In the middle of the 21st century, China will be in a period of comprehensive modernization and globalization. China will be faced with the aging population, manpower shortage, and resource shortage. The contradiction between human and resources will be quite sharp, and the environmental governance will become very tough. To ensure the security of food, resources, and ecological environment, the Chinese Academy of Engineering set up a major consulting project named “Research on Key Strategic Issues of Agricultural Resource and Environment in China” to analyze the situation and seek for countermeasures. In accordance with the central government’s new development concept of “innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing,” this project put forward three strategic directions of “full implementation of the agricultural innovation-driven strategy,” “in-depth promotion of the agricultural sustainable development strategy” and “implementation of the agricultural globalization strategy.” Eight strategic changes, sixteen strategic measures related to resource conservation, environmental protection, structural adjustment, and regional distribution, as well as ten major projects were put forward.
Since the 21st century, the cultivated area, irrigated area, and main grain-producing zone have been continuously concentrated to the North of China, and the North-to-South grains transportation has further aggravated the dislocation of land resources and water resources, which leads to the increase of agricultural water resources stress, and the unsustainability of underground water in the main grain-producing zone to the north of the Yellow River. To ensure national food security and provide rational basic guarantees for agricultural water resources, based on the analysis of the agricultural water resources situation, the grain production and consumption, the spatial distribution characteristics of food crop irrigation water requirements, and the precipitation adapting cropping areas in China, the paper employed the irrigation quote method to calculate the minimum thresholds of farmland irrigation water requirements in 2025 and 2030 under the condition of the irrigation method adjusted and rational irrigation scale constrained by the grain consumption demand and the total water use control red line in future. The results show that, to meet the water demand for high-standard farmlands of 66.67×106 hectares in the future, a bottom line of 3.23×1011 m3 water for farmland irrigation should be guaranteed while strengthening water-saving conditions, and approximately 6.44×109 m3 unconventional water should be exploited to supplement fresh water shortage. Strategic measures of establishing water-saving and high-efficiency modern irrigation farming and water-collecting and efficiency-improved dry farming systems are proposed. To this end, the following measures should be stressed: precipitation adapting cropping should be promoted to improve rainwater utilization efficiency, engineering and agronomic measures should be taken to increase the utilization efficiency of irrigation water, utilization of unconventional water resources should be increased, and water resource management should be enhanced.
Based on a systematic analysis of changes in quantity and quality of cultivated land in China, this paper put forward an overall strategic thinking of realizing three strategic transformations in the cultivated land management from the aspects of quantity, quality, and ecology of the cultivated land. Five important measures, including enhancing the cultivated land quantity in China, curbing undisciplined growth of construction land, improving the fertility of cultivated soil, preventing and controlling heavy metal pollution of soil, and preventing and controlling agricultural film pollution, were proposed. It was also recommended that four major projects, namely middle- and low-yield farmland reforms, comprehensive improvement of rural land, comprehensive reparation of heavy metal pollution of soil, and soil and water conservation, sand prevention, and saline soil improvement, should be implemented as soon as possible.
Agricultural non-point source pollution is one of the main factors causing water pollution in China. Due to its characteristics of randomness, unfixed pollution discharge, and changes in pollution load, it is more difficult to control and prevent the pollution from non-point sources than that from point sources. Making clear of the current situation of non-point agricultural pollution and its prevention and control technologies is the premise of non-point pollution control. This paper summarizes the causes and present situation of agricultural non-point source pollution, and points out that the unreasonable fertilizer application and the pollutant discharge from large-scale livestock and poultry breeding farms are the most important sources of agricultural non-point pollution. The current mature non-point source pollution prevention and control techniques in planting and livestock industry are introduced. It also proposes that the combination of source control, process control, and end treatment is the most important prevention method for agricultural non-point source pollution. Corresponding prevention and control technologies of non-point source pollution should be adopted according to local conditions to realize the simultaneous development of environmental, economic, and social benefits.
The main contradiction of China’s agriculture has changed from gross shortage to structural contradiction in new time and circumstances. To adapt to the new normality of agricultural development, it has become an important task for the current agricultural development in China to adjust and optimize the agricultural structure, speed up the transformation of the growth model, and promote supply-side structural reforms of agriculture. This paper analyzes the main problems existing in China’s agricultural structure from five aspects, namely planting structure, animal husbandry structure, industrial structure, product structure, and spatial structure. Furthermore, we elaborate the strategic conception of China’s agricultural structural adjustment in the new era, and put forward adjustment and optimization plans for planting structure, animal husbandry structure, and industrial structure and corresponding policy recommendations.
With improvement of the living standards, the domestic consumption and production of livestock products such as meat, poultry, eggs, and milk keep increasing, and thus the domestic demand for forage is raised. Based on the analysis of changes in the supply and demand of forage materials in China and the changes in the future demand for domestic livestock and poultry products, the future demand of forage materials is forecasted. The research results show that the gap of supply and demand of forage materials in China will continue expanding in the future, and for the safety of domestic forage supply, cultivation of silage corns should be appropriately expanded and the grass industry in agricultural areas should be developed. Additionally, agricultural resources should be fully and rationally utilized, and the cultivation of crops such as soybeans and rapeseeds should be appropriately expanded to improve the effective supply of domestic meals. Meanwhile, China should make full and reasonable use of overseas agricultural resources to ensure the safe supply of domestic forage materials.
As the two largest “granaries” in China, the Northeast and Huang-Huai-Hai Plains are the main agricultural producing areas in North China, and the soil environmental risk management and control of these areas are vital to the national food security supply lifeline. This study analyzed the soil heavy metal pollution risks of main agricultural producing areas in North China by the potential ecological risk index method. The high-risk areas of Cd pollution are mainly distributed in Shenyang City in the east of Liaohe Plain, Jinzhou City and Huludao City in the south of Liaohe Plain, Shuangyashan in the Sanjiang Plain, Tianjin City in the Haihe Plain, and Xinxiang City in the southwest of the yellow river flood plain; Hg pollution high-risk areas are mainly distributed in Beijing and Tianjin of the Haihe Plain, and around the Shenyang City of the Liaohe Plain. The chemical industry, followed by the livestock and poultry industry, as well as the metal smelting and processing industry, is the major potential source of heavy metal pollution of soil in the Northeast and Huang-Huai-Hai Plains. This study proposed the “one area, one policy” pollution prevention strategy and key environmental protection projects from the aspects of environment monitoring and warning of agricultural products producing areas, clean production of industrial and mining enterprises, and comprehensive treatment of livestock and poultry pollution, which is based on local conditions and classification guidance. This study can provide important references for the strategic planning of sustainable development of the ecological environment of major agricultural producing areas in North China.
With the rapid development of Chinese economy, a large number of pollutants have entered the environment of agricultural producing areas and gradually exceeded its capacity limits, leading to substantial environmental problems and pollution incidents, as well as decline in output and quality of agricultural products, which has seriously impacts on the sustainable development of China’s agricultural production and rural economy. Urbanization in Southern China started early and developed rapidly, initially at the expense of the environment. Consequently, the problem of heavy metal pollution of soil becomes prominent and is aggravated by the widespread acid rain pollution in Southern China. This paper focuses on main agricultural producing areas along the Yangtze River and systematically discusses quality conditions of various environmental elements such as water, soil, and air. In addition, it investigates the causes of pollution from the aspects of natural factors and influences of human activities, and ultimately provides prevention and control strategies for the pollution, which can be of great significance in promoting the scientific nature of environmental pollution control in the agricultural producing areas in Southern China, ensuring agricultural sustainable development, quality safety of agricultural products, and ecological environment safety, and guaranteeing people’s health and safety.
Problems in China’s agricultural resources and environment have become increasingly prominent, with distinct resource and environment constraints for regional agricultures. Based on regional differentiation in agricultural resource and environment characteristics, this paper divided the country into 10 first-level zones and 57 second-level zones at the county scale. The first-level zones were divided according to regional differentiation in climate and geotectonic. And the second-level zones differentiate in water resources, land resources, and environmental conditions. It analyzed the agricultural production conditions, types of resources and their different combinations, environmental production conditions, and existing problems in these zones. This study proposed the strategies of “optimizing the spatial layout of eastern, central, and western regions” and “improving Northeast China, regulating North China, and recovering South China”. Twenty-seven second-level zones, undertaking the supply of major agricultural products in China, were identified and labeled as “major agricultural developing regions in China”. The development direction and construction measures of the major agricultural developing regions in China were suggested to maintain and improve the health and sustainability of China’s agricultural production system.
A fishery environment is a place on which the survival and reproduction of aquatic lives rely and is the foundation of fishery development. In general, the deterioration of the environmental quality of fishery waters in China has not yet been fundamentally curbed, and dissolved inorganic nitrogen and active phosphate are still the major indicators of pollution in fishery waters. Based on analyses of the status and variation trend of the fishery environment, in this review, we clarify the main factors that affect the sustainable development of China’s fishery environment, such as development of construction projects, pollution of external sources, ecological disasters, and pollution accidents; identify major environmental issues in key areas of water; propose the idea of sustainable fishery environment based on green, low-carbon, and environmentally friendly development; establish the overall development goal and the specific development goals of two stages by 2025 and 2030; and put forward suggestions and measures including strictly controlling external pollution and aquaculture self-pollution, delineating the ecological conservation redline, improving the monitoring technology system, strengthening ecological rehabilitation, and implementing innovation projects of the fishery environment in China, hoping to provide references for the protection and management of China’s fishery environment.
With the increasing shortage of water resources, the development and utilization of unconventional water resources have received more and more attention from various countries. Using unconventional water resources to irrigate is one of the important measures to deal with the shortage of water resources. Unconventional water resources mainly include the reclaimed water and brackish water. In China, the agricultural unconventional water resources have relatively high potentials. It has been predicted that the amount of unconventional water available for agriculture will reach 3.438×1010 m3 in 2030 and the irrigation amount of reclaimed water and brackish water will be 1.645×1010 m3 and 2.48×109 m3, respectively. In areas where the fresh water resources are lacking and the unconventional water resources are relatively abundant, especially in the arid area in the north, developing and using unconventional water resources can be regarded as a good solution for the shortage of fresh water. In this paper, based on the situation of China, the irrigation mode of unconventional water resources was summarized. From the aspects of zoning technology, suitable crop classification, pollution identification technology, high-efficient irrigation technique, monitoring and evaluation technology, and integrated application mode, this paper proposes the safe irrigation measures of unconventional water resources in China. Finally, in order to establish a technical system of agricultural unconventional water resources utilization suitable for China, this paper puts forward the development and utilization strategy, which is to further strengthen the technical research and popularization of the agricultural unconventional water resource utilization technology, to improve the recycling standards and regulation system, to bring the unconventional water resources into the planning of water resources development and utilization, and to formulate incentive policies.
A survey of field crop water use features, agricultural irrigation technical modes, and modern agriculture irrigation systems is of instrumental and practical value to improve agricultural water use efficiency and achieve sustainable utilization of agricultural water resources. This paper analyzes the irrigation schedules of typical crops, covering in particular the Huanghuaihai Plains (the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Hai River) wheat belt, the Northeast rice belt, the rice belt in middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Sichuan Basin rice belt, the eastern Inner Mongolia pasture, the Guangxi sugar cane belt, and the Xinjiang cotton belt, all classified according to the Chinese comprehensive agriculture zonation, and arrives at some optimal technology modes. Meanwhile, the technical features of modern agricultural irrigation are summarized and a policy assurance system for it is proposed. The main conclusions are as follows: ① Applying optimized irrigation program to major crops in each comprehensive agricultural zone not only ensures water supply in the sensitive water shortage period, but also saves irrigation water, stabilizes yields, and improves water productivity; ② In view of the characteristics and restraints in each zone, advanced water-saving technology modes are recommended and promoted, which supports the precision implementation of the optimized irrigation program and improves the comprehensive production capacity of regional agriculture; ③ To match and support the modern agricultural production and management system, an IT-based modern irrigation technology and its corresponding financing mechanism and water rights management mechanism, among other policy assurance systems, are proposed.
This paper systematically reviews the trends of soil fertility of arable land in China and puts forwards that the soil fertility improvement of arable land in China should realize the strategic change from single application of chemical fertilizer to the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, combine cultivation with preservation to maintain soil fertility, and implement spatial differentiation control. Moreover, this paper summarizes the ways to improve the soil fertility of arable land in China, including increasing the application of organic fertilizer, promoting straw returning to the field, resuming and promoting green manure cultivation, improving the farming conditions, and optimizing the layout of agroforestry networks. At last, this paper proposes policy suggestions of implementing high-standard farmland construction projects, soil improvement and restoration projects, grass-crop rotation projects, straw returning projects, and livestock and poultry manure application projects.
Cropland is the basis of grain production. In recent decades, the spatial pattern of cropland in China has changed significantly, which has caused some impact on grain production. Based on land cover data of 1990, 2000, and 2010, this study explored changes in the spatial pattern of cropland, and constructed a database with a spatial resolution of 1 km based on county-level agricultural statistics and soil organic matter data, which is the representative of crop productivity. The results show that: during the period from 1990 to 2010, drastic reclamation happened in Northeast and Northwest China while the cropland acreage decreased in Huang-Huai-Hai Plain; the main source of new cropland during the study period was grassland (46.9%), and the lost cropland was mainly converted to forest land (36.6%) in the first ten years and then to construction land (53.0%) in the following ten years; the changes in the spatial pattern of cropland have caused a decrease of 2.0% in the average crop productivity, and during this period, the construction land mostly occupied high-quality cropland, while the newly reclaimed cropland had lower crop productivity.
Coverage and use of agricultural plastic films in China has been increasing year by year, and its use area expands rapidly from west to east. Based on these characteristics, this paper discussed the pollution condition of residual plastic films, the deterioration of soil physicochemical properties caused by residual plastic films, and the risks of ecological environment deterioration. And then four causes of plastic film pollution were summarized. Common PE plastic films are difficult to degrade and are always substandard; the plastic films are difficult to recycle and have a low reuse efficiency; the technology of degradable plastic films is immature; and there is a lack of substitute products and supervision mechanism. On these bases, some control strategies for agricultural plastic film pollution were put forward to provide references for the rational utilization of agricultural plastic films in China. For example, standardized production of the plastic films should be promoted and the national standard of plastic film thickness≥0.01 mm should be strictly enforced; the scientific and rational use of plastic films in the field should be emphasized and the timely film uncovering technology should be promoted; the efficiency of residual film recovery machines should be improved, striving to realize zero residual of plastic films; greater efforts should be devoted to the research and development of degradable plastic films and the field application of degradable plastic films should be popularized.
Unreasonable discharge of manure from livestock and poultry breeding is a main source of agricultural non-point source pollution in China, but the manure is also a potential resource. How to achieve the best resource utilization of livestock manure and reduce environmental pollution has become a major problem that must be solved in the sustainable development of China’s breeding industry. In this paper, the pollutant discharge coefficient method is used to calculate the amount of manure produced by livestock and poultry breeding in China, and the current situation and problems of its resource utilization are analyzed. The results show that, with the expansion of the scale of livestock and poultry breeding and the increase of intensification, the amount of livestock manure resources has increased significantly. In 2015, the amount of manure produced by large-scale livestock and poultry breeding is 3.834×109 tons, including 6.36×108 tons of fresh manure, 5.65×108 tons of urine, and 2.633×109 tons of sewage. In terms of the total amount, the nitrogen and phosphorus in livestock and poultry manure in China are 1.229×107 tons and 2.046×106 tons, respectively, with the highest production in Henan province, followed by Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan, and Hunan. The livestock manure is mainly utilized as fertilizer, energy, and forage. We investigated and studied the current situation of the utilization of livestock and poultry manure, and analyzed and proposed suggestions to the problems in the resource utilization of livestock manure.
This paper analyzes the reasons for the overuse of chemical fertilizers from the aspect of fertilizer circulation. This paper introduces the traditional bi-level fertilizer distribution model and the current status of fertilizer circulation, and conducts an empirical analysis of the behaviors of fertilizer distributors by using field research data of the fertilizer distributors. Analyses show that the phenomenon of credit sales in fertilizer circulation is serious, which has greatly increased the cost of circulation and made the price of fertilizers unrealistically high. The promotion of fertilizer products and the financial risks arising from credit buying of farmers have increased the operating costs of the distributors. To make profit, the distributors tend to elevate the recommended dosage of fertilizer, resulting in excessive use of fertilizer by farmers. In addition, fertilizer distributors usually have a low level of expertise and thus need agricultural technical trainings to recommend a more scientific fertilizer dosage. To this end, it is recommended to raise the threshold for market access of fertilizer distributors, optimize trainings of the fertilizer distributors, and ease the pressure caused by credit sales in fertilizer circulation.
Food security has always been a major strategic issue related to national economic development, social stability, and national independence. Clarifying the degree of food security and scientifically estimating the future national food demand are the basic work for formulating food security policies. In 2015, the supply and demand of rice and wheat were basically balanced, corn supply exceeded demand, and soybean was heavily dependent on imports; cotton, oil, and sugar had great dependence on foreign products, of which the self-sufficiency rate of edible vegetable oil was only 36.9%, cotton 87.7%, and sugar 74.4%; supply and demand of livestock products were basically balanced, and milk needs variety regulation. According to factors such as the Chinese population growth, the urbanization rate, and the dining-out habit, this paper estimates that the demand for grain consumption will reach 6.37×108 t in 2025 and 6.85×108 t in 2030, and correspondingly the demand for meat will reach 8.1×107 t and 9.5×107 t, respectively. To ensure food security and the effective supply of major agricultural products in China, it is proposed that China should increase the input of comprehensive agricultural production capacity, implement the grain saving strategy, strengthen the innovation of agricultural science and technology, and reform the subsidy system for agricultural production.
To fully utilize both domestic and overseas markets and resources, which was put forward by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, it’s of great significance to accurately analyze the trade situation of agricultural products in China and scientifically grasp the reasonable scale of the import of agricultural products. This paper analyzes the general situation changes and driving factors of China’s agricultural products trade after China’s entry into WTO, and probes into the current situation of China’s major agricultural products trade in terms of varieties and markets. Furthermore, we estimates the reasonable import scale of major agricultural products in 2025 and 2030, such as wheat, rice, corn, cotton, sugar, soybean, vegetable oil, pork, beef, mutton, poultry meat, and aquatic products. Policy proposals of ensuring the basic supply of grain and bulk agricultural products at home, adopting active import strategy, improving the international agricultural product market monitoring and import early-warning mechanism, and promoting the “going global” strategy of agriculture are put forward.
Now consumption of main food in Taiwan of China has been stable. It is most likely that Chinese Mainland will follow the progressive path of food consumption in Taiwan of China. The total dietary consumption of Chinese Mainland residents will reach the summit around 2026, so will the consumption of food with high added values, such as fruit, meat, egg, aquatic products, dairy products, and oil. Total dietary consumption will be 563 kg per capita, and grain consumption will be 456 kg per capita. The structure of dietary consumption will reach a table state by 2035, and total dietary consumption and grain consumption will be 499 kg per capita and 412 kg per capita, respectively. Dietary consumption of Chinese Mainland residents has great potentials for promotion, which will exert long and continuous pressure on China’s limited land and water resources.
The coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei is the core strategy of China’s political, economic, scientific, and cultural construction. The environmental protection of regional agricultural producing areas is a strategic location for the battle against pollution. The problem of excessive heavy metals Cd and Hg in the soil of agricultural producing areas is prominent in Beijing and Tianjin, and the pollution risk cannot be ignored. The main causes of soil pollution in the agricultural producing areas in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region are heavy metal pollution by industrial development zones, sewage irrigation, inadequate sewage treatment capacity, imperfect regulations and policies, and backward technical standards. This study proposed to comprehensively deploy a “sky-ground integrated” environment monitoring system for the agricultural producing area, implement the clean production of in-dustrial and mining enterprises, and promote comprehensive strategies of soil pollution prevention and control such as comprehensive management of livestock and poultry pollution. Engineering cases for environmental pollution prevention and control of a pit-pond pollution site and an informal refuse landfill in Tianjin are enumerated to provide references for strategic decisions of soil pollution prevention and control in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei agricultural producing areas.
As an important part of the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain, the Poyang Lake Plain is an important commodity grain production base in China, with a good environmental quality, a low level of heavy metal pollution in soil, and a low ratio of pollution sites. Therefore, environmental protection system engineering in Poyang Lake agrees with the environmental protection concept of giving priority to protection, and could be a typical and representative case for the agricultural producing areas in Southern China. This paper clarifies the main environmental problems of the Poyang Lake Plain and analyzes the causes. It proposes environmental quality improvement measures and key projects based on a landscape-forest-lake systemic protection concept, which has important guiding significance for the improvement of environmental quality of the main agricultural producing areas in the Poyang Lake area. The results show that environmental pollution in the Poyang Lake Plain is dominated by heavy metal pollution in soil, the proportion of living-source pollution is increased, livestock and poultry breeding pollution has not yet been effectively curbed, and industrial and mining enterprises as well as the background value of heavy metals in soil are the main causes of pollution. Accordingly, measures should be implemented in the following three aspects. First, multiple environmental factors should be combined to strengthen systematic protection and unified supervision. Second, meticulous management should be performed by focusing on the water environment quality. Third, we should attach importance to environmental emergency plans and strictly control the pollution sources that may enter into the soil.