Arguments -
Intervention Possibilities |
Science and Technology in
Agriculture, Livestock Production, and the Food Industry |
What could be done to promote science and technology
for improving China's food security? China is facing the following major
challenges and opportunities in the science and technology sector:
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It is necessary
to stop the "brain drain," which has deprived China's
scientific community of some of its greatest talents. There are numerous
Chinese scientists at Western universities and research centers who have
chosen to stay abroad after being educated in the West. The USA, in
particular, has benefited from this flow of talent. Improved conditions
in China's science infrastructure have motivated some of these
researchers to return to China in recent years. This trend should be re-inforced. |
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It would help if
the research institutions could be focused and streamlined.
First steps have been taken to concentrate basic research in areas that
are of strategic relevance for improving China's food security, such as
research in plant genetics and molecular biology. As data on national
research investments show, there was a massive increase in the number of
agricultural researchers, from 10,166 in 1965-1969 to 61,835 in
1990-1994 (see Table 1). |

Table 1 |
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As in many other
countries, there is a big gap in China between the center and the
periphery. While some research institutes have already mastered highly
advanced methods of plant chromosome engineering, the farmers in the
hinterland often can use only the most basic technology. This is not
only a problem of lack of investment in agriculture, but also one of
knowledge transfer. China should develop a "fast-track" program
for implementing available agricultural know-how at
the village level, particularly in those regions that have clearly
fallen behind in the general modernization of agriculture. |
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Finally, China
could strengthen the relationship between industry, science, and
business, both for research funding and for the
transformation of research results into marketable agricultural
products. China has already encouraged commercialization of research in
the past decade; research centers have earned a portion of their income
through technology sales and collaboration with international companies.
Some authors, however, have warned that commercialization might distract
researchers from their primary task and thus weaken research
effectiveness. |
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Related Arguments |
Science & Technology: Trends
Impact Data Quality Prediction Error Intervention Possibilities Intervention Costs
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Revision 2.0 (First revision published in 1999)
- Copyright © 2011 by Gerhard K. Heilig. All rights reserved. (First revision: Copyright © 1999 by IIASA.)
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