CROP-DUSTER: A TTF member in Shucheng County, Anhui Province, fills the tank of an unmanned helicopter with pesticide to spray on farmland on August 20, 2011 (LI JIAN)

Professor Li echoed Zhang's remarks, saying while some new techniques may seem very promising, they are not practical for ordinary farmers. "Only after we came to the fields did we find out what farmers really needed," he said.

Despite the clear benefits of direct involvement in agricultural production, many researchers still spend more time writing papers and developing patents than researching what farmers really need in practice. "They don't go to the fields at all. Instead, they just stay in the labs and normally their technologies are not that appropriate for the farmland," Li said.

To change this situation, Li suggests that the evaluation system of agricultural researchers should be reformed. "The effectiveness of a new technique should be included as a very important factor for the evaluation," he said.

Difficulties

China has the world's largest number of programs and teams dedicated to agricultural education, research and popularization. Although the development of agricultural science and technology has made a great contribution in feeding China's 1.3 billion people, the overall level of agricultural science and technology in the country is still low. Besides, there are still many difficulties in transferring new technologies from labs into practice.

In fact, China first set up a system to promote agricultural science and technology in the 1950s under the planned economy. However, that system failed to develop smoothly.

In March 2011, at the Fourth Session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, 158 lawmakers submitted five separate motions on the modification of the Law on the Popularization of Farming Techniques, which said the current law was no longer effective in promoting agricultural science and technology.

Based on his long time experience conducting research in rural areas, Luo Xiaoyong, Vice Dean of the Agronomy and Plant Protection School of Qingdao Agricultural University in Shandong Province, believes the mismanagement of current agricultural science and technology popularization schemes is an increasingly serious problem.

"I spend less than 10 percent of my time on popularization of agricultural science and technology, because I have to handle a lot of administrative affairs," said Yuan Yong, Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Dongxi Township in Jianyang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province. There are altogether three people at the service center. But Yuan admitted even if they spent all their time on promoting new technologies, it wouldn't help too much.

"Most of the young people and men in the villages have already migrated to big cities to work, only women and seniors stay in the villages. Most of them are not well-educated and don't want to accept the new techniques," Yuan said.

Similiar with the Agricultural Service Center in Dongxi Township, more than 50 percent of grassroots institutions engaged in promoting agricultural science and technology are managed by township governments.

According to the report in the People's Daily, most of the institutions only receive 500 to 800 yuan ($79-127) in government subsidies every year. As a result, these cash-strapped institutions have gradually become marginalized.

In October 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a statement, requiring local governments to clarify subsidy standards for townships agricultural science and technology popularization stations. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science and Technology also issued notices, demanding local governments make plans to improve the conditions of these institutions.

In 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture held more than 100,000 training classes and trained 12.1 million farmers. The ministry said that in 2012, it will change the development modes of agricultural science and technology, increase technical service programs in rural areas and raise improve the management of organizations for agricultural science and technology.

"Efforts should be made to attract graduates from agricultural universities to work at grassroots level and transfer their knowledge into productivity," Yuan said.

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