Academician Fusuo Zhang of China Agricultural University: The future of agriculture is not “producing more”, but “engineering” better grain

Modern agriculture is at a critical turning point. For decades, increasing output was the first priority, and rising inputs of fertilizer and water did feed a growing population. But population growth, changing diets, climate change, and resource scarcity have made this old path increasingly unsustainable.

Recently, Academician Fusuo Zhang of China Agricultural University published an opinion paper titled “Engineering agriculture for a greener and more productive future” in ENGINEERING Agriculture (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2026688). The paper argues that global agriculture must shift from a sole focus on yield to green and efficient development, with “engineering agriculture” as the core pathway linking scientific discovery to field application.

The central question is no longer whether agriculture can produce more, but whether it can produce more sustainably, efficiently, and at scale. High yields must now be achieved together with high resource efficiency, low environmental cost, and more resilient farmer livelihoods. China, after decades of yield growth under severe land and water constraints, now faces the same shift from “increasing yield” to “green productivity growth”—a challenge shared by many agricultural regions worldwide.

The paper stresses a change in perspective: agriculture should not be seen as isolated technologies or field production alone, but as a connected engineered system covering soil improvement, cultivar selection, nutrient and water management, mechanization, digital monitoring, and socialized services. Scientific discovery remains the foundation, but only when knowledge is organized into systems that work under real ecological and economic conditions can it deliver its full value.

This approach has been validated by the Green Ton-and-a-Half Grain (GTHG) initiative in Quzhou County on the North China Plain. The initiative set a benchmark of 22.5 t·ha⁻¹·yr⁻¹ for cereal-based systems, aiming not merely at high yield but at coordinated gains in efficiency, environmental protection, and income. In 2025, two 67 ha (1000 mu) demonstration fields in Wangzhuang and Mazhuang reached about 23 t·ha⁻¹, far above the county average of about 16 t·ha⁻¹, with higher net returns and better nitrogen and nutrient-use efficiency. These gains came not from a single cultivar or technology, but from integrating satellite-guided precision seeding, smart water–fertilizer integration, green intelligent fertilizers, and deep straw incorporation for salinity control, supported by the Science and Technology Backyard model, local government policy, and agricultural socialized service organizations.

By 2025, the model had succeeded in 19 demonstration fields on 67 ha (1000 mu) blocks across eight provincial-level regions in China. Its value lies not in providing a ready-made template, but in showing that the conflict between yield growth and resource-environmental constraints is not inevitable. When scientific knowledge is built into engineered systems that are technically robust, institutionally supported, and scalable, high yield and green development can be achieved together. This offers a practical reference for the Global South and suggests that academic publishing should bridge discovery, design, implementation, and impact assessment. The future of agriculture depends on whether science can be effectively organized to serve real change in farmers’ fields.