It's been 20 years since the Chinese State Council established the Yangling Agricultural High-tech Industry Demonstration Zone in western China's Shaanxi Province. Now the State Council has released a guideline on building more hi-tech agriculture zones, to raise the tech level of the agriculture sector.

Agriculture has long been a vital sector in Chinese society. However, due to limited arable land, a large population, and a dwindling farmer workforce, agriculture has lost its competitiveness domestically, against industry and service sectors, and also internationally because of a low tech level. The State Council recently released a guideline on building more Hi-tech Agricultural demonstration zones to turn things around.

XU NANPING, VICE MINISTER MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY "We aim to build a new series of hi-tech agricultural demonstration zones following Yangling's example by 2025, and make them high grounds for innovation, talents, and industry with international influence."

So far China has managed to feed 20% of the world's population with 7% of the world's arable land. However, with 60% of China's arable land being arid or semi-arid, and rising soil pollution, innovation is the only way to raise and secure agriculture productivity and competitiveness.

XU NANPING, VICE MINISTER MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY "Chinese society is developing fast and the cost of labor is on the rise. So comparing to less developed countries we are losing our advantage. And comparing to developed countries we are not competitive enough because of a low tech level. The only way out of this is innovation."

The guideline lays out several measures to raise the tech level of the future hi-tech agriculture demonstration zones, including investing in tech company incubation, building secondary schools and research institutions, and training professional farmers, while raising their skill level. A high priority has also been placed on human resources building.

XU NANPING, VICE MINISTER MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY "High level talents are a key factor here. Innovation driven development in nature means talent driven development. So human resources are the first priority in building these demonstration zones."

Hopes are that these new demonstration zones will show the rest of rural China, the way to establishing a more productive agricultural sector. CGTN, BEIJING.