The 2026 Central Document No. 1 emphasizes the need to improve the efficiency of agricultural technology innovation. From a global perspective, technological innovation is the core driver transforming agricultural production methods and fostering new industries and business models in agriculture, becoming a dominant factor in determining national agricultural competitiveness. Currently, as China advances toward its goal of building a strong agricultural nation, fully unleashing the vitality of technological innovation is crucial. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, technological innovation has played a significant role in comprehensively promoting the efficiency, greening, and intelligentization of China's agriculture, serving as a key engine for accelerating and enhancing agricultural modernization. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, further leveraging the leading role of technological innovation is essential to advance agricultural modernization.
An Inevitable Choice for Achieving Agricultural Modernization Technological innovation is directly related to the quality of agricultural modernization. Given China's agricultural structure characterized by "a large country with small-scale farming," relying on high-level technological innovation to overcome constraints imposed by agricultural resource endowments is an inevitable choice for achieving agricultural modernization and a key to gaining a competitive edge in international agriculture.
Enhancing Comprehensive Agricultural Production Capacity Relies on Technological Innovation China's total grain output reached milestones of 1.2 trillion jin in 2012, 1.3 trillion jin in 2015, and 1.4 trillion jin in 2024, setting a new record of 1.43 trillion jin in 2025. This achievement is largely attributable to China's strategic focus on two key areas of agricultural technology innovation: first, continuous advancement in seed industry innovation within biotechnology, ensuring stable seed supply, achieving a crop variety adoption rate of over 96%, and contributing more than 45% to grain yield increases; second, accelerated breakthroughs in technologies such as drones in the machinery and equipment sector. The innovative development of socialized agricultural machinery services allows small-scale farmers to share the benefits of advanced equipment, achieving a comprehensive mechanization rate of 76.7% in plowing, planting, and harvesting.
Agricultural Green and Sustainable Development Benefits from Technological Innovation The deeper significance of technological innovation for China's agricultural modernization lies in promoting "quantitative improvement" in agricultural development without sacrificing the ecological environment, thereby facilitating a "qualitative leap" in agricultural green transformation. From 2015 to 2024, China's total grain output increased by 91.8 billion jin, while chemical fertilizer usage decreased by 17.2%. The fertilizer utilization rate for rice, corn, and wheat increased by 7.4 percentage points, supported by the development and promotion of new fertilizer products like controlled-release fertilizers and new technologies such as side-deep fertilization for rice, simultaneous seeding and fertilizing for corn, and mechanical deep application for wheat. Furthermore, through the innovative application of a series of green technologies, issues like farmland degradation have been precisely addressed, enhancing the carbon sequestration capacity of agricultural ecosystems and improving biodiversity conservation.
Agricultural Intelligent Upgrading Depends on Technological Innovation Technological innovation is the core means for China to proactively adapt to the intelligent development trend of modern agriculture and actively participate in international competition. New-generation information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence are deeply integrating with agriculture, driving agricultural production methods from mechanization and automation toward a new, data-driven intelligent stage. Looking ahead, innovations in agricultural intelligent technology will spawn more application scenarios, including digital precision management of entire field crop processes, automated greenhouse management, intelligent monitoring and precise feeding in livestock farming, and recirculating water regulation and precision feeding management in aquaculture. Only by prioritizing layout in relevant technological fields can the opportunities presented by agricultural intelligent upgrading be seized.
Promoting Integrated Efficiency through Improved Seeds, Machinery, and Methods By 2025, the contribution rate of agricultural scientific and technological progress in China increased by nearly 10 percentage points compared to 2012. However, a gap remains between the supply capacity of agricultural technological innovation and the practical needs of agricultural modernization. Challenges such as technological bottlenecks in high-end seed industries and high-end agricultural machinery, obstacles in the transformation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and issues of applicability in agricultural technology application remain prominent. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and beyond, it is essential to persist in using technological innovation to cultivate improved seeds, develop advanced machinery, and create efficient methods, promoting integrated efficiency and striving to form new quality productive forces deeply aligned with China's agricultural development practices.
Cultivating Improved Seeds through Technological Innovation to Strengthen the Foundation of the Modern Seed Industry Seeds are the "chips" of agriculture and a strategic resource for ensuring national food security and the supply of important agricultural products. Currently, the overall development trend of China's seed industry is positive, but issues like insufficient cutting-edge innovation capabilities urgently need resolution. Prioritizing seed industry revitalization in agricultural technology innovation, accelerating self-reliance and self-improvement in seed technology, and achieving controllable seed sources are primary tasks for cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture. Efforts to cultivate improved seeds through technological innovation should focus on the following: First, strengthen basic research, enhance precise identification and systematic evaluation of germplasm resources, deeply implement germplasm resource improvement plans, and utilize modern biotechnology to fully explore and utilize excellent gene resources, laying a scientific foundation for breeding innovation. Second, improve institutional guarantees, establish a comprehensive supervision system for varieties, strengthen intellectual property protection in the seed industry, refine agricultural biosecurity regulatory measures, and build an institutional environment conducive to seed industry technology innovation. Third, construct an innovation system, promote the formation of a deeply integrated industry-university-research seed industry innovation system, optimize the allocation of scientific and technological resources, facilitate the co-construction and sharing of innovation platforms and orderly talent flow, and create a collaborative and efficient seed industry innovation landscape. Fourth, increase policy support, improve supporting policies such as industrialization support and financial services, establish sound market-oriented operational mechanisms, and stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of various innovation entities.
Researching Advanced Machinery through Technological Innovation to Build a Modern Agricultural Machinery Equipment System Adaptable to Diverse Scenarios Agricultural machinery equipment is a crucial carrier for the effective implementation of agricultural technologies. While the scale of China's agricultural machinery industry continues to expand, shortcomings remain in the research and development of high-end intelligent equipment and the supply of machinery suitable for hilly and mountainous areas. Systematic technological innovation is needed to promote the high-quality development of the agricultural machinery equipment industry concerning R&D and application. In terms of technological R&D, focus on industrial needs and international frontiers, aiming to break through R&D bottlenecks in large, high-end, intelligent agricultural machinery equipment and small machinery suitable for hilly areas; implement special projects for intelligent agricultural machinery and agricultural robots; strengthen field testing and verification of new energy agricultural machinery; and promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural machinery equipment toward intelligence and greening. At the level of achievement transformation, plan and establish pilot zones for the R&D, manufacturing, and application of agricultural machinery equipment; fully leverage the guiding role of policies such as agricultural machinery purchase and application subsidies; implement "subsidies for superior machinery"; promote the demonstration and application of intelligent and new energy agricultural machinery; and accelerate the efficient transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces. At the system construction level, promote integrated innovation in agricultural machinery and agronomy, building a full industrial chain covering R&D, manufacturing, application, and service support; cultivate important agricultural machinery equipment industrial clusters; integrate upstream and downstream innovation resources; and foster a synergistic industrial ecosystem.
Creating Efficient Methods through Technological Innovation to Establish a Highly Coordinated Modern Agricultural Production Management Model Improved seeds and machinery form the hardware foundation for agricultural modernization, while efficient methods constitute the software system centered on agricultural production management practices. Currently, China's agricultural production management still faces challenges such as strong reliance on traditional experience, insufficient data-driven capabilities, and low efficiency in industrial chain coordination. Technological innovation should be used to comprehensively enhance the level of modern agricultural production management. First, innovate production decision-making models by deeply integrating large agricultural models with multi-source data, consolidating multi-dimensional information such as weather, soil, and market data, and building an intelligent decision support system covering the entire industrial chain. This data-driven approach enables full-process planning from seed selection to sales, providing scientific basis and forward-looking guidance for agricultural production. Second, innovate production process management by promoting the application of modern production technologies like intelligent irrigation, precision fertilization, and digital plant protection; establishing IoT-based crop growth monitoring and intelligent control systems; and achieving refined management of agricultural production processes and efficient allocation of agricultural resources through the integration of intelligent equipment and digital technologies. Third, innovate industrial coordination mechanisms by creating digital service platforms connecting production and consumption ends; using technologies like blockchain to establish trustworthy traceability systems; fostering models such as contract farming and digital supply chains; promoting precise connection between agricultural production and sales; and comprehensively enhancing the overall efficiency of the agricultural industry chain.