BEIJING, July 18 (Xinhua) -- China's agricultural green development continued to improve in 2025, according to the China Agricultural Green Development Report 2025 released Saturday by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the China Agricultural Green Development Research Society.

Villagers plant vegetable shoots in a field in Zuitou Town, Taibai County, Baoji City, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 24, 2024. (File photo: Xinhua)

The country made steady progress in agricultural water-saving practices. By the end of 2025, the application area of integrated water and fertilizer technologies for grain and oil crops exceeded 5.86 million hectares. Over the past decade, China's annual agricultural water use decreased by 5.7 percent.

Scientific fertilizer application, pesticide use efficiency and crop straw utilization all continued to improve. In 2025, the fertilizer utilization rate for the three major grain crops -- rice, wheat and corn -- reached 43.3 percent, up 3.1 percentage points from 2020. The pesticide utilization rate for these crops stood at 45 percent, up 4.4 percentage points from 2020. The national comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw remained above 88 percent.

Wu Wenbin, director of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning under the CAAS, said the report, backed by authoritative data, provides a comprehensive overview of major actions, regional practices and typical models in China's agricultural green development. First published in 2019, the annual report has become a key window into the country's progress in agricultural green development.