Experts Urge More Efforts to Protect EcologyAgricultural experts have urged the Chinese government to increase investment in plant protection and research to ward off the possibility of biological disasters.Data from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences indicate that there are more than 1,400 instances of serious ecological damage in China every year. China's massive infrastructure construction is also posing new threats to the ecological environment, China Daily reported Saturday. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show that at present more than 240 million hectares of crops land are threatened by biological pests. At the same time, China has stepped up its efforts to speed up infrastructure construction, which is expected to change the local ecological environment, and thereby have an adverse affect on plant life, said Cao Yazhong, a senior researcher and deputy chairman of the Institute of Plant Protection under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In addition, more and more contacts with foreign countries and exchanges of products have introduced new plant pests into China. Cao suggests that the state should tighten control over agricultural goods imported from other countries. Ni Hanjing, another senior researcher with the academy, shared Cao's view, saying that the situation so far in plant protection is shocking despite many achievements in this area. Ni is urging the state to pour more money into the plant protection research. |
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