Bao Jianzhong, a researcher at China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, published an article in Guangming Daily1986 on July 2nd, proposing for the first time that "developing high technology should create three-color agriculture-green agriculture, white agriculture and blue agriculture" and bringing "white agriculture" into the agricultural production category for the first time.

Green agriculture refers to traditional agriculture (planting and animal husbandry) based on soil, water, sunshine and atmosphere; Blue agriculture refers to water agriculture with blue ocean as the main body; White agriculture refers to the new industrial agriculture with the industrialization of microbial resources.

Microbial resources are one of the three major biological resources on the earth, and they have not been fully developed and utilized so far. It is necessary to apply high-tech bioengineering technology to develop microbial resources and establish a new agriculture of microbial industry-"white agriculture". Because this new type of agriculture is produced in a clean factory workshop, people wear white work clothes and work hats to engage in operational labor, so it is vividly called "white agriculture".

Compared with traditional green agriculture, white agriculture is completely different in basic form and production mode. White agriculture relies on artificial energy and is not limited by climate and season. It can be produced on a large scale in factories all year round. It is a feasible new agricultural road in China to vigorously develop bioengineering high technology and create industrial "white agriculture" that saves water and land, does not pollute the environment and comprehensively utilizes resources.

Bioengineering consists of four parts: genetic engineering, cell engineering, fermentation engineering and enzyme engineering. Fermentation engineering and enzyme engineering in bioengineering are unique biological characteristics of microorganisms, while genetic engineering and cell engineering are biological characteristics of microorganisms, plants and animals. Therefore, in a sense, bioengineering can also be said to be microbial engineering.

The development potential of microbial resources is huge. According to scientific calculation, through microbial fermentation engineering, if 2% of the world's total oil production is used, the single-cell protein produced can feed 2 billion people a year. For another example, China has about 500 million tons of crop straw every year. If 20% of it, that is, 65.438 billion tons, is converted into feed by microbial fermentation, we can get 40 billion kilograms of feed grain, which is 654.38+ 0/3 of the annual feed grain in China.

Microbial industry is a factory production that saves cultivated land. A microbial factory with an annual output of 6,543,800 tons of single-cell protein occupies a small area, which can be equivalent to soybean protein produced by 6,543,800 hectares of cultivated land or animal protein produced by raising cattle and sheep in 20 million hectares of grassland.

According to the data at home and abroad, white agriculture has formed six industries: (1) microbial feed; (2) microbial fertilizer; (3) microbial pesticides; (4) Microbial food; (5) microbial energy; (6) Microbial eco-environmental protection agent.