Chapter I General Provisions

Chapter II Agricultural Technology Popularization System

Chapter III Agricultural Technology Popularization and Application

Chapter IV Safeguard Measures for Agricultural Technology Popularization

Chapter V Legal Liability

Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions Article 1 In order to strengthen the popularization of agricultural technology, promote the application of agricultural scientific research achievements and practical technologies to agricultural production as soon as possible, enhance the support and guarantee capacity of science and technology, and promote agriculture and rural economy.

Article 2 The term "agricultural technology" as mentioned in this Law refers to scientific research achievements and practical technologies applied to planting, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, including:

(1) improved seed breeding, cultivation, fertilizer application and breeding technologies;

(2) Control technologies for plant diseases and insect pests, animal diseases and other pests;

(3) techniques for harvesting, processing, packaging, storage and transportation of agricultural products;

(4) Safe use of agricultural inputs and quality and safety technology of agricultural products;

(5) Farmland water conservancy, rural water supply and drainage, soil improvement and soil and water conservation technology;

(6) Agricultural mechanization, agricultural aviation, agricultural meteorology and agricultural information technology;

(7) agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation, agricultural resources and agricultural ecological security, and rural energy development and utilization technologies;

(8) Other agricultural technologies.

the term "agricultural technology popularization" as mentioned in this law refers to the activities of popularizing agricultural technology in the whole process of agriculture before, during and after delivery through experiments, demonstrations, training, guidance and consulting services.

article 3 the state supports the popularization of agricultural technology, accelerates the popularization and application of agricultural technology, and develops high-yield, high-quality, efficient, ecological and safe agriculture.

Article 4 Agricultural technology popularization shall follow the following principles:

(1) It is conducive to the sustainable development of agriculture and rural economy and increase farmers' income;

(2) Respect the wishes of agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations;

(3) According to local conditions, through experiments and demonstrations;

(4) classified management of public welfare promotion and business promotion;

(5) Give consideration to economic and social benefits, and pay attention to ecological benefits.

article 5 the state encourages and supports scientific and technological personnel to develop, popularize and apply advanced agricultural technologies, and encourages and supports agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations to apply advanced agricultural technologies.

the state encourages the use of modern information technology and other advanced means of communication to popularize agricultural science and technology knowledge, innovate agricultural technology popularization methods, and improve popularization efficiency.

article 6 the state encourages and supports the introduction of foreign advanced agricultural technology, and promotes international cooperation and exchanges in agricultural technology popularization.

article 7 people's governments at all levels should strengthen their leadership in agro-technical popularization and organize relevant departments and units to take measures to improve the service level of agro-technical popularization and promote the development of agro-technical popularization.

Article 8 Units and individuals that have made contributions to agro-technical popularization shall be rewarded.

Article 9 The departments of agriculture, forestry and water conservancy in the State Council (hereinafter referred to as agricultural technology popularization departments) shall be responsible for the relevant agricultural technology popularization work nationwide according to their respective responsibilities. Agricultural technology popularization departments of local people's governments at or above the county level shall, under the leadership of the people's governments at the same level, be responsible for the relevant agricultural technology popularization work within their respective administrative areas according to their respective responsibilities. The science and technology department of the people's government at the same level shall guide the popularization of agricultural technology. Other relevant departments of the people's government at the same level shall, in accordance with their respective duties, be responsible for the relevant work of agricultural technology popularization. Article 1 The popularization of agricultural technology shall be carried out by combining national agricultural technology popularization institutions with agricultural scientific research institutions, relevant schools, farmers' professional cooperatives, agriculture-related enterprises, mass scientific and technological organizations and farmers' technical personnel.

the state encourages and supports supply and marketing cooperatives, other enterprises and institutions, social organizations and scientific and technological personnel from all walks of life to carry out agricultural technology popularization services.

Article 11 National agro-technology popularization institutions at all levels are public service institutions and perform the following public welfare duties:

(1) Introduction, testing and demonstration of key agro-technologies determined by people's governments at all levels;

(2) Monitoring, forecasting and prevention of plant diseases and insect pests, animal diseases and agricultural disasters;

(3) inspection, testing and monitoring consulting technical services in the production process of agricultural products;

(4) Monitoring services for agricultural resources, forest resources, agricultural ecological security and the use of agricultural inputs;

(5) technical services for water resources management, flood control and drought relief and farmland water conservancy construction;

(6) agricultural public information and agricultural technology publicity, education and training services;

(7) Other duties as stipulated by laws and regulations.

article 12 according to the principle of scientific rationality and concentration of strength, as well as the distribution of agricultural characteristics, forest resources, water systems and water conservancy facilities in counties, national agricultural technology popularization institutions in counties, towns or regions shall be set up according to local conditions.

township national agro-technical popularization institutions can implement a system in which the management of agro-technical popularization departments of county-level people's governments is the mainstay or the management of township people's governments is the mainstay, and the business guidance of agro-technical popularization departments of county-level people's governments is determined by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Article 13 The staffing of national agro-technical popularization setups shall be reasonably determined according to the planting scale, service scope and work tasks of the service areas, so as to ensure the performance of public welfare duties.

the post setting of national agricultural technology extension institutions should focus on professional and technical posts. The posts of township national agro-technical popularization setups shall all be professional and technical posts, and the professional and technical posts of county-level national agro-technical popularization setups shall not be less than 8% of the total posts, and the professional and technical posts of other national agro-technical popularization setups shall not be less than 7% of the total posts.

Article 14 Professional and technical personnel of national agro-technical popularization setups shall have corresponding professional and technical level and meet the requirements of post responsibilities.

Newly-recruited professional and technical personnel employed by the national agro-technical popularization institutions shall have a college degree or above and pass the professional and technical level assessment organized by the relevant departments of the people's governments at or above the county level. Autonomous counties, nationality townships and contiguous poverty-stricken areas determined by the state may, with the approval of the relevant departments of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, employ personnel with relevant professional qualifications in secondary schools or other personnel with corresponding professional and technical levels.

the state encourages and supports graduates of institutions of higher learning and scientific and technological personnel to engage in agricultural technology popularization at the grassroots level. People's governments at all levels should take measures to attract talents and enrich and strengthen the grassroots agricultural technology extension team.

article 15 the state encourages and supports village agricultural technology service stations and farmers' technical personnel to carry out agricultural technology popularization. Farmers' technical personnel shall be given subsidies in accordance with the provisions to assist in carrying out public welfare agricultural technology popularization activities.

farmers' technical personnel who meet the requirements after examination may be awarded corresponding technical titles and certificates in accordance with relevant regulations.

the national agro-technical popularization setups should strengthen the guidance to village agro-technical service stations and farmers' technicians.

Villagers' committees and village collective economic organizations shall promote and help village agricultural technical service stations and farmers' technical personnel to carry out their work.

article 16 agricultural scientific research institutions and relevant schools should adapt to the needs of rural economic construction and development, develop and popularize agricultural technologies, and accelerate the popularization and application of advanced technologies in agricultural production.

agricultural scientific research institutions and relevant schools should take the achievements of their scientific and technical personnel in agricultural technology popularization as an important part of job assessment and professional title evaluation.

article 17 the state encourages farms, forest farms, pastures, fishing grounds and water conservancy project management units to provide agro-technical popularization services to the society.

article 18 the state encourages and supports the development of mass scientific and technological organizations, such as rural professional technical associations, and gives play to their role in agro-technical popularization. Nineteenth major agricultural technology promotion should be included in the relevant national and local development plans, plans, by the agricultural technology promotion department in conjunction with the relevant departments of science and technology in accordance with their respective responsibilities, mutual cooperation, organization and implementation.

Article 2 Agricultural scientific research units and relevant schools should list the technical problems that need to be solved in agricultural production as research topics, and their scientific research achievements can be popularized through relevant agricultural technology popularization units or directly to agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations.

the state guides agricultural scientific research institutions and relevant schools to carry out non-profit agricultural technology extension services.

article 21 agricultural technologies popularized to agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations must be proved to be advanced, applicable and safe by experiments in the popularization areas.

article 22 the state encourages and supports agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations to participate in agro-technical popularization.

agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations should apply advanced agricultural technology in their production, and relevant departments and units should give support in technical training, funds, materials and sales.

agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations apply agricultural technologies on a voluntary basis, and no unit or individual may force them.

to popularize agricultural technology, qualified farmers, regions or engineering projects should be selected for application demonstration.

Article 23 National agro-technical popularization setups at counties and towns shall organize agricultural labourers to learn agricultural science and technology knowledge and improve their ability to apply agricultural technology.

the departments of education, human resources and social security, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, science and technology should support agricultural scientific research units and relevant schools to carry out vocational and technical education and technical training on agricultural technology popularization, so as to improve the technical quality of agricultural technology popularization personnel and agricultural workers.

the state encourages social forces to carry out agricultural technology training.

article 24 national agro-technical popularization institutions at all levels shall conscientiously perform the public welfare duties stipulated in article 11 of this law, popularize agro-technology to agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations, and provide free services.

units and scientific and technical personnel other than the national agro-technical popularization institutions that provide agricultural technology in the form of technology transfer, technical services, technical contracting, technical consultation and technology shares can provide paid services, and their legitimate income and intellectual property rights such as new plant varieties and agricultural technology patents are protected by law. For agricultural technology transfer, technical services, technical contracting, technical consultation and technical shareholding, the parties concerned shall conclude a contract to stipulate their respective rights and obligations.

article 25 the state encourages and supports farmers' professional cooperatives and agriculture-related enterprises, and provides relevant technical services for farmers to apply advanced agricultural technologies in various forms.

article 26 the state encourages and supports the construction of agricultural demonstration zones focusing on the production of bulk agricultural products and agricultural products with advantages and characteristics, gives play to the leading role of demonstration zones in agricultural technology popularization, and promotes the development of agricultural industrialization and the construction of modern agriculture.

article 27 people's governments at all levels may guide social forces to participate in public agricultural technology extension services by purchasing services. Article 28 The State shall gradually increase its investment in agro-technical popularization. The people's governments at all levels shall ensure the funds used for agricultural technology popularization in the financial budget, and make the funds increase year by year according to the regulations.

people's governments at all levels raise special funds for agricultural technology popularization through financial allocation and drawing a certain proportion of funds from the agricultural development fund for the implementation of agricultural technology popularization projects. The central government grants subsidies to major agricultural technology popularization.

the working funds of the national agricultural technology extension institutions in counties and towns are determined according to the local service scale and performance, and shall be borne by all levels of finance.

no unit or individual may intercept or misappropriate the funds used for agricultural technology popularization.

article 29 people's governments at all levels shall take measures to ensure and improve the working conditions, living conditions and treatment of professional and technical personnel of national agricultural technology extension institutions at counties and towns, and give subsidies in accordance with state regulations to maintain the stability of the national agricultural technology extension team.

the evaluation of professional titles of professional and technical personnel engaged in agricultural technology popularization in counties, towns and villages should be based on the assessment of their professional technical level and achievements in popularization.

Article 3 People's governments at all levels shall take measures to ensure that national agro-technical popularization institutions obtain necessary working conditions such as experimental demonstration sites, office space, extension and training facilities and equipment.

local people's governments at all levels shall ensure that the experimental and demonstration sites, means of production and other property of the national agricultural technology popularization institutions are not infringed.

article 31 agricultural technology popularization departments and national agricultural technology popularization institutions at or above the county level shall provide technical training to agricultural technology popularization personnel in a planned way, and organize professional training so that they can constantly update their knowledge and improve their professional level.

article 32 agricultural technology popularization departments and township people's governments at or above the county level shall supervise and evaluate the performance of public welfare duties by the national agricultural technology popularization institutions under their management.

agricultural technology popularization departments at all levels and national agricultural technology popularization institutions shall establish the work responsibility system and evaluation system for professional and technical personnel of national agricultural technology popularization institutions.

the personnel of township national agricultural technology extension institutions, which are mainly managed by the agricultural technology extension departments of the county-level people's governments, should fully listen to the opinions of the township people's governments and clients in the areas they serve in their business assessment, post employment and promotion.

the personnel of township national agro-technical extension institutions, which are mainly managed by township people's governments and guided by the agro-technical extension departments of county-level people's governments, should fully listen to the opinions of the agro-technical extension departments and clients of the local county-level people's governments in their business assessment, post employment and promotion.

article 33 those who are engaged in agro-technical popularization services can enjoy the preferential tax and credit provided by the state. Article 34 If the relevant departments of the people's governments at all levels and their staff fail to perform their duties in accordance with the provisions of this Law, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished according to law.

Article 35 Where the national agro-technical popularization institutions and their staff fail to perform their duties in accordance with the provisions of this Law, the competent authorities shall order them to make corrections within a time limit, informed criticism; The directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished according to law.

article 36 whoever, in violation of the provisions of this law, popularizes agricultural technologies that have not been tested and proved to be advanced, applicable or safe to agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations, thus causing losses, shall be liable for compensation.

article 37 anyone who, in violation of the provisions of this law, forces agricultural labourers and agricultural production and operation organizations to apply agricultural technology, thus causing losses, shall be liable for compensation according to law.

article 38 whoever, in violation of the provisions of this law, intercepts or misappropriates funds for agro-technical popularization, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be punished according to law; If a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law. Article 39 This Law shall come into force as of the date of promulgation.