical example is smart agriculture, which integrates information, sensors, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence technologies into agriculture. Smart agriculture is actually the integrated application of various smart technologies in agriculture.
Third, breakthroughs in the cross-border agricultural formats, marking a profound expansion of the connotation and extension of new productivity in agriculture. Fields related to agriculture such as biomanufacturing, veterinary public health, biomedicine, biopharmaceuticals, food nutrition, and health should be areas of focus for agricultural universities.
Technology small farm clusters should emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration.
Recently, we visited the Dali Erhai Lake Technology Small Farm Cluster, where many intelligent technologies are utilized, such as analyzing regional pollutant emissions using sensors and data technologies. In the smart restaurant next to the Dali agricultural processing technology small farm, robots cook food for customers. This not only represents a significant expansion of traditional formats but also a cross-border breakthrough of new productivity in the agricultural field.
How to cultivate talents in line with new productivity? First, we should not cling to traditional formats but actively embrace new formats. Second, attract and introduce cutting-edge technologies to cultivate talents with more innovative spirit who keep up with the forefront of technology. Third, when establishing new disciplines, consider whether they are oriented towards advanced formats, and when transforming disciplines, consider whether they are oriented towards cutting-edge technologies. It must be acknowledged that agricultural colleges generally have some shortcomings in terms of discipline structure, curriculum system, and content, such as focusing more on traditional agricultural industries and lacking in the manifestation of the multifunctionality of industries; focusing more on traditional production modes and techniques and lacking emphasis on new productivity thinking.
Traditional inherent thinking is mainly reflected in three aspects:
First, equating agricultural formats with planting and breeding. People think of agriculture as planting and raising pigs, but in reality, agriculture has an industry chain where planting and breeding are just one link. There are also processing, circulation, marketing, services, finance, branding, and other links. If agriculture is equated with planting and breeding, it is essentially narrowing down the scope of agriculture to traditional formats.
Second, equating agricultural disciplines with agricultural science disciplines. Agriculture should be considered from a multifunctional perspective. In the past, we thought that agricultural products only provided animal and plant products to solve the problem of having enough to eat and eat well. In reality, today's animal and plant products are related to medicine, nutrition and health, leisure, and even chemicals and industrial products.
Third, equating the cultivation of agricultural talents with the cultivation of life science talents. The new technological revolution will definitely break through the existing disciplinary boundaries. Cultivating agricultural talents should not be limited to traditional biotechnologies but should also include modern biotechnologies, engineering technologies, information technologies, and even ethical knowledge in social sciences. In fact, I have always believed that without engineering education, there is no modern agricultural education. In today's society, it is no longer the era of primitive farming, and the application of agricultural research results must rely on mechanization and intelligence.
When it comes to technology small farms, Dali is one of the best places where technology small farm clusters are well established. The so-called cluster refers to interdisciplinary integration, rather than just building a bunch of differently named technology small farms. One of the evaluation criteria for technology small farm clusters is that they emphasize organic connections and interdisciplinary collaboration to address multidimensional issues in modern industry and rural development.
(The author is the Vice President of China Agricultural University. This article is based on interviews from the 2024 National Conference on Technology Small Farms by reporter Wen Caifei and correspondent Liu Zheng.)
