Circular agriculture elevated to a national strategy, helping transform the agricultural development model
On November 10, at the “Seminar on the Implementation Effects of Circular Agriculture among Smallholder Farmers” jointly organized by the College of Humanities and Development Studies of China Agricultural University and ActionAid (China), Sun Yufang, director of the Resource Protection Division of the Agricultural Ecology and Resource Protection Station of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that developing ecological circular agriculture must be grounded in local realities, actively explore different models, give play to comparative advantages, and highlight construction priorities; it cannot simply be a “one-size-fits-all” approach with a single model.
For thousands of years, smallholder farming in East Asia, represented by China, has followed the principles of circular agriculture, making full use of water, light and heat resources, sustaining livelihoods through the cyclical use of agricultural resources, and maintaining harmony between humanity and nature; for example, a sound ecosystem formed among the “fish-mulberry-rice” system in the Pearl River Delta.
Dr. Wang Zhen of the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University said that in the “fish-mulberry-rice” model, various agricultural life forms grow together and mutually benefit one another; in such a production system, farming households can both make full use of the resources in each production link and reasonably arrange farming activities, bringing the use of labor to its fullest extent.
Although circular agriculture is not a new thing, elevating it to a national strategy in recent years is a requirement of agricultural transformation and development.
After reform and opening up, China followed the early industrialization path of the West, causing serious resource waste and environmental pollution. This brought a series of problems to the already fragile agricultural ecosystem. Moreover, although China achieved more than ten consecutive years of increase in total grain output, excessive development and consumption of resources have led to shortages of agricultural resources, and massive emissions of pollutants have led to environmental pollution and ecological damage. At present, agriculture is facing severe challenges to sustainable development.
Sun Yufang gave examples: China’s annual agricultural irrigation water use is 330 billion cubic meters, but the utilization rate is only 52%, 23 percentage points lower than the average utilization rate of 75% in developed countries; annual chemical fertilizer application is 59.12 million tons, with a utilization rate of 33%; annual pesticide use is 311,000 tons (converted to active ingredient), with a utilization rate of 35%, generally 20 percentage points lower than the average level of developed countries; annual livestock and poultry manure production is 3.8 billion tons, with an effective treatment rate of less than 50%; in 2013, total straw output was 964 million tons, with a collectable amount of about 819 million tons, and a comprehensive utilization rate of 76%; agricultural film use was 2.493 million tons, but the recovery rate was less than 60%, of which 10%-20% remained in the soil.
The result is that excessive application of chemical fertilizers, spraying of pesticides, and use of agricultural film cause water pollution and declines in soil quality; the increased pesticide residues in agricultural products threaten food safety; the widespread use of agricultural machinery and fossil fuels increases energy consumption and aggravates air pollution; and the rapid development of large-scale breeding operations means livestock and poultry manure cannot be absorbed in time, making environmental pollution problems increasingly prominent.
In 2005, the State Council issued the “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Circular Economy.” In 2006, circular agriculture entered the No. 1 Central Document as a separately stated section for the first time. Subsequently, the No. 1 Documents of 2007 and 2008 also included related statements. By 2012, statements on circular agriculture shifted to the specific technical level. In 2013, it was mentioned that attention should be paid to the sustainable use of biogas, which is an important link in the development of circular agriculture.
By this year, the No. 1 Central Document proposed “vigorously promoting the development of the agricultural circular economy.” Subsequently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Ecological Civilization Construction,” which, similar to the wording of the No. 1 Central Document, mentioned “developing the agricultural circular economy.” This shows that the thinking of policymakers has changed, breaking away from the past understanding of “talking about agriculture only in terms of agriculture.” In this way, the connotation is broader, the comprehensiveness is stronger, and greater attention is paid to the links among industries such as industry and agriculture as well as the cyclical use of resources.
In terms of local pilot construction, in December 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture designated 10 cities (autonomous prefectures) to carry out the construction of circular agriculture demonstration cities. This year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Zhejiang Province jointly built a modern ecological circular agriculture pilot; as the only province in the country piloting modern ecological circular agriculture, Zhejiang will receive support from the Ministry of Agriculture in policies, funding, technology and other aspects, striving to form, in about 3 years (2015-2017), a modern ecological circular agriculture development system and a long-term mechanism for sustainable agricultural development.
Judging from the effects of circular agriculture development, ecological benefits, economic benefits and social benefits have performed relatively well, producing a positive impact on reducing agricultural non-point source pollution, protecting cultivated land and water resources, promoting increases in farmers’ incomes, and rebuilding trust between food producers and consumers.
Sun Yufang said that because natural conditions, resource endowments, levels of development, and cultural customs differ across China, agricultural development in different regions shows multi-level and unbalanced characteristics, and the prominent environmental problems they face also vary. This makes it necessary for developing circular agriculture to be grounded in local realities, actively explore different models, give play to comparative advantages, and highlight construction priorities; it cannot simply be a “one-size-fits-all” approach with a single model.
In China, although circular agriculture has a long history, the time of its industrialization has been relatively short. At the seminar, Dr. Wang Zhen mentioned that at present there is still no dedicated policy for the development of circular agriculture, and policy formulation is scattered across national strategies and local economic and social plans, which to a certain extent restricts the development of circular agriculture.