A Comprehensive Review of Foreign Experience in Ecological Agriculture Development
Ecological agriculture first emerged in Europe in 1924 and developed in Switzerland, the UK, Japan and elsewhere in the 1930s-40s; in the 1960s many European farms shifted to ecological cultivation, and in the late 1970s Southeast Asia began researching ecological agriculture, with sustainable development becoming the common choice for agricultural development across the world. Today in China, the wave of ecological agriculture has already arrived, and doing ecological agriculture has become quite a fashionable pursuit of this era. How to make the name resound, make the scale grow, make the wallet fat, and build a cause that is not spectacular but steady and enduring is a question worth every farmer's consideration. Only by knowing yourself and your opponent can you fight a hundred battles without defeat - seeing how other countries do ecology may offer you some inspiration.
1. A world model of ecological agriculture - Maya Farm in the Philippines
⟦NL> The Philippines is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that started ecological agriculture construction earlier and developed faster, among which Maya Farm is the most representative. Maya Farm is located near Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Starting in the 1970s, after 10 years of construction, the farm's crop, forestry, livestock, sideline and fishery production formed a virtuous-cycle agricultural ecosystem. Maya Farm's predecessor was a flour mill. To make full use of the large amount of bran produced by the flour mill, the operator established a livestock farm and fish ponds; to increase the farm's income, a meat processing and canning factory was established. As the farm developed, the operator opened up a 24-hectare hilly area, expanded the scale of production, and named it Maya Farm.
In order to control manure pollution and recycle various wastes, Maya Farm successively built more than a dozen biogas production workshops, generating over 100,000 cubic meters of biogas per day, providing the energy needed for farm production and household life. In addition, from the biogas residue after gas production, some livestock feed can also be recovered, with the rest used as organic fertilizer. After treatment in algae oxidation ponds, the biogas slurry after gas production is sent to ponds to raise fish and ducks, and finally the pond water and pond mud are taken to fertilize the fields. The grain produced by the farmland is sent to the flour mill for processing, entering another cycle.
A large-scale agro-industrial combined production enterprise like this does not need to purchase raw materials, fuel or fertilizer from outside, yet can maintain high profits, and has no pollution from waste gas, waste water or waste residue. Because this production process conforms to ecological principles and rationally utilizes resources, it achieves full cyclic utilization of biological matter. In 1980, an international conference was held at Maya Farm, and the participants gave high praise to this ecological farm.
2. Ecological agriculture is possible even with scarce water and land - Israel's ecological agriculture with water conservation first
Israel is a country relatively poor in agricultural natural resources, with more than half of the country's land located in arid and semi-arid regions, so land and freshwater resources are very scarce. To solve this problem, Israel developed drip irrigation and other micro-irrigation technologies in the late 1950s, greatly improving the utilization rate of water resources. Water conservation became the central task of its agricultural management, and the greatest economic benefit per unit of land area and per unit of water was the main goal of water-saving agriculture research and management. Crops, green trees, grasslands and flowers are almost all irrigated by drip irrigation. Drip irrigation delivers water and nutrients directly to the roots of plants on time and in the right amount, avoiding water loss and achieving the best results with a small amount of water. The utilization rate of water and fertilizer is as high as 80-90%, saving 50-70% of water and 30-50% of fertilizer; at the same time, it prevents the occurrence of secondary soil salinization, saves the land occupied by traditional irrigation ditches, and multiplies the yield per unit area.
In addition, Israel also attaches importance to researching the recycling and reuse of wastewater for farmland irrigation. They pass wastewater through different filtration devices to reduce its pollutant and bacterial content, turning wastewater into a water source suitable for irrigation. When irrigating, they comprehensively consider water quality and soil texture and condition, formulate reasonable irrigation strategies and methods, and select suitable crops, so as to facilitate the decomposition of substances in the water and avoid pollution of groundwater quality.
With the help of scientific and technological means, Israel's distinctive water-saving agriculture not only ensures the quality and yield of agricultural products, but also improves the degree of mechanization, intensification and scale in the entire agricultural production process. It achieves a coordinated relationship centered on water among the field water - soil - crop - atmosphere system, maintains the balance of mutual transformation among precipitation, surface water, groundwater, soil water and crop water in accordance with the water requirements of agricultural production, improves the water utilization rate in the conversion link from water source to crop yield, and forms the greatest possible optimization and utilization of the agricultural ecological environment.
3. Rigorous Germans, strict German ecological agriculture
Germany already had the concept of ecological agriculture as early as 1924. Just like the rigorous style of Germans in doing things, Germany's requirements for ecological agriculture are also quite strict: no chemically synthesized pesticides or herbicides, but beneficial natural enemies or mechanical weeding methods; no easily soluble chemical fertilizers, but organic or slow-release fertilizers; use of humus to maintain soil fertility; planting by crop rotation or intercropping; no chemically synthesized plant growth regulators; control of pasture stocking density; use of natural feed for animal raising; no antibiotics; no genetically modified technology.
On June 21, 1991, the European Union issued the "Regulations on Ecological Agriculture and the Production of Corresponding Agricultural Products." The regulations clearly pointed out that production as ecological products must conform to the standards of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (FOAM), such as how products are produced, which substances are allowed to be used, and which substances may not be used. In the production process, the raw materials used for ecological products must be ecological. For added materials used, if they must be used in the production process, part of the added materials are allowed to come from traditional agricultural products, but must not exceed 25%. Once traditional agricultural added materials are used, the proportion used should be indicated on the product. Only when more than 95% of the added materials come from ecological sources can it be sold as a pure ecological product.
The standards of the German Ecological Agriculture Association (AGOEL) are higher than the EU's "ecological regulations." For example, if an enterprise wants to join AGOEL and sell its products as ecological products, it must undergo 3 years of complete adjustment. Testing centers authorized by the state inspect enterprises applying to convert to ecological agricultural production at least once a year. In addition, random inspections may also be carried out from time to time. If the inspection fails, the adjustment period must be extended. In addition, the German Ministry of Agriculture also establishes an ecological agriculture award every year to reward enterprises with outstanding contributions to promoting the improvement of ecological agriculture and developing product technologies. The total prize money is 25,000 euros, which is enough to show the German government's strong advocacy and support for ecological agriculture.