The area of water-saving irrigation project in China is 407 million mu.

Economic Daily, Beijing, September 29 (Reporter Zhang Xue) "with the introduction of a series of policies and measures and increasing investment by the central and local governments, the development of water-saving irrigation in China has entered an unprecedented fast lane. By the end of 2013, the effective irrigation area of the whole country had reached 952 million mu, of which the water-saving irrigation project area was 407 million mu, accounting for about 43% of the effective irrigation area. The area of high-efficiency and water-saving irrigation is 214 million mu, accounting for about 22% of the effective irrigation area, including 111 million mu of low-pressure pipeline water, 45 million mu of sprinkler irrigation and 58 million mu of micro-irrigation. " Li Guoying, vice minister of water resources, said at a news conference held by the Information Office of the State Council today.

Li Guoying said that the way to solve the water resources crisis is to open source, and the other is to reduce expenditure. In terms of the current stage and level of development in our country, reducing expenditure should be the primary way. Agriculture is not only the largest water user, but also the industry with the most potential for water saving. Vigorously developing water-saving irrigation has become the inevitable choice to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources.

The goal of saving water resources has been achieved by implementing water-saving irrigation. since 2000, the average irrigation water consumption per mu has decreased from 420 cubic meters to 361 cubic meters, and the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water has increased from 0.43 to 0.52. The proportion of farmland irrigation water consumption in the total water consumption of the whole society has decreased from 63% to 55%. Grain production has been increased, and since 2000, the grain output of unilateral irrigation water has increased from 1.33 kg to 1.75 kg.

Although water-saving irrigation has achieved remarkable results in the past 10 years, on the whole, China's water-saving irrigation is still in the stage of accelerated development, and there are still some outstanding problems, mainly as follows: first, the overall development of water-saving irrigation is slow and unbalanced. there is a gap with some advanced irrigation countries. Second, the reverse force mechanism and incentive mechanism are not perfect. The total amount control and quota management of agricultural irrigation water have not been fully implemented, the reasonable formation mechanism of agricultural water price is not perfect, and the policies, regulations and systems conducive to the development of water-saving irrigation are not perfect. The attraction for social capital to enter this field has not yet been formed. Third, technical support and specialized services need to be improved.

In the next step, China will further strengthen the water-saving transformation of existing irrigation areas, develop high-efficiency water-saving irrigation on a large scale, establish water-saving irrigation reverse forcing mechanism, incentive mechanism, and long-term operation mechanism of water-saving irrigation, and strive to reach 2020. The proportion of national water-saving irrigation project area in effective irrigation area will be increased to more than 60%, and the proportion of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation area to more than 30%. The effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water is more than 0.55.

Li Guoying said that while giving full play to the leading role of the government, it is necessary to give better play to the role of the market. Through the formulation of price policy, tax policy, financial policy and other preferential policies to form a "policy depression" and "investment depression" for the development of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation, so that social capital and private capital can invest more in the cause of high-efficiency water-saving irrigation.

Li Guoying said: it is hoped that water source projects and backbone projects will still be invested by the state in the future, but it is necessary to attract social capital to invest in field projects and build efficient water-saving irrigation projects by means of the market. "We will step up the pilot work, sum up experience and models by next year, popularize them on a larger scale, and let the government and the market work together to promote the development of high-efficiency and water-saving irrigation in China." He said.