Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Northwestern Ecologically Fragile Desert Oasis——A case study of Guazhou County of Gansu Province

Guazhou County of Gansu Province is a typical ecological fragile area lying in the transition area of desert and oasis.The development of its agricultural economy is highly dependent on natural resources and environment.Contradiction of resources characterized agriculture and the fragile ecological environment has become one of the main barriers to log the impact of local agriculture to achieve sustainable development.Aiming at fragile ecological environment and limiting factors of agricultural sustainable development,thoughts and countermeasures of realizing agricultural sustainable development have been proposed.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN SALINE-ALKALI SOIL AREA OF SONGNEN PLAIN,NORTHEAST CHINA

There is great potential for agriculture in saline-alkali soil area in Songnen Plain, Northeast China. But the sustainable crop production in this area has been restricted by a few of main factors, such as less precipitation, h igher evaporation and frequent drought, high salinity and alkalinity, high excha ngeable sodium content and poor infiltration of the soil, and insufficiency and low availability in nutrition. It is also considered that there are a few of fav orable conditions for agricultural development in this region, such as sufficien t light and heat resources, rich ground water resources, plenty of manure produc ed by livestock, and so on. At the same time, scientific management and measurem ents have been employed; rational irrigation and drainage system has been establ ished; reclamation, amendment and fertilization of soil, and suitable strategies of cropping practices have been made for the sustainable development of agricul ture. Great progress has been made during 1996-2000.

Considerations on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Dryland Areas

Drylands of the world cover 41%of the Earth＇s land surface and are a direct source of livelihood for 6.5 billion people, especially in developing countries. However, nearly all drylands are at risk of land degradation as a result of human activities. Poverty and desertification in dryland areas are major problems threatening sustainable agriculture and rural development in dryland areas. Several topics that are significant for sustainable agriculture and rural development for food security and environmental rehabilitation in dryland areas were stressed in this paper.

Selenium Enriched Trionyx sinensis : A New Choice for the Sustainable Development Model of Modern Agriculture

Based on the analysis of the current situation and existing problems of traditional Chinese soft shelled turtle(Trionyx sinensis)breeding industry,combined with the fact that selenium enriched functional agriculture is the future demand of mankind,this paper put forward the necessity of developing selenium enriched Chinese soft shelled turtles and promoting the sustainable development of modern agriculture:the development of selenium-enriched Chinese soft-shelled turtle is the need of the consumer market for food safety,the need to reduce the production cost of soft-shelled turtles and improve the production efficiency of soft-shelled turtles,the need to enrich the Chinese soft-shelled turtle market,and the need to promote the sustainable development of modern agriculture(fishery).

Assessing Agricultural Sustainable Development Based on the DPSIR Approach: Case Study in Jiangsu, China

According to the contemporary ecosystem approach, the linkages of human actions with their environment have to be assessed in an integrative manner. The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response （DPSIR） model is applied to identify and describe processes and interactions in human-environmental systems. An example application from a research project dealing with the development of sustainable management strategies for the agriculture in Jiangsu, China, illustrates the potentials and limitations of its sustainable development. The concept and indicators of ecological integrity are used to assess the indicators in the dimensions of DPSIR between 2003 and 2006. The main drivers included population growth which caused increasing demand for food, growing environmental demands, and rapidly decreasing of land and other natural resources. The main environmental problem was water pollution. The results show that in the dimension of driver, total grain output and agricultural land productivity both increased. Labor intensive agriculture has been promoted to increase agricultural land productivity. In the dimension of pressure, on the positive side, infrastructure got greatly improved, the input level such as total power of machinery, and level of fertilizer use increased, and level of pesticides use decreased, but on the negative side, cultivated land per capita and irrigation rate decreased, natural resources keep decreased. Environmental pollution indicators such as industrial wastewater discharge and acid rain rate increased in Jiangsu Province. In the aspect of state, ecosystem state was improved, plant coverage index increased, biological abundance index increased, fertilizer productivity increased, eco-environmental quality index increased, but land degradation index also increased. In the aspect of impact, output level increased, output efficiency enhanced, farmer＇s social economic benefit improved. In the aspect of response, social support was greatly improved, input for environmental governance increased. To assess the effects of environmental governance, Jiangsu government was successful to increase compliance rate of sulfur dioxide emissions, but not so efficient in compliance rate of industrial wastewater discharge.

Study on Decision Support System of Agricultural Sustainable Development of Jianli County in Jianghan Plain

With the agricultural development and the modernization of decision-making, it is necessary to establish the agricultural sustainable development decision support system supported by GIS. We set Jianli county as an example; our aim is to realize decision spatialiazation with the support of information system, remote sensing and artificial intelligence. The system components are described in the aspects of database, knowledge base, model-base and method-base. This system will provide a workable system for local decision-makers and agricultural management sections.

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY EVALUATION OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN KARST MOUNTAINOUS AREA—A Case Study of Du'an Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi

Ecological security is the main task and applied field of present geography, resources and environment sciences and ecology. Ecological security evaluation will efficiently promote ecological security and environmental construction in regional land use. In this thesis, the authors put forward the index system of ecological security evaluation in karst mountainous area on three aspects, the pressure of resources and eco-environment, the quality of resources and eco-environment, and the ability of environmental protection and ecological improvement. Using the evaluation method with single index, based on the case study ofDu'an Yao Autonomous County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the system of synthetic regionalization of ecological agricultural economy was formed, which includes three regions, south region with basic security and synthetic agricultural development, east region with critical security and agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry balanced development, mid-west and south region with ecological insecurity and compounded agriculture and forestry management. Meanwhile, for these regions, the countermeasures of sustainable agricultural development were pointed out, which provide the basis and example for ecological regulation and control of sustainable agricultural development in counties ofkarst mountainous area.

The Systematic Analysis on the Relationship between Population and Agricultural Sustainable Development in Hebei

Regional agricultural sustainable development is the basement and important component of sustainable development system. In view of the relationship between population and regional agricultural sustainable development, this paper proposes some countermeasures on coordination development between population and sustainable agriculture in Hebei Province.

AN ASSESSMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPING CAPABILITY OF INTEGRATED AGRICULTURAL REGIONALIZATION IN CHINA

Based on the provincial units evaluation, this paper makes an assessment forsustainable developing capability of the integrated agricultural regionalization in China. At first,an index system of agricultural sustainable development in China is built up, which includes 5supporting subsystems of agricultural resources, agricultural development, environment andecosystem, rural society, sciences-education and management. We selected 95 factors on provinciallevel as basic indexes. Second, a relative assets/debt assessing method is used to gain relative netassets values (relative superiority) of every provincial unit, which are as supporting data forassessment. We also overlaid the Administrative Divisions Map of China and the Map of IntegratedAgricultural Regionalization of China by Geography Information System (GIS) to gain the area unitsof assessment. Third, according to the relative coherence principle of regionalizaticn, we transformadministration units to natural units through homogenizing all provincial relative net assetsvalues in every agricultural assessing unit. After making order and grade, we complete thesustainable developing capability assessment to integrated agricultural regionalization in China.The assessing outcome shows that the total sustainable agricultural developing capability of Chinais not high. Only about 1 /3 in number or in area has reached the level of agricultural sustainabledevelopment. The relative net assets values exists a reducing trend from East China to West China.It needs a long period and great efforts to realize sustainable agricultural development over allChina. Finally, there is a discussion to the study method.

Effects of Straw Returning to Fields on Soils and Current Status in Anhui Province

In the research, effects of straw returning to fields on soil temperature, water, volume-weight, porosity, trace elements, and organic matters were reviewed and countermeasures were proposed to promote straw returning on basis of straw resources and present status in Anhui Province.

Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation of Wetland Soil Quality Degradation:A Case Study on the Sanjiang Plain,Northeast China

Wetland soil quality degradation caused by large-scale agricultural reclamation on the Sanjiang Plain of Northeast China has been widely reported. A relative soil quality evaluation (RSQE) model and a projection pursuit evaluation (PPE) model based on real-coded accelerating genetic algorithm were introduced to evaluate quality variations in top layers of the main wetland soils on the Sanjiang Plain in 1999 and 2003, respectively. As soil quality degradation boundaries were vague, this study established two fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) models based on the original data and criteria used in the RSQE and PPE models. The outputs of the two FSE models were obtained by choosing two fuzzy composite operators M(∧, ∨) and M(·, ⊕). Statistical analysis showed that the results of the FSE, RSQE, and PPE models were correlated. In particular, outputs of the FSE model using M(·, ⊕) were significantly correlated with those of the RSQE model with r = 0.989 at P < 0.01. Compared with RSQE and PPE models, the FSE model may be more objective in showing soil quality variations and was closer to the natural situation, showing the feasibility and applicability of the FSE model in evaluating soil quality degradation. However, the choice of composite operator was of critical importance. The study of wetland soil quality degradation on the Sanjiang Plain was of scientific and practical significance for protection and management of soils and for sustainable development of agriculture in this area in the future.

Effects of environmentally friendly agricultural land protection programs: Evidence from the Lake Seyfe area of Turkey

fully supported by the Turkish Scientific Research Council （TUBITAK in Turkish, 110O747）

RESEARCH AND APPLICATION OF CROP PEST MONITORING AND EARLY WARNING TECHNOLOGY IN CHINA

The importance of food security,especially in combating the problem of acute hunger,has been underscored as a key component of sustainable development.Considering the major challenge of rapidly increasing demands for both food security and safety,the management and control of major pests is urged to secure supplies of major agricultural products.However,owing to global climate change,biological invasion(e.g.,fall armyworm),decreasing agricultural biodiversity,and other factors,a wide range of crop pest outbreaks are becoming more frequent and serious,making China,one of the world’s largest country in terms of agricultural production,one of the primary victims of crop yield loss and the largest pesticide consumer in the world.Nevertheless,the use of science and technology in monitoring and early warning of major crop pests provides better pest management and acts as a fundamental part of an integrated plant protection strategy to achieve the goal of sustainable development of agriculture.This review summarizes the most fundamental information on pest monitoring and early warning in China by documenting the developmental history of research and application,Chinese laws and regulations related to plant protection,and the National Monitoring and Early Warning System,with the purpose of presenting the Chinese model as an example of how to promote regional management of crop pests,especially of cross border pests such as fall armyworm and locust,by international cooperation across pest-related countries.