Lawmaker lays stress on plant protection

Song Bao'an, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, has called for stronger oversight of plant protection and new legislation, and urged international cooperation to help China's green agricultural technologies go global.

Plant protection, he said, is key to preventing outbreaks of crop pests and diseases and to safeguarding staple and cash crops.

"China is an agricultural giant," Song said. "There have been many efforts in this field, but we still lack a high-level legal framework, and problems such as pesticide overuse and frequent crop diseases persist."

China is one of the world's largest producers. In 2025, its food output, including grains and pulses, reached 714.88 million metric tons, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Song called on lawmakers to create clear, accountable regulatory bodies and enforcement teams to ensure plant health across the country. He drew on a decade of his team's front-line research in green pest control.

As president of Guizhou University, Song has focused on green control methods for tea, a crop that covers roughly 466,667 hectares in Guizhou and has long been vulnerable to pests because of climate and planting patterns.

"One of our results is using insects to fight insects," he said, describing how natural enemies of tea pests are deployed to curb infestations.

With similar biological control techniques and improved farm management, the team's methods produced strong results and have been rolled out across the province, as well as in Hainan and Hunan.

The university's integrated methods have also yielded overseas results.

A China-Sri Lanka joint laboratory for green tea pest control technology was established in 2024.

Since January last year, a team led by professors Jin Linhong and Hao Gefei from Guizhou University has worked repeatedly in Sri Lanka to promote green tea pest control. "Most farms there are small family plots with extensive management and severe pest problems," said Jin.

After a year of trials that combined biological control with improved farming practices, disease incidence in demonstration tea gardens fell by 50 percent and soil acidification improved. Test plots saw yield increases ranging from 23 percent to as much as 110 percent, Song said.

The land under the team's guidance has grown from a small pilot area to about 333.33 hectares. Over 50 Sri Lankan students have studied at the university, and several have taken the techniques back home.

The results show that China's green pest control technologies are keeping pace with international standards, Song said. He added that the overseas success strengthened his determination to advance plant protection regulation at home.

"Crops from the field end up on people's plates," he said. He argued that strengthening oversight and legislation is not just about tea or cash crops but also about personal health and national food security.

Song cited food security as a key reason to push green farming. He said practices such as organic fertilizers, biopesticides, and water-saving irrigation reduce depletion and pollution of soil and water while improving the long-term productivity of arable land.

He added that green agriculture also helps China meet the challenges of climate change by promoting drought-, flood-, and pest-resistant varieties and by adopting climate-smart farming.

"China's agriculture has reached a turning point," he said. "Matching laws are essential."

"The goal is better laws so that practitioners can use them correctly and scientifically, making agriculture greener and food safer," he said.

Contact the writers at liuboqian@chinadaily.com.cn