The development countermeasures for ecological agriculture in China lie in transforming the concept of agricultural development
Up to now, the area under ecological agriculture construction in China has reached 0.1 billion hectares, accounting for about 12% of the national cultivated land area; ecological agriculture covers ecological agriculture households, ecological agriculture villages, ecological agriculture townships, ecological agriculture counties and even ecological agriculture provinces; the number of counties, townships and villages implementing ecological agriculture construction demonstration projects has reached more than 4,000, spanning 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government across the country.
According to China's agricultural development characteristics, socio-economic development level and resource conditions, the existing ecological agriculture models in China can be divided into the following 4 types: (1) Multi-layer material utilization model. In this model, the output of one link is the input of another link, and waste is utilized multiple times in the production process, achieving a virtuous material cycle and multi-level energy utilization. It can be subdivided into the biogas utilization model, the pest, disease and weed control model, and the industrial chain extension and value-added model. (2) Biological mutualism and symbiosis model. This model places organisms with complementary ecological niches within a biological community, utilizes space in layers, and makes full use of resources such as solar energy, water, nutrients and accumulated temperature to improve resource utilization efficiency and land productivity, achieving the goals of high yield, high quality, high efficiency and low consumption. It can be subdivided into: mountain and hilly model, farmland plain model, three-dimensional water body model, and three-dimensional grassland model. (3) Resource development and utilization and environmental governance model. This model incorporates agricultural production activities into the ecological circulation chain, participates in the biological symbiosis and material circulation of the ecosystem, protects and improves the agricultural ecological environment and production conditions, and achieves coordinated development of ecological, economic and social benefits. (4) Sightseeing tourism model. On the basis of local natural scenery, this model centers on the industrialization development of high-tech agriculture, takes agricultural product processing as the breakthrough point, and uses agricultural tourism and sightseeing services as the means, integrating ecological agriculture construction with tourism and sightseeing. It can be divided into the sightseeing farm model, the agricultural park model, and the educational farm model.
The main countermeasures for the development of ecological agriculture in China: (1) Transform the concept of agricultural development. The development of ecological agriculture is closely linked to the concept of agricultural development; only an advanced concept of sustainable development can serve as the guiding ideology for the transformation from traditional agriculture to ecological agriculture. This requires farmers to transform the traditional concept of “valuing agricultural output while neglecting the ecological environment” and to form an environment-friendly concept of intensive management. It also requires the government and farmers to work together; the government should transform the thinking of “GDP-only” evaluation, and at the same time improve the quality of agricultural workers through the development of rural vocational education and professional and technical education.
(2) Improve laws and regulations on ecological agriculture. Specialized laws on ecological agriculture such as the “Ecological Agriculture Promotion Law” should be introduced as soon as possible, relevant regulations such as the “Regulations on the Development of Ecological Agriculture” should be formulated, and the “Agriculture Law” should be revised and improved to clarify the overall objectives, guiding ideology, development strategy and management system of China's ecological agriculture construction, and to guide the formulation of specific policies for ecological agriculture. Supervision also needs to be strengthened, and law enforcement efforts intensified.
(3) Promote the industrialization of ecological agriculture. In the process of developing ecological agriculture, it is necessary to actively promote the industrialization of ecological agriculture, give play to the leading role of market mechanisms, develop multiple production types, multiple business models and multi-level agricultural economic structures, build an effective combination of agriculture, industry and services, and form an industrial system integrating production, processing and sales.
(4) Strengthen the organizational management of ecological agriculture. The key is to straighten out the relationships among relevant stakeholder entities such as the government, farmers, enterprises, scientific and technological entities and social organizations, and gradually form an ecological agriculture organization and management framework model in which the government guides, scientific and technological entities and social organizations actively participate, and farmers and enterprises actively carry out construction.