As a university teacher who has been engaged in grass science education and scientific research for 30 years, after seeing General Secretary Jinping Xi's reply to the secretary president and expert representative of agriculture-related colleges and universities across the country, I am very encouraged and strengthened our confidence and strength in building a first-class specialty in grass science.

Grassland Ecological Health is related to National Ecological Construction

Grassland is the largest terrestrial ecosystem and strategic resource in China. Its area is 3.3 times of cultivated land and 2.6 times of forest land. 84.4% of the grassland is distributed in western China.Grassland is not only the production base of grassland animal husbandry in China, but also the important ecological barrier and natural catchment area of our country, and it is also the birthplace of Yangtze River, Yellow River, Lancang River and other rivers.Therefore, the health of grassland ecosystem is related to the ecological construction of the lower reaches of the river, northwest and even the whole country.

Grass industry is an important industry to increase the income of farmers and herdsmen. By recommending livestock, storing grain in grass, ensuring food safety and developing high quality grass industry, it can not only promote modern agriculture and support the development of modern animal husbandry, but also an important grasp of scientific and technological poverty alleviation in grassland pastoral areas and poor and remote areas.

The construction of new agricultural science is to transform and upgrade the existing agriculture-related specialties with the latest scientific ideas and modern science and technology, so as to realize the discipline construction and upgrading, so that it can closely adhere to the core of rural revitalization strategy and ecological civilization construction, and cultivate more powerful talents.The development of grassland science should also be taken as the foundation, and efforts should be made to cultivate grass talents with broad foundation and humanistic feelings, scientific spirit, family and national feelings and international vision, and the all-round development of virtue, wisdom, body, beauty and labor.

Form a complete theoretical system of grassland science

The discipline of grassland science in China is aimed at serving the construction of national ecological civilization and green development, ensuring food security and ecological security, and has established a complete subject framework and talent training system.

As early as the 1980s, the founder and pioneer of grassland science in China, Academician Zhou, put forward the theory of four production layers: landscape production, plant production, animal production and post-biological production. After that, taking four production layers, three kinds of factors, three interfaces and system coupling as the main contents, the grassland agroecosystem theory is constructed, which extends its connotation from traditional grassland science to grassland ecosystem, and forms a complete theoretical system of grassland science and the subject framework of grassland science, which adapts to the new era.On this basis, in order to train talents who can meet the needs of grassland pastoral areas, agricultural areas and even urban subsystems, a scientific talent training system for grassland industry has been formed.In 2011, grass science upgraded from a secondary discipline under animal husbandry to a first-tier discipline.

Training the Top and compound talents of Grass Industry Innovation

Through the efforts of several generations, the discipline of grass industry has made great progress and achievements, but on the whole, the strength is still obviously weak.By the end of 2018, there were 32 grass-related colleges and universities in China, with about 1000 full-time teachers and about 10000 students, with an average annual graduation population of nearly 1000. According to the current scale and speed of grass personnel training, the future scientific and technological strength of grass industry in China is still seriously out of line with the grassland area in terms of quantity and quality.Therefore, it is urgent to train the compound talents of grass science with solid theoretical foundation, strong practical and innovative ability, understanding grass industry and loving agriculture and pastoral areas, so as to serve the development of grass and animal husbandry, the revitalization of agricultural and pastoral areas and the construction of ecological civilization.

In the context of the construction of new agricultural departments. In order to develop the discipline of grassland, it is necessary to further improve its position, change its concept, regard the little grass, which is unknown and unknown, as one of the foundations of the construction of ecological civilization, and train new talents who know grass and love grass and talk about grass.Second, it is necessary to establish the thought of new agricultural science construction, take the construction of "double first-class" and the teaching reform of higher education as an opportunity, further improve the talent training system, improve the quality of grass science education, take the construction of characteristic online courses and new form teaching materials as the starting point, pay attention to the deep integration with modern biotechnology and modern information technology, and combine the construction of digital grassland, and run the thought of ecological civilization through the whole process of talent training.Third, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of high-quality scientific research platforms and field science observation stations at the national and provincial levels, so as not only to improve the output of scientific research achievements in grass industry, but also to improve the quality of personnel training.Fourth, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of science and education enterprise bases with existing grass and livestock related enterprises, improve the mechanism of coordinated education between grass industry schools and enterprises, enhance the practical ability of talent training, and prolong the chain of university talent training.Fifth, we should connect with the national strategy, deepen international exchanges and open cooperation, enhance the international influence of grass education in China, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.Sixth, it is necessary to strengthen popular science education, carry out open activities and publicity and training for government departments, enterprises, institutions, and the public, raise awareness, and form a strong atmosphere in which the grass industry serves ecological civilization and the construction of a beautiful China.

      Author: Yuying Shen, Associate Dean,College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University,Dawei Zhang, Party Committee Secretary of College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University.

      Practice of the 15th edition of Education Weekly, Guangming Daily, September 17, 2019