Functional agriculture, as an emerging agricultural direction, aims to solve the problem of "what farmers grow and what people eat in the future". This concept was first proposed by Academician Zhao Qiguo in 2008 and has a history of 16 years. The development of functional agriculture has gone through three stages: concept proposal, scientific and technological innovation and industrial demonstration, and has achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1.
Functional agriculture is defined as the practice of producing one or more beneficial components (e.g., minerals, biological compounds) in agricultural and sideline products by growing in soil that is naturally rich in beneficial components, or cultivated through bionutrient fortification and other biotechnology. These products are designed to solve the problem of "hidden hunger" due to the lack of trace elements, achieve nutritional balance, and maintain human health.
The development of China's agriculture has gone through four stages: well-fed, well-fed, safe, and healthy. Functional agriculture represents the stage of eating healthy, with a focus on adjusting and improving the appropriate intake of micronutrients. This transformation is not only an important direction of agricultural supply-side structural reform, but also an important strategic direction for the transformation, upgrading and innovative development of modern agriculture.
Internationally, the development of functional agriculture has also received attention. Globally, about 2 billion people suffer from "hidden hunger" caused by inadequate nutrient intake. The market potential of functional agriculture is huge, and it is estimated that by 2025, the output value of functional agriculture will reach 150 billion yuan, and the scale will reach 20 million mu.
China has established mainstream platforms for functional agriculture, such as the National Alliance for Innovation in Functional Agriculture Science and Technology and the Belt and Road International Institute of Functional Agriculture Science and Technology Innovation, which aim to promote the development of functional agriculture and strengthen international cooperation in agricultural science and technology.
In the future, functional agriculture will not only develop the selenium industry. Although the selenium industry is an important aspect of functional agriculture, the development of functional agriculture needs to be more diversified and balanced. At present, the problems faced by functional agriculture include insufficient research on basic models and methodologies, the lack of a standard system, and the widespread disconnection of the scientific and technological innovation chain. In order to solve these problems, it is necessary to speed up the planning and construction of a national scientific and technological innovation platform for functional agriculture, establish relevant key research projects, build a national functional agriculture innovation demonstration zone, accelerate the construction of a "new agricultural science" for functional agriculture, and provide talent support for the industry.
To sum up, functional agriculture is a new trend in China's agricultural development, which is not only about "growing more agricultural products", but about "growing better agricultural products", from "eating enough" to "eating healthy". This transformation is not only related to people's health, but also an important direction of agricultural supply-side structural reform, which has important scientific significance and application value for promoting the innovative development of modern agriculture in China and improving the nutrition and health level of Chinese residents.
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