草业系统工程——推动21世纪中国农业持续发展的黑马

Pratacultural Systems Engineering——A Black Horse in Motivating Sustainable Development in China's Agriculture

美国世界观察研究所所长布朗先生预测，中国在２１世纪中叶将发生粮食短缺危机。这从中国人口不断增加、耕地逐步减少、粮食增长幅度有限的角度看，不无道理。然而，布朗先生却忽略了中国农业发展潜力的一个重要方面，这就是中国还拥有位居世界第二、占国土面积４１％的草地资源，尚待开发建设、科学利用。在农业现代化进程中，如果采用草业系统工程的理论和基本模式，发展知识密集型草产业，将推动大农业的持续发展，成为２１世纪中国人口、资源、环境、富裕、少数民族经济发展问题的良策。

Mr.Brown, head of the U. S. World Observation Research Institute, predicted that China would encounter a food shortage crisis in the middle of the 21st certury. This prediction is not irrational , judged from an angle of China's continuous growing population, shrinking area of farm lands and the limited margin left for further increasing food grain production. Mr. Brown, however, did not taken into account an important aspect of China's potential for agricultural development, that is ,the vast grassland resources which makes up 41% of China's land territory and takes the world's second place in the ampleness of the resources. In the general process of China's agricultural modernisation, the grassland resources can be utilised more rationally by developing knowledge-intensive grassland industries in the framework of the theory and successful practices of pratacultural systems engineering. This development, in its turn, will provide the whole agricultural sector with a motive force toward a sustainable development in dealing with a variety of problems China is to face in the coming century, including the issues of population, resources, environment, well-being of the people and economic development in regions of Chinese ethnic minorities.