Report: Urban modern agriculture development in Shanghai the best in China

Shanghai topped the national ranking in terms of urban modern agriculture development in 2018, according to a report released by Shanghai Jiao Tong University on Wednesday.

The city was followed by Beijing and Sichuan province's Chengdu.

Published biennially, the report is based on the research of over 14.81 million hectares of arable land - or 12 percent of the total arable land nationwide – in 35 cities that can grow 110 million tons of vegetables.

Contributory indexes of the research include five first-level indicators like agricultural product security and sustainable development, as well as 23 second-level indicators.

"With advantages in human capital and technology advancement, Shanghai excels in developing agricultural production bases, ecological quality control, and ensuring the safety and quality of agricultural products," said Zhou Pei, secretary of the Party Committee of the agriculture and biology school from the university.

According to the report, the quality and security of agricultural products across the country has been improving over the past years. The rate at which agricultural products have passed random inspections grew by 0.7 percentage points from 2016 to 2018 to 97.78 percent.

In addition, the report highlighted the domestic cities that have been promoting agricultural industry transformation, optimizing the industrial structure, expanding the industrial chain, and strengthening the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in urban modern agriculture.

The report also revealed that advanced manufacturing has made progress in the country as well. One of the achievements in this area include a holistic research system dedicated to urban agriculture development study formed by higher education institutions including Nanjing Agricultural University in Jiangsu province.

Moreover, the report suggested that cooperation in urban modern agriculture among cities, such as those located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster and the Yangtze River Delta, should be strengthened. The development of ecological agriculture, industrial integration, and technological innovation should also be reinforced, the report added.