Meteorological Response in Agricultural Transformation Period —— Summary of Meteorological Service for Agriculture since the 18th CPC National Congress

 China Meteorological News reporter Niu Yanyuan Lai Min Intern reporter Zhang Hongwei Lai Yuwen

  Agriculture is always regarded as a basis for national stability and for people’s security.

  Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the pace of agricultural modernization has been accelerating.

  We have heard that the transformation and upgrading of agricultural development mode urgently calls for meteorological services.

  We have seen that the meteorological department has the courage to take responsibility and dare to transform, and in the journey of strengthening the modernization of meteorological service agriculture, ensuring national food security and the supply capacity of important agricultural products, it has handed over satisfactory answers during the agricultural transformation period.

  National Top-level Design Calls for Policy Landing —— Keep up with the trend of change and development, and implement practical measures to highlight actual results.

  On March 20, 2015, Bai Hongxia clearly remembered that there was a gratifying spring rain that day.

  Bai Hongxia is an agricultural technology information officer at the regional station of agricultural technology extension in Xindian Town, Luohe City, Henan Province. That morning, holding a microphone, she introduced the modern agrometeorological service platform to Wang Yang, Vice Premier of the State Council, who came to inspect. "As an important part of the Internet of Things system integrating soil, fertilizer, water and gas in high-standard grain fields, the modern agricultural meteorological service platform can integrate real-time farmland monitoring data, make targeted and refined agricultural meteorological service products, and then send them to farmers in various ways."

  On the same day, the National Conference on Spring Agricultural Production and Forest and Grassland Fire Prevention was held in Luohe. Wang Yang pointed out at the meeting that it is necessary to continue to strengthen meteorological capacity building and improve the service mechanism, especially to meet the new requirements of agricultural transformation and structural adjustment, and actively provide personalized, diversified and professional services while doing a good job in universal meteorological services. It is necessary to improve the accuracy of monitoring and early warning of abnormal weather and meteorological disasters in key agricultural seasons, and strengthen the direct meteorological service for new business entities and the whole agricultural production chain.

  Transformation has become a general trend.

  This is a five-year period of profound changes in the field of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and a five-year period of constant changes in the demand for meteorological services for agricultural development.

  Keeping up with the development trend, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee, which guides the work of agriculture, countryside and farmers in China, continues to emphasize increasing investment in meteorological services for agriculture, and the requirements for meteorological services are more clear.

  In 2013, "accelerate the construction of rural meteorological information service and weather modification work system and capacity, and improve the level of agricultural meteorological service and rural meteorological disaster prevention".

  In 2014, "improve the rural grassroots meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation organization system and carry out direct meteorological services for new agricultural business entities".

  In 2015, "innovate the service mechanism of meteorology for agriculture and promote the integration into the agricultural socialized service system".

  In 2016, "strengthen the construction of meteorological service system for agriculture, vigorously develop the application of intelligent meteorology and agricultural remote sensing technology, and explore the pilot of weather index insurance".

  Take advantage of the situation and follow the trend. China Meteorological Bureau paid close attention to the implementation of the No.1 Document of the Central Committee, focused on the national "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" work, made continuous efforts in optimizing the system and mechanism, innovated the means of supporting agriculture and benefiting farmers by meteorology, improved the agricultural meteorological service system and the rural meteorological disaster prevention system (referred to as the "two systems" for short), built a long-term mechanism, and improved the national agricultural meteorological business system, etc., and outlined a clear path for the development of meteorological services for agriculture.

  Sit and seek, get up and go. In the hard work, a series of meteorological service initiatives for agriculture have landed.

  In the past five years, the meteorological department has taken it as its own responsibility to cope with climate change and escort food security, and issued the Blue Book of Assessment Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture in China twice, so as to create special meteorological services for the whole process of key farming seasons focusing on ensuring food security, and provide scientific reference for food production, management, supply and marketing scheduling, storage and transportation, and trade.

  In the past five years, the meteorological department has continuously promoted the deepening of departmental cooperation, established an agrometeorological expert alliance composed of experts in meteorology, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, plant protection and other fields, and promoted the establishment of timely and effective information exchange network systems and data product sharing lines among departments; Realize the docking and integration with the service organizations and resources of grass-roots supply and marketing cooperatives, and incorporate new agricultural business entities such as agricultural and sideline products business enterprises, township grass-roots cooperatives and farmers’ cooperatives into the direct service targets of meteorological departments to promote service quality and efficiency.

  In the past five years, the meteorological department has actively served the construction of advantageous areas of characteristic agricultural products, and jointly promoted the establishment of a characteristic agricultural meteorological service center with "one province as the mainstay, multi-province participation and linkage between ministries and provinces" with the Ministry of Agriculture, and gradually established a characteristic agricultural meteorological service network with different varieties and regions to realize the intensification, standardization and branding of characteristic agricultural meteorological services.

  The real move is landing, and you can see the actual results-

  By 2016, 123 standardized modern agricultural meteorological service counties and 1009 standardized meteorological disaster prevention towns and villages have been built nationwide.

  Since 2011, the national public’s satisfaction with meteorological services has remained above 85 points, of which the rural public’s satisfaction with meteorological services reached 88.9 points in 2016.

  In the past five years, the accuracy of the national total grain output forecast has been stable above 99.9%, and the accuracy score of the provincial total grain output forecast has reached 98.1 points.

  The new agricultural structure calls for deep service-multi-department "ensemble" to enrich the connotation of "two systems"

  Only by going deep into the vast fields can we truly feel the "popularity" of direct meteorological services.

  In yushu city, Jilin Province, Chen Zhuo, head of Tian Feng Machinery Planting Professional Cooperative Association, and Xu Liping, head of Agricultural Meteorological Service Section of Municipal Meteorological Bureau, are old friends. "There is my contact information in the early warning information publishing platform. When there is unfavorable weather, I will receive the reminder at the first time." Chen Zhuo said. In Weichang County, Hebei Province, Ding Mingya, Chairman of Potato Industry Alliance, and Zhu Guoliang, Director of County Meteorological Bureau, are "iron buddies". "There are special observation stations in the plantation, and meteorological data will be transmitted to me in real time." Ding Mingya said. In Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province, Gu Yonglong, the head of the Red Heart Kiwi Industrial Park in Miluo Township, is very close to Chi Zaixiang, a senior engineer of the Municipal Meteorological Bureau. "The ulcer prevention and control system specially developed by the Meteorological Bureau can give an early warning one or two months in advance, which has reserved sufficient prevention and control time for us." Yan Yonglong said.

  In the new wave of comprehensive rural reform, new types of agricultural business entities are constantly emerging. These new agricultural business entities have large scale of operation, high yield level and greater losses due to disasters, so the demand for meteorological information and technical measures for disaster prevention and mitigation is more urgent. In 2014, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee explicitly requested the development of direct meteorological services for new agricultural operators.

  Subsequently, the China Meteorological Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly launched a direct meteorological service for new agricultural business entities, namely, agricultural meteorological service products changed from "universality" to "personalization", service delivery mode changed from "general style" to "direct style", and service language changed from "jargon" to "local accent". At present, 982,000 new agricultural business entities enjoy "point-to-point" direct meteorological services, and nearly 2.4 million registered users of intelligent agricultural meteorological terminals.

  Direct meteorological services can "spread branches and spread leaves", which is inseparable from the increasingly perfect fertile soil of "two systems" of meteorological services for agriculture.

  In the past five years, the connotation of the construction of "two systems" of meteorological service for agriculture has been continuously enriched:

  In 2013, efforts were made to establish standardized meteorology to serve agriculture in counties (cities, districts) and townships (towns).

  In 2014, the central government will drive local finance to jointly invest, strengthen the long-term mechanism construction of meteorological services for agriculture and direct meteorological services, build standardized meteorological services for counties (cities, districts) and townships (towns), and continue to promote the equalization of grassroots meteorological services.

  In 2015, we will innovate the meteorological service mechanism for agriculture, promote the integration of meteorological service for agriculture into the agricultural socialized service system, and serve agricultural modernization and new rural construction.

  In 2016, innovating the effective supply mode of meteorological services for agriculture, developing an intelligent and efficient meteorological service system with clear responsibilities and rights, and enhancing the ability of meteorological support for accurate poverty alleviation services have become the main lines of work.

  In the past five years, meteorological service for agriculture "two systems" construction has written a brilliant report card:

  Nowadays, China’s rural meteorological disaster monitoring and early warning information dissemination capabilities have been significantly enhanced, and a rural meteorological disaster prevention system has been basically established. By the end of 2016, 57,000 regional automatic weather stations had been built in rural areas nationwide, with a township coverage rate of 95.9%; Organize and complete the general survey of meteorological disaster risk in all districts and counties in China, and organize and complete the compilation and application of flood and flash flood risk zoning maps for more than one third of small and medium-sized rivers in China; In 2167 counties, meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation or meteorological services for agriculture were established, and in 2018 counties, meteorological disaster prevention plans were issued.

  Nowadays, China’s agricultural meteorological service business system is becoming more and more perfect, and the service level is steadily improving. By the end of 2016, China had built a modern agrometeorological observation network consisting of 653 agrometeorological observation stations, 2,175 automatic soil moisture observation stations and 1,895 farmland microclimate observation stations. Meteorological services were integrated into the construction of high-standard grain fields, and 1312 agricultural meteorological demonstration fields were built, and the demonstration and promotion area of agricultural meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation technology was nearly 50 million mu; The development of characteristic agrometeorological services is in full swing, and 28 agrometeorological sub-centers have been established in 10 provinces according to regions or crops.

  The construction of "two systems" of meteorological service for agriculture is an ensemble of many departments. China Meteorological Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued agricultural pest and disease disaster forecast, agricultural drought monitoring and forecast, jointly issued a document with the Ministry of Land and Resources to promote meteorological forecast and early warning of geological disasters, and jointly carried out meteorological grade forecast and visual consultation with the State Forestry Administration; The meteorological bureaus of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) cooperate with civil affairs, women’s federations, public security, supply and marketing departments to build a team of meteorological information officers. The rural economic information network sponsored by governments at all levels, undertaken by meteorological departments and co-organized by agriculture-related departments covers more than 270 cities (districts) and more than 1,300 counties in 31 provinces … In the linkage of departments, the "two systems" of meteorological services for agriculture continue to grow and develop.

  It can be seen that a nationwide rural meteorological monitoring, forecasting and information service system network has been formed, and the "two systems" of meteorological services for agriculture are gradually becoming an important way for meteorological services to extend to the grassroots.

  The development of modern agriculture calls for the support of science and technology-gathering the strengths of many "technologies" to accurately cure the "pain points" of farmers

  Nowadays, agricultural production has already bid farewell to the passive situation of "facing the loess and facing the sky", high technology has become a new support for development, and the fruits of meteorological science and technology have benefited the whole country.

  In Jiangxi, to meet the needs of modern agricultural development, it is necessary to have the ability of self-perception, judgment, analysis, selection, action, innovation and self-adaptation in the whole process of agrometeorological business, service and management. The "Jiangxi Micro-farmers" developed by the local meteorological department can automatically match farmers and managers in different regions. It is not difficult to provide refined and targeted services. Using big data classification management technology, services can more accurately cure farmers’ "pain points".

  In Anhui, the meteorological department established the "Chuhe Network Community", and developed the "Huinong Meteorology" APP with the support of agro-meteorological Internet of Things technology.

  In Fujian, meteorological departments use technologies such as Internet of Things, wireless communication and software to provide farmers with services such as monitoring information inquiry inside and outside greenhouses, weather forecast and early warning, agricultural production suggestions and remote control of intelligent greenhouses.

  In Chongqing, the Municipal Meteorological Bureau has developed a refined intelligent service platform for agrometeorology, and set up a working subsystem, an intelligent service website, a "PDA" subsystem and a business monitoring system for agrometeorology …

  For science and technology departments, only by intensive cultivation around "technology", can the soil where meteorology serves agriculture be more fertile. In the past five years, meteorological science and technology elements have been integrated into all aspects of agricultural production:

  During various farming activities, the meteorological department provides agricultural producers with monitoring and forecasting information of agro-meteorological conditions and monitoring, evaluation and early warning information services of agro-meteorological disasters by making full use of technologies such as automatic observation of agro-meteorological based on the Internet of Things, gridded forecasting based on refined numerical weather forecasting products, and quantitative evaluation based on the fusion of crop models and remote sensing.

  In terms of adjusting industrial structure in response to climate change, the meteorological department carried out analysis based on high-resolution satellite remote sensing and radar detection data, and completed 7,205 detailed agro-climatic zoning and agro-meteorological disaster risk zoning.

  In the prevention and control of pests and diseases, meteorologists carry out joint research across departments to clarify the main types of pests and diseases that harm large crops and the index of damage degree, and provide decision-making services for agricultural departments to formulate pest control plans, adjust agricultural structure, and arrange crops.

  In the application of agro-meteorological applicable technologies, meteorological departments and agricultural departments have established an effective cooperation mechanism to carry out technology research and development and demonstration and popularization according to local conditions.

  The close-knit and intimate services in meteorological services for agriculture all reflect the concept that "it is necessary to strike while the iron is hot". Nowadays, the technology of agro-meteorological disaster lattice impact prediction and risk early warning developed by meteorological department has been applied in business, and the precision of remote sensing monitoring of crop growth and yield estimation, agro-meteorological disasters and pests and diseases has been continuously improved; 38 national agro-meteorological technical standards and business norms were compiled and revised, 5,548 local agro-meteorological indicators were formulated, and more than 60 applicable agro-meteorological technologies were developed and popularized.

  The supporting force behind this series of scientific and technological innovations is that meteorological, agricultural and other departments organize experts to design and popularize their applications. Colleges and universities participate in research and development, and the alliance of experts at home and abroad involved in agriculture acts as a "think tank". The essence and technology of industry and universities form a joint force in the field of meteorological services for agriculture to jointly improve service capabilities.

  (Source: China Meteorological News, September 28, 2017 Editor: Zhang Lin)