Literature // The Development of Agriculture in China
Introduction
The government of China has implemented great works through series of policies in strengthening agriculture, rural areas, and the rural population. This has been the consistent efforts since the convention of the Sixteenth National Congress which resulted to remarkable advantages for Chinese farmers and rural community. In 2011, China reached 571.2 million tons of grain output, a result which is quite more than the output in 2003 with 140.5 million tons. The country’s agricultural grain production increased is due to the development of technologies and equipment. Aside from that, there is also an increase in ecological conservation that lead to the rapid growth of forest resources and forest industry.
There are a number of initiatives and policies that the China government has implemented in the country that have become highlights in significance. The first thing that they have made is, the agricultural taxes are abolished and income distribution is adjusted between the government and the rural community. In addition, the government provide subsidies and maximise the efforts in protecting the agricultural development. As the government realised that there are increase in the production of agricultural products, they have liberalised control over purchase and sale of grain by taking great step in building the socialist market economy. Government believes that reformation will never be effective without the helping hands of the people, with that they have encourage the rural people to plant trees and protect the forests. By establishing rights to forest land, the people have go beyond in taking good care of the forest and incorporate much participation in actively building China’s ecology.
Human interventions on ecological processes are challenged to consider how to conserve the culture and values of biodiversity that is now gradually perverse. The rapid, inclusive, and incessant environmental change as a result of increasing human population and activities perverted the biotic and abiotic structures and processes within ecosystems. Among others, agriculture impacts the ecology. As a management of our natural resources and production activity that used on-farm scientific and technical system, agriculture diffuses disturbances in forest (deforestation, illegal logging) and land (associated with land clearance, slash-and-burn practice, plantation) to produce food, fiber, fuel, and pharmaceuticals (Valentine, 2005, p. 109). Therefore, it is not surprisingly that agriculture has had major effects on the wider social and biophysical environment. This paper focuses on the impacts of the agricultural activities and development on interactions of living organisms within the physical and biotic environment.
China’s ecosystem which forms part of the place of has means of existence; like human, they are protected. As there are laws enforcing for the protection of human, so much so with other living organisms existing in ecosystem that makes up the complete interaction in the ecology. Coined from the Greek words oikos and logos meaning “household” and “knowledge of”, ecology is defined as the total relations and interactions of organisms within their organic and inorganic environment. With the basic principle of ecology, it puts forward the process where balance distribution of abundance of earth is influenced by the pattern of interrelationships between organisms living in ecosystem. As agricultural knowledge and discipline generates an increased in animal production, farm management, and agronomy. However, the increased productivity has also come at a social and environmental cost, and thus a source of problem in the landscape and the community. Valentine (2005) noted that agricultural education extended beyond farm boundary. In China, the two-fold increase of land cultivation is projected to have dramatic impacts on the diversity, composition and functioning of the remaining natural ecosystems of the world (Tilman, 1999).
The economy of China has maintained an overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $440.1 billion, having an inflation rate of 8% as of 2005. In 2005, China had an export growth of $174.5 million and an import growth of $294.6 million. Agriculture is the main industry of China and the country is a net exporter of livestock, peanuts, dried fish, cotton, and skins; while they also import textiles, vehicles, petroleum products, machinery, and sugar. Furthermore, China nation traditionally practiced the extensive agriculture, otherwise known as the slash-and-burn or bush fallow agricultural system to prepare bush land for agricultural fields.
China’s main concern focused on continuing the traditional practice of farming that farmers were accustomed to. Due to harsh semi-arid climate and poor soil conditions, Chinese believed that, in order for his people to survive and achieve the levels of productivity for adequate quantities of food for the village, the practice of extensive agriculture is indispensable. The alternative initiatives of the government include:
1. Initiate the practice of permanent farming
2. Increase tree nurseries and crop seedlings
3. Support the irrigation
4. Raise farm-animals
5. Market the product
The practice of permanent farming is a method to adapt to social, economic, ecological conditions. This is done by planting crops of different period: the permanent or seasonal crops to reinforce the contour bonds of the soil and provide optimum growing conditions to the planted crops. The fact that the China’s rural community has problems with the climate and poor conditions of the soil, practicing permanent farming leads them to avoid the system of bush fallow agriculture. Permanent and seasonal crops are planted based on the climate conditions and this renders their plants more productive because the farmers necessarily have to choose the crops they have to plant. For instance, after harvesting the pearl millet as primary crop, they may plant permanent trees around this region to subsidiary support their productivity or sow leguminous seedlings such as soy beans, ground nuts, etc. as seasonal crops.
As Forest Service has some infrastructure to establish tree nurseries, the farmers may improve it by using this infrastructure and increase their crop seedling production by getting the support from the government or other environmental institutions. In this regard, the farmers will no longer practice slash-and-burn farming. Also, the Forest Service will no longer indict the farmer for violating Forest laws. In addition, the support for irrigation is done through the help of government agencies. The fact that there is period that the soil is dry; this irrigation will help the farmers to continue their planting and production. In case of drought, the farmers may plant crops that are drought-tolerant such as pearl millet.
As farmers have problems due on their farming productivity, raising farm-animals can be subsidiary to support the family and village needs aside from waiting for harvest of their farm products. Furthermore, these farm-animals could help the farmers in ploughing the field; hence, it reduces labor burden and accelerate farm production and income of the farmers. Based on the statistics, China has lesser rate of exported products; while, their imports are greater. This implies that the nation is said to have a balance of trade deficit. As such, this problem could be hindered through government’s action aiding the agricultural production of farm workers.
In two years from now, the indicator that best option was implemented to successful resolution of the critical problem of China is their GDP itself. Examining the Gross Domestic Product and the rate of export and import of the nation of Mali are the indicators that may be used to measure how the options are used satisfactorily. In addition, the power of purchasing value of the people as regards to currency can also be considered as indicator of the development of the agricultural resolution.
Agricultural and urbanization is considered one of the most critical socio-economic concerns of the 20th century and is considered a significant challenge for city managers, regional development planners and policymakers. With the growth of urbanization in rural villages in China, urban problems related to infrastructure, transportation, housing, environmental pollution and environmental sanitation has been rising to proportions that are sometimes unmanageable. In particular, at the level of the city, huge scale rural-urban migration has resulted to the emergence of megacities like Ibadan, Lagos, Cairo, Algiers, Johannesburg, etc (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, 1997). China is experiencing rapid urbanization but with no growth needs to approach sustainable development through the development of new approach to regional and urban planning (Ukaga and Afoaku, 2005). Urban planners therefore must integrate health and the principles of sustainable development in urban management and planning.
“Sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It means a more inclusive society in which the benefits of increased economic prosperity are widely share, with less pollution and less wasteful use of natural resources (DETR, 1999, cited in Elliott, 1999, p. 238).” With the forces of changes get off to global community, Chinese leaders and people recognized the key elements to sustainable development, and that is partnerships to common visions to eradicate the problems of urbanization. A path to sustain economic growth is shared by people of China, actively participated by continental leaders, people, and global body politic-alliances. Their commitment to merge the new world of concrete implementation has significantly roused the opportunities of globalization and weakened the conflicts of economic constraints. With the degenerating levels of formal growth support, insufficient market investment, and unsustainable debt burdens, China is challenged to arise at structured policies to enable the strengths of the region, particularly to resolve the urbanization problems such as transportation, employment, pollution, or even education.
Aside from China’s partnership with global community, it has been a support to reinvigorating the development frameworks within the country itself. The policies carried out and established through this programme has structured the key outcome of AU’s integration into the processes of institutional capacity-building in regional, sub-regional, and national levels. Besides, industrial competence, diversity and potential of the country is merged to adding value of enhancing access in support of sustainable development and urbanization.
Water is one of the most indispensable needs of mankind. With rapid development of industry and agriculture in addition to the booming population, water has been increasingly consumed continually. Rosegrant, Cai, and Ximing (2003) noted that world’s consumption of water for non-irrigation uses rise dramatically by 62 percent from 1995 to 2025. Moreover, due to rapid growth of population water use per capita in domestic consumption rise by 71 percent, more than 90 percent of which consumed in developing countries. That is the increasing demand for water causes the shortage of water sources for industry, agriculture, and household’s daily needs. Consequently, the growth of population and industry activities has widened water pollution. Yongming (1992) mentioned that because of the rapid expansion of the economy, the amount of waste water discharges each year is mounting, in which merely 22 percent of total waste water is treated by water treatment techniques before discharged directly into rivers, lakes, and seas.
China depends on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge population of 1.2 billion people (Brown & Halweil, 1998, p. 10). This number significantly draws more of water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and industries. In research of Yongming (1992), water pollution started extensively in the late 1950s and 1970s has recorded to become more serious in China. Water shortage is considered as crucial problem in the region because as rivers run dry and aquifers are depleted, the emerging concern sharply raise the country’s demand for grain importation, implying a total import needs beyond export supplies. With its booming economy, water shortage and water pollution poses a rising threat to world food security. Over 150 cities have severe lack of water supply, including Beijing. And because China highly depends on water for irrigation, these problems restrict the sustainable development of society and economy (Cheng & Song, 2009).
In order to solve the problems of water shortage and water pollution as well as improve environmental condition, China has enacted several important laws relating to environmental protection and efficient measures of water-saving and waste water reuse (Cheng & Song, 2009). Chinese government has also set-up water saving management systems to save water. Accordingly, with technological advantages, authorities in the region have undertaken measures, such as sprinkling and drip irrigation for agriculture. These measures made a potential increase of water saving, recycling of cooling and processing of water for the development of most industrial sectors (Yongming, 1992). Another way to solve the problem is through water diversion. Cheng and Song (2009) mentioned that this process is a vital means to solve the water scarcity in the north and flooding in the south. Because of the occurrence of enormous flood frequently, this has been established to regulate the flood disasters in the region of China and provide a sustainable development of the economy and society (Li & Wilkinson, 2006). That instead of using fresh water in the industry, waste water discharged is used for construction. With that, water sources in China could be conserved and sufficient for the needs of industry, agriculture, and household.
Water resource in China is insufficient and contaminated. As a developing country, it poses a great potential threat to growth and development of its economy and society. Essentially, China depends more on water for its agriculture and industrial activities, and that hinders a crucial problem to the country. Analysis relating to water shortage and water pollution suggests that this problem could be solved through waste-water treatment, conversion, and reuse. These solutions highlight the opportunities for China to become a guide in other foreign government or companies in transforming its weakness and threats to strengths and opportunities.
Agricultural problem is indeed a war between man and nature. It is a concern not just the government and companies, but every person. As we become concern on business profits and increasing production for consumption, and we should likewise treat the environment like self that needs protection and respect. People must be more objective and rational in consumption learning that every act has impact. In this paper highlights that ecological imbalance could be resolved by the principle of putting back what has been used – resourceful use and recycling and face the challenge of making climate-neutral society.
It is undisputed that commercial products are inevitable. Though man consumes this product, we should likewise practice active responsiveness and concern to participate in conserving the environment. In this regard, to address the problem man must make the best ways that is to recycle, though this may be small act it creates big impact to the process of conservation and rehabilitation of environment. For example, each there are over 100 million steel cans and 200 million aluminum beverage cans used by Americans, a great number that can almost build a commercial airline fleet every three months (Saddleback Educational Publishing 41). Most metals that consist of iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) contents experience corrosion and considered as biodegradable. While there are also metals that are toxic and present hazard effects to health. Callister and Rethwisch (11) noted that, due to high resistance to corrosion of aluminum, it only required a low ratio of energy to refine and recycle. The primary sources of recycled aluminum are used soda cans, appliances, scrapped auto parts, windows, and doors. By recycling, these wastes are turned to be benefits rather than cause harm to the environment.
China has arrived at designating and supporting the national, regional and continental programmes for science and technology. Member States of the organization has agreed to apportion no less than 1% of GDP to research and development (R&D) by 2010. For instance, South Africa educational policy has focused on research; more particularly in great approach with indicative criticisms regarding educational matters as these evident themselves in the limitations, setbacks or collapse in service deliverance (Jansen and Sayed, 2001). The plans of increasing the support for accelerating science and technology through research and development are anticipated to project optimal solutions to the problems faced by the region.
Policies in transportation
As Chinas has known for having virgin natural resources, the major options sought to diversify the market access and investment in terms of transportation is by emphasizing the renewable energy technologies such as biomass and small hydroelectric schemes (Davidson et al, 2006, p. 158). It was noted that the options taken by China to boost their market region is to demand and import hydroelectricity from other countries but within the continent, such as southern Africa (Newman, 1999). In addition, whether input or output-based tax that would have to be measured against this policies of building up partnerships with the regions and inter-regions, taxation policies have anticipated to dwarf the scale of import taxation (Davidson et al, 2006). The extended taxation to coal for synthetic fuel production and industrial use has significantly projected to strengthen the interconnections between and among the production of African countries involved. Accordingly, with the energy that will be reduced from the dealings input-based taxation will involve pollution taxes as to give burden for those that will not comply with the policy-agreements.
Policies in employment
The comprehensive description that may be given during the era of adjustment in Africa is that employment and income levels have been the root of failure of processes (Jobs and Skills Programme for Africa, 1991). Major developments have never been the prevailing and major structure for tackling the difficult employment that challenges ahead. However, as years gone by the constructive engagement of China’s community in evolutionary changes direct the path to global connection, giving and opening more opportunities for the continent-wide to establish their economic and society strengths with more equal participation. The country has taken and implemented country-wide strategy through foreign aids. The expenditures that they were using in the government enterprises accounted from inside and outside the country, particularly the foreign support and international organizations (Jobs and Skills Programme for Africa, 1991).
The establishing responsibility of foreign leaders to develop policies that would eradicate poverty has pointed out to the unsubstantiated employment. That is, the general perspectives of managing the continental labour, education, transportation and other significant global challenges, in connection with the international labour policies and programmes have helped to show the growth of per capita income of the counties aligning themselves with these programmes. The technological and environmental awareness of people to be identified and involved with the coordinated efforts of mitigating the human problems and promoting human challenges in face-to-face basis are giving many opportunities for the continent to be in sustainable development and ensuring the innovations and changes are pursued.
It can be concluded that sustainable development is a crucial factor in determining the growth of African countries in the face of the problems of urbanization in the areas of education, employment, environment, and population control. Sustainable development initiatives must be performed by policymakers and urban and regional planners to make sure that economic development is achieved as well as the sustenance of the environment where people lived. It is significant that both public and private sectors would join hands in the achievement of sustainable development given the problems that urbanization is giving without the proper consideration of the environment in various business activities. The manner with which sustainable development would be performed is the main problem facing policymakers. In particular, funding arrangements would be difficult especially if transforming messy cities into a clean one. Likewise, support from the general public would be problematic with the ever increasing population of cities that would lead city managers to think about the difficulties of the implementation process.
The consideration of the impact of the problems related to urbanization must be integrated in the sustainable development agenda of governments in China. This would entail that majority of cities would follow the sustainable development goals of the national governments as well as that of international bodies like the United Nations through the strict observance of the Millennium Development Goals. When all of the mentioned objectives related to the achievement of sustainable development will be taken into consideration, urbanization in Africa would be considered a driver of economic growth instead of a hindrance.
A Land Information System (LIS) is a tool used by state government agencies and organizations to highly perform legal, administrative, and socio-economic function relating to geometric description of lands. It usually involves record of interests in land, like rights, restrictions and responsibilities, and describes the nature of land, interests, ownership, and value of the parcels along with its improvements. Significantly, land information system assists in the management of land, planning and administration, and facilitates to vital improvement of land and environment (Cichocinski, 1999).
In the past, cadaster is made for fiscal purposes. Then it came to be the basis of securing property rights to land parcels through registration. To address problem of cadastral mapping and infrastructure, the construction of land information system converted existing cadaster from the analogue to digital form and thereby creates a basis of comprehensive inventory of land ownership framework nationwide (Cichocinski, 1999). In this system, the core component is to provide a comprehensive land mapping incorporated with the official survey of land and buildings to primarily meet the needs of fiscal purposes and establish boundaries of real estate from the residential sites.
References
Tilman, T. (1999). Global environmental impacts of agricultural expansion: The need for sustainable and efficient practices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 96 (11): 5995-6000.
Valentine, I. (2005). An emerging model of a systems agriculturalist. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 22 (2): 109-118.
Cheng, S. & Song, H. (2009). Conservation buffer systems for water quality security in South to North Water Transfer Project in China: an approach review. Frontiers of Forestry in China, 4 (4): 394-401.
Callister, W. & Rethwisch, D.(2011). Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering: An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Rosegrant, M.W., Cai, X., & Cline, S.A. (2003). Will the World run? Global water and food security. Environment, 45 (7), 24.
Yongming, X. (1992). An Overview of Water, Water Pollution and Control in China. Management of Environmental Quality, 3 (3), 18.
Cichocinski, P. (1999). Digital Cadastral Maps in Land Information Systems. Liber Quarterly: The Journal of European Research Libraries, Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 211-221.
2018/5312
2018/5312
