Today was a good, but low key day. It featured two good meetings, and a very good lunch in between.
I started with a meeting with the Provincial fertilizer and soil testing lab. You may have noticed a lot about fertilizer in my meetings. It's a really big deal here. Some neat things were learned today - vertigation is the new technology being promoted. saves fertilizer, uses less water, and takes less manpower. They are in the process of launching a new database that was really impressive. Its set up for farmers, and is all done through a touchscreen. The GUI was set up as follows - from the homepage, you click the crop that you are growing (people have an "assigned" crop to grow, they can double crop with something different if they wish, but the primary crop is the one that the Government determines is best for the site, although some sites are allowed to grow multiple things, and the programming allows for that.) From there every county that grows that crop is listed, you select the county, and drill down as the menus decrease from county to city to village until finally you get a map of every farming plot in the village. You can then click on the plot you are seeking information on, and it displays the history of soil tests on the site (every plot has a test at least once a year). You then plug in the target production, and it gives you a chemical treatment guide that prints with one additional click. The sheet includes the fertilizer formulation, the frequency it should be applied, when during the year to apply it, and any ph adjustments that should be made. It was really, really cool.
After an extended lunch, and a short break at the hotel, I headed over to the Ocean and Fisheries management office for the Province. From 30 years ago until 3-5 years ago, China had one mission - economic development. Expansion of agriculture, fisheries extraction, industry, mining - everything. Over the last 3-5 years there has been a shift - environmental conservation is rising in importance. Oddly enough, things here don't happen like in the US. Here the government has shifted the focus, and the people and industry are slowly coming around. But government is driving the attitude shift among the people, not the other way around like in the US. Much easier in a communistic society. On the fisheries side it is even more drastic. fisherman are being encouraged to leave the industry. China is the only country in the world whose aquaculture exceeds it wild caught harvest. Not only land based, or offshore, but deep see culture in pens of such products as cobia, grouper and pompano are produced in large numbers. They are also doing some amazing work in restoration of endangered species with huge breeding and release programs for turtles (freshwater and sea,) crocodiles, crabs, sturgeon, and even giant salamanders.
Gaungdong province alone has 103 aqutic nature reserves covering 1,250,000 acres. 22 of these have comprehensive facilities - labs, outreach centers, rescue centers, research faciliteis, nature reserve security, and administration offices. The Provincial and central government is investing $35 million USD each year to improve those facilities and to build more.
We don't hear about this in China. We hear the negative side, and I won't try to sugar coat it, China has a long way to go on improving the environment. It needs stronger laws, and it needs to enforce them. It has the technology, it has the skilled people, and it has the right ideas. It just needs to continue this increasing focus on the environment. It was heartening to see.
Well, that's all for now. As always, feel free to share this around on facebook and such, as we still can't!
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