Coordinating environmental protection and agricultural development: a village-based case study for promoting green transformation

Highlights

● Challenges of agricultural development in the Erhai Lake basin.

● STB model promoting agricultural green transformation in Erhai Lake basin.

● Approach and impact of the Erhai STB in agriculture green development.

● Balancing farmer income with environmental goals.

● Erhai’s success: a blueprint for global sustainable farming.

Abstract

Balancing ecological preservation with sustainable agricultural practices is a global issue. Erhai Lake has felt this challenge keenly. To address it, in 2022, a Science and Technology Backyards (STBs) project was launched in Gusheng Village. The goal of this is to care for the environment while ensuring that farms and farmers can thrive sustainably. The uniqueness of the Erhai STB arises from its interdisciplinary integration, encompassing fields such as ecology, agronomy and social science, resulting in specifically-designed solutions for the Erhai context. While this model aligns with broader STB paradigms, its distinctive edge lies in technological innovation and robust support mechanisms for local agricultural stakeholders. This paper describes the methodology and outcomes of the STB initiative, highlighting its pivotal role in spearheading sustainable transition in Erhai. Preliminary findings underscore the potential of the STB model as an efficacious tool for harmonizing environmental conservation and agricultural practices, that are both financially and environmentally sustainable, rendering it a potential model for comparable regions in China and other counties.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Agriculture green development / Science and Technology Backyards / Erhai / environmental protection / smallholders

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFD1901504-02) and the Yunnan Science and Technology Program (202202AE090034-05) to Kemo Jin. We are particularly grateful to Wen Xu (China Agricultural University), Wen-Feng Cong (China Agricultural University), Wenchao Li (Hebei Agricultural University), Dongmei Wang (China Agricultural University), Xuan Bao (China Agricultural University) and Wei Sun (Yunnan Agricultural University) for providing and processing valuable data.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Kemo Jin, Nico Heerink, William J. Davies, Jianbo Shen, Yifeitong Zhang, Yong Hou, Yaqiao Zhao, Zhengxiong Zhao, and Fusuo Zhang declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2024. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)