China Records Continued Progress in Green Agricultural Development

Dragon Media News Desk

China continued to make progress in the green development of its agricultural sector in 2025, supported by advances in water conservation, more efficient use of fertilisers and pesticides, and wider utilisation of crop straw.

According to the China Agricultural Green Development Report 2025, released on Saturday by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Agricultural Green Development Research Society, the country achieved steady progress in making agricultural production more resource-efficient and environmentally sustainable.

By the end of 2025, integrated water and fertiliser technologies had been applied across more than 5.86 million hectares of grain and oil crops. China’s annual agricultural water use declined by 5.7 percent over the past decade.

The fertiliser utilisation rate for the country’s three major grain crops—rice, wheat and corn—reached 43.3 percent in 2025, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared with 2020.

The pesticide utilisation rate for the same crops rose by 4.4 percentage points from 2020 to 45 percent. Meanwhile, the national comprehensive utilisation rate of crop straw remained above 88 percent.

Wu Wenbin, director of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the report provides a comprehensive overview of China’s major initiatives, regional practices and representative models in agricultural green development.

First published in 2019, the annual report has become an important reference for assessing China’s efforts to combine agricultural production with resource conservation, environmental protection and sustainable development.