On the eve of the National Two Sessions in 2023, a reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) learned from the DPP Central website that the DPP Central Committee intends to submit the “Proposal on Strengthening the Control of Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution” to the First Session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The Democratic Progressive Center pointed out in the proposal that the control of agricultural non-point source pollution is a prominent difficulty in the current ecological and environmental protection work, and it is the key to the control and reduction of total phosphorus and total nitrogen in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins. In recent years, especially since the “Agricultural Non-point Source Pollution Control and Supervision and Guidance Implementation Plan (Trial)” was promulgated, the control of agricultural non-point source pollution has made remarkable progress. However, the infrastructure is still weak, the integration technology is relatively lacking, and the market participation is insufficient. There is still a long way to go before the initial control of agricultural non-point source pollution by 2025. Currently there are mainly the following problems:
First, the status quo of pollution is unclear. Agricultural non-point source pollution has the characteristics of dispersion, accumulation, concealment, and hysteresis. In addition, a full-chain monitoring network coordinated by multiple departments has not yet been formed. This also leads to the inability to form a unified understanding of the contribution proportion of agricultural non-point source pollution in sections with water quality exceeding the standard.
Second, the construction of regulations and standards needs to be improved. Although some current laws and regulations involve the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, they are mostly expressed in principle, lacking a legal system and supporting norms for the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, the pressure transmission is not in place, and local responsibilities are not clear. The construction of the standard system lags behind. Although some monitoring methods and industry standards have been formulated by the departments of agriculture and rural areas, ecological environment and relevant scientific research institutes, they have not yet established a complete system of monitoring methods, evaluation indicators, and regulatory standards for the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution.
Third, governance concepts and methods are not yet systematic and scientific. Governance mainly relies on economic incentives, the coordination between relevant policies and ecological environment protection is not strong, and the ecological environment protection goals are not fully considered in policy formulation, implementation and performance evaluation. Governance is mainly based on “blocking”, and a virtuous cycle mechanism combining “drainage” and “blocking” has not been established. “Decentralized and independent struggle” is relatively obvious, and the concept of comprehensive system governance based on water catchment units and small watersheds needs to be strengthened. The governance means are relatively simple, and the demonstration project is poor in generalization. Focus on source prevention and control, not enough attention to process interception and nutrient reuse.
Fourth, the effect of control is not significant. Although the problem is getting more and more attention, the effect of governance and water quality improvement in some areas is not obvious. At the same time, governance involves multiple departments, and the same department involves multiple business departments and bureaus. The work is fragmented, and the grassroots do not have a deep understanding of the complementary relationship between scientific pollution control and production increase, and the actions are not enough.
To this end, the Democratic Progressive Center suggested in the above proposal:
The first is to improve the policy mechanism for the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution. Promote the legislation of agricultural and rural ecological environment protection, study and formulate regulations on the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, improve the supporting policy and standard system; improve the supervision and guidance system for agricultural non-point source pollution control, establish a problem discovery mechanism, and identify key source areas for agricultural non-point source pollution control. Formulate pollution control compliance plans and performance evaluation plans, and strengthen supervision; improve the management mechanism, optimize the setting of functional departments, coordinate the promotion of agricultural production and rural life pollution control, and support rural ecological revitalization.
The second is to promote the comprehensive treatment of agricultural non-point source pollution. Focus on key areas such as Poyang Lake, Danjiangkou, Baiyangdian Lake, Erhai Lake, and Northeast Black Soil Areas, coordinate with food security and rural revitalization goals, implement a number of major agricultural non-point source pollution control and supervision projects; promote agricultural structural adjustment and layout optimization, and improve the ecological environment Target-oriented agricultural subsidy system; implement the action of reducing the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and increasing efficiency, and carry out organic fertilizer substitution, precise reduction of fertilizers, recycling of farmland drainage, construction of nitrogen and phosphorus ecological interception ditches, and construction of ecological buffer zones in rivers and lakes according to different geographical conditions , Strengthen the paddy wetland function and nutrient absorption function. For economic crops, measures such as water and fertilizer integration, green prevention and control, and organic fertilizer substitution should be strengthened. Accelerate the utilization of livestock and poultry manure as resources throughout the county and the construction of green planting and breeding circular agriculture pilot projects, and introduce standards and regulations for the treatment of breeding tail water.
The third is to strengthen scientific and technological support and publicity guidance. Integrate scientific and technological resources to carry out scientific and technological research, concentrate efforts to overcome a number of high-efficiency, low-cost agricultural non-point source pollution control key technologies, important products and core equipment, include agricultural non-point source pollution control key technologies in the agricultural key core technology research, and establish as soon as possible Accounting methods for the contribution of agricultural non-point source pollution; strengthen science popularization and policy guidance, cultivate and stabilize grassroots agricultural technology teams, and solve the last mile problem of technology promotion.
The fourth is to strengthen environmental monitoring and pollution load assessment. Accelerate the construction of a national agricultural non-point source pollution monitoring network based on multiple technologies such as sensors, satellite remote sensing, and online monitoring, and multiple implementation entities; strengthen agricultural source surveys, ecological environment statistics, comprehensive utilization information of livestock and poultry manure, and sewage permit management platforms, etc. Docking, information sharing, clarifying the sources and types of pollution; building a national agricultural non-point source pollution decision-making support platform that integrates data collection, analysis, display, and decision-making.