Why this is important to Wisconsin businesses: Wisconsin’s agriculture sector may be able to provide solutions for farmers seeking equipment that generates less pollution.
China says it will create a “green technology innovation system” to spur high-tech innovation and market opportunities that support technology and equipment that saves energy and generates less pollution.
The Chinese government released a plan in December 2022 that says it will “make use of innovations in big data, biotech, and artificial intelligence to tackle pollution, habitat loss, and climate change” in a program that will run through 2025, according to Reuters News Service.
The program will provide tax incentives and “green technology banks” as a way to spur companies and financial institutions to lend their support.
China is currently the world’s largest greenhouse gas producer; its goal is to become carbon-neutral by 2060, Reuters says.
The announcement follows the government’s five-year National Agriculture Green Development Plan unveiled in 2021 that targeted pollution control, protection of natural resources, restoration of agricultural ecology, and developing a low-carbon ag-industrial chain by 2025.
According to the U.S Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Foreign Agricultural Service, the 2021 plan includes goals such as reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides, installing high-efficiency water-saving irrigation projects, controlling and preventing the spread of invasive species, improving crop drying systems, and developing low-carbon transportation options for shipping agricultural products.
The Chinese government has offered subsidies since 2018 for innovative agricultural machinery and technology, such as conservation tillage, precision seeding, precision pesticide application, and water-saving irrigation.
China’s rapid industrialization over recent decades has heightened the country’s environmental pollution problem. Some regions have suffered irreparable ecological loss resulting from economic development.
Meanwhile, China has become the world’s largest importer of agricultural products, according to the USDA, with imports totaling $205 billion in 2021, including more than $37 billion from the U.S.
Wisconsin companies with agricultural technology and pollution-cutting machinery may find willing buyers and partners in China.
