Jiang Gaoming: what kind of agriculture can be called ecological agriculture

Because of my work, the author is often asked what kind of agriculture is ecological agriculture. What is the difference between ecological agriculture and traditional agriculture and organic agriculture? Is ecological agriculture returning to primitive agriculture? Due to the lack of understanding of the connotation of ecological agriculture and the deliberate misunderstanding of some people, ecological agriculture has become synonymous with backwardness, low yield and low efficiency in some special contexts, and the only thing they admit is that ecological agriculture is environmentally friendly.

If agriculture is developed only because of environmental protection, and can not meet the needs of the growing population, it is obviously not necessary to promote such agriculture. In fact, ecological agriculture is a kind of environment-friendly agricultural model based on the wisdom of traditional agriculture and the promotion of modern ecological principles and science and technology. Ecological agriculture covers a wide range of areas, including agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline and fishing, but there is the contribution of species and farmers engaged in the industry in every link. Several typical characteristics of ecological agriculture are: beautiful agricultural ecological environment, harmonious symbiosis between man and nature, element recycling, ecological balance, diversity of species, greatly reducing or even eliminating the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and synthetic hormones. Most chemical fertilizers are absorbed by crops rather than polluting the environment. Ecological agriculture has the following nine advantages:

The first advantage is that the agricultural ecological environment is protected and zero-point source pollution. It is impossible to talk about ecological agriculture without healthy ecological agriculture. In fact, key agricultural pests and weeds are normal species in nature, which can be disturbed and controlled by physical methods, can restore ecological balance as far as possible without chemical methods, and minimize human intervention if there is no obvious impact on yield. it not only saves labor costs, but also protects the ecological environment. Ecological agriculture can use a small amount of pesticides, mainly for emergency purposes. A small amount of chemical fertilizer can be used, but the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer is high and the consumption is low. According to our previous research, if we develop ecological agriculture and stop more than 90% of pesticides and more than 50% of chemical fertilizers, it will have little impact on yield.

The second advantage is high quality, good taste, few pesticide residues or zero pesticide residues. Because the early input of chemicals is very small, and try to put in biodegradable biological pesticides or low-toxic pesticides, coupled with the self-purification ability of nature, mainly a large amount of organic fertilizer, such agricultural products taste good. That is, the taste of many children born in the 1950s and 1970s. The final product can withstand the detection of pesticide residues. If many kinds of pesticide residues are detected in the later stage of agricultural products, it can not be called ecological agriculture at all.

Third, the economic benefit of unit land is high. At present, due to the use of extensive chemical methods of farming, although the output is relatively high, but the price is cheap, sometimes the market is not good and will rot in the field, resulting in a serious waste of resources. There are two ways to improve economic efficiency: either continue to expand the scale of land, but the quality does not improve and the price remains unchanged, so that operators can make profits; or improve the quality of products, raise the price, and do not reduce the output of ecological agriculture, and the benefit per mu is equal to several mu. In this case, it is good for both consumers and producers. The former buys reassuring food to protect the health of themselves and their families, while the latter increases their income and is more willing to invest quality labor in the land.

The fourth advantage is the combination of planting and cultivation, planting diversification, intercropping and interplanting, three-dimensional planting. This is the greatest advantage of ecological agriculture. A large amount of fertilizer for eco-agriculture comes from the system itself, and only when the six animals prosper can they have a good harvest. In a small amount of land area, a large number of food types can be provided. Intercropping between legumes and Gramineae plants can directly use nitrogen sources in the air, and three-dimensional planting can also be realized. The food diversity of ecological agriculture is unmatched by other agricultural methods. If the species diversity is rich, the system will be stable and the anti-risk ability will be high. According to the author's rough estimate, the existence of about a thousand people in the north can provide nearly 100 kinds of food, while the American agricultural model can only produce one or two kinds of food in hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers, either corn or wheat. Not to mention intercropping and interplanting, that is, continuous cropping cannot be done, their agriculture is not popular at all, and it is difficult to see a single person in dozens of square kilometers.

Fifth, the output of ecological agriculture is high. The yield of eco-agriculture is not low, because the land is cultivated, the nutrients taken away are supplemented by organic fertilizers or a small amount of chemical fertilizers, and more importantly, due to the lack of chemicals, soil animals and soil microorganisms are rich. These organisms indirectly release minerals from the soil for absorption by plant roots. Under this model, if we adhere to long-term sample plots, the output will increase steadily. After 9 years of practice, we have successfully transformed low-yield fields into high-and stable-yield ton grain fields, and we have achieved such results that we do not even use pesticides and fertilizers.

Advantage six, comprehensively improve the efficiency of water and nutrient use, save resources, do not produce waste. Because ecological agriculture respects the growth law of animals and plants, adjusts measures to local conditions, arranges planting and breeding according to the climatic characteristics of agriculture, and focuses on being consistent with the laws of nature and abiding by 24 solar terms, its water and nutrient use efficiency is high, coupled with raised animals, rural meal spare time and crop straw can be used, increasing the efficiency of resource utilization. If all this is to be realized, there must be popularity, in which people play a very important role.

The seventh advantage is to increase animal welfare and make animals happy, less sick, less medication and less antibiotics. Eco-agriculture refuses intensive farming, allowing animals to grow in a good ecological environment, as approachable as possible, play with each other and grow happily, which increases animal welfare and reduces or even eliminates the use of veterinary drugs and antibiotics from the source. For example, chickens raised on the prairie seldom get sick and control grassland pests.

Advantage eight, to achieve carbon sequestration of cultivated land, from carbon emissions to carbon absorption. According to our study, under the modern agricultural model, each hectare releases 2.7 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, while organic agriculture releases 8.8 tons. That is to say, reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and increasing the organic matter of cultivated land can bury greenhouse gases underground, which is a by-product of ecological agriculture.

Advantage 9, ecological agriculture can comprehensively promote the employment of farmers. Due to the high quality and high price, coupled with the beautiful ecological environment, it has a strong attraction to the urban population. Agricultural elements are easy to become commercial elements, from breeding to planting, from harvest to processing, from processing to marketing, from catering to sightseeing tourism, from health care to health preservation to providing for the aged, the countryside can be urbanized locally and attract the second generation of farmers and college students. and even urban elite employment. In this way, 4 million villages throughout the country, such as the development of ecological agriculture, may become a new economic growth point.

Of course, does eco-agriculture have any shortcomings? Of course there is, that is, it takes a lot of labor, hard work and hard work in the busy season, and many farmers are unwilling to adopt it. We are studying some ways to reduce labor input, such as basically stopping the work of spraying pesticides, sowing and harvesting by machinery, and so on. More importantly, as long as the efficiency is high, farmers will devote themselves to labor. If they don't work in the city as much as they dig in the fields, they don't want to work in the city.

The following agricultural models are not ecological agriculture because they seriously violate the scale of ecology and even biology.

One is the out-of-season vegetable greenhouse. This kind of agricultural model separates crops from nature, and the internal high temperature and humidity environment becomes the stress of plants, which can not be separated from pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides, which is not the model put forward by ecological agriculture.

The second is intensive single planting. This is the American family farm model, in which each farmer manages thousands or even tens of thousands of acres of land, but the planting diversity decreases, the machinery, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides put in are few, the environmental cost is high, and the products taste bad. The birds around them stopped crying. This is an unpopular agriculture and is suitable for producing feed for animals. The United States uses most of the food produced by this agricultural model for export, feed, or industrial raw materials, and of course they eat it themselves.

Agriculture covered with plastic film. Plastic film can not be degraded, which increases the environmental pollution. This model, which produces food and carcinogens at the same time, is an agricultural model that must be stopped. At present, many European countries have already stopped the short-sighted agricultural model of "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs".

Fourth, genetically modified agriculture. Transgenic seriously violates the laws of biology, seeds are monopolized, and special pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides are bundled, which is incompatible with ecological agriculture, so transgenic agriculture can not be called ecological agriculture at all. Some units will develop genetically modified crops, only in the first few years to reduce a small number of pesticides, hastily announced that they are green is ecological, really tarnished the word ecology.

Fifth, factory agriculture. Including intensive breeding farms, engineering greenhouses, soilless cultivation agriculture, although these pesticide models can reduce a little labor and achieve rapid reproduction, they seriously violate animal welfare, poor food nutrition, high agricultural residues and high content of antibiotics. it causes potential pollution to the groundwater environment, which is obviously not ecological agriculture.

Finally, let's talk briefly about organic agriculture and natural agriculture. Organic agriculture is an ecological agriculture that does not even use pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and its standards are set by the state, and the environmental protection function of developing organic agriculture is more obvious. There are also natural agricultural law agriculture or natural agriculture in various localities, and the ecology is certainly very ecological, but if the output cannot be greatly increased, its approach is worthy of further discussion.