With the aim of improving China's agricultural competitiveness, increasing the scale of agricultural industrialization and promoting the all-round modernization of agriculture have been important issues for China's government in recent years.
Now a pattern has been formed, spearheaded by some 600 key national enterprises and over 2,000 key provincial enterprises, and multifarious agencies connecting farmers with the production base. Some products and leading enterprises in certain sectors, e.g., corn processing, dairy industry and chicken production, account for a major share of the market and play an increasingly important role in the development and pricing of their industries.
Since 2003, the state has set up six types of demonstration project for the industrialization of modern agro-technology, so as to boost the use of advanced technology for agricultural production, and increase foreign earnings from exports of farm products. These projects include industrialization of breeding and cultivation of excellent new varieties and fine strains, of high-efficiency, eco-friendly planting and breeding technology, of water-saving and precision technologies, of pollution-free inputs (e.g., fertilizer and fodder) and the establishment of an agricultural information platform. The "downstream processing of main agricultural products project" launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology, was listed as an important sci-tech project during the 2000-2005 Five-Year Plan period. This is directed towards research into key technologies and equipment for the downstream processing of staple agricultural products such as grain and oil, fruit and vegetable, livestock and forestry products, into integrated quality control systems and into technology and equipment for quick testing agro-products. By the end of 2005, the project established and perfected the standard for downstream processing of staple agricultural products and integrated quality control systems; it made breakthroughs in high-speed agro-product testing technology and equipment, on the construction of a pillar system for technology innovation in agro-product processing products, etc. It also developed many famous products including chilled meat, soybean protein extract, and concentrated apple juice; built a batch of technological innovation bases and demonstration production lines; and, nurtured many notably innovative enterprises for downstream processing of agro-products.
