Download Operational Modes for Developing Circulating Agriculture

Operational Modes for Developing Circulating Agriculture
YANG Jie1 SUN Yang2
1. College of Economics and Management, Hebei Polytechnic University Tang Shan, Hebei, China
063009
2 Zhuoyue International College University of International Business and Economics Beijing
China 000001
[email protected]
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Abstract: Devoting major efforts to developing circulating economy will broaden the horizon of
practical application of circulating economy and make a profound contribution to quickening the tempo
of modern agricultural construction. This paper expounds the connotations and characteristics of
circulating economy, based on which it analyses the necessities of developing circulating agriculture and
puts forward practical operational modes for developing circulating agriculture that include: establishing
three circulating levels of agriculture; instituting an organic combination of renovation, protection and
economical utilization of agricultural resources; forming industrial chains of circulating agriculture and
constructing a macro-sustained-system for developing circulating agriculture.
Key Words: Circulating Economy Circulating Agriculture Operational Modes
1. Introduction
What circulating economy advocates is a mode of economic development harmonious with the
environment. This mode requires that the economic activity should be organized into a flow of reaction
type, i.e. “Resources
Products
Renewable Resources”, whose features are low exploitation,
high utilization and low discharge. All matter and energy are expected to get rational usage and full play
in this continuously circling economic movement so as to reduce the negative impacts on natural
environment to a degree as low as possible. Developing circulating agriculture is not only a revolution
on the mentality and mode of agricultural development, but also an urgent necessity for upgrading
economic-growth-modal and realizing sustainable development.
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2. Definition and Characteristics of Circulating Agriculture
The idea of circulating agriculture originates from the afterthought of the environmental consequence
caused by conventional agriculture as well as the enlightenment provoked by the development of
circulating economy. Since conventional agriculture causes serious pollution to the environment, people
bring forward a series of agricultural modes to ameliorate agricultural production and to reduce relevant
pollution after contemplating those environmental consequences. The ideology and method of
circulating economy provide a fresh train of thinking for agricultural development. Circulating
agriculture can be defined as an extension and application of the mentality of circulating economy in the
field of agricultural production, and therefore, circulating agriculture refers to a closed-circle
agricultural productive system in which matter and energy get circulating utilization by back-flows of
matter and energy at the circular end. This closed-circle agricultural productive system organizes
agricultural productive activity and system under the comprehensive binding forces of fixed storage
capacity of agricultural resources, environmental capacity as well as ecological threshold value,
proceeding from economizing on agricultural resources, protecting ecological environment and
improving economic benefit.[1] Simply set, circulating agriculture is a kind of agriculture adopting a
productive mode of circulating matter and energy. The characteristics of circulating agriculture are
displayed as follows:
2.1 A “Circulating” Design For The Whole Process of Agricultural Production
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The biggest characteristic of circulating agriculture lies in that its goals can be put into effect in the
process of productive labor. The criteria judging whether agricultural production is circulating are 3Rs,
i.e. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. In circulating agriculture, imports of outer matter and energy should be
reduced as much as possible, while those entering the system of circulating agriculture, after go through
a productive link, will get into another productive link to realize recycle and reuse. Outer matter and
energy can greatly broaden their life circles and functional methods by following the formula as
“Resources (Imports of Outer Matter and Energy) → Use (Process of Agricultural Production) →
Resources (Reuse and Re-Import of Matter and Energy)”. After numerous uses and transformations, the
emission of waste matter and energy into outer world will be reduced to a minimum.
2.2 Environmental Goals And Economic Goals Are Interdependent
The design for productive process of circulating agriculture doesn’t consider purely the requirement
of ecological environment but also the fine coordination between ecological balance and economic
benefit, and the conflicting dilemmas between environmental goals and economic goals are settled for
that matter. The realization of agricultural goals bases on no more than but two ends — Inputs and
Outputs. Conventional agriculture paid more attention on the end of outputs, putting undue stress on
improving outputs to bring more economic benefits. However, circulating agriculture is just the opposite.
It believes that promoting the efficiency of resources utilization and economizing on imports of matter
and energy can also achieve economic goals of agricultural production. Since circulating agriculture
puts No.1 priority on inputs and resources utilization, its logic must include possible economizing on
resources and lengthening chains of resources utilization.
2.3 Realizing Low Pollution or Even Zero Emission
Considering extending the life circles of matter and energy entering agricultural production and
ecological system, circulating agriculture must postpone and reduce emission. Participating a cluster of
productive links and experiencing circles of utilization, most of those matter and energy transform into
biological products; time and space frame of circulating agriculture are geared to the need of resources
transformation — Resources Emission (from last link) → Imports of Resources (to next link), and thus
reduce the frequency and quantity of waste emission to outer ecological environment.
3. The Necessities of Developing Circulating Agriculture
3.1 A Necessity Required by the Functional Features of Agricultural Economy
Circulating economy is a kind of ecological economy featuring matter and energy echelon, and
resource flows of a closed-circle mode. Through circulating economy, matter and energy can achieve
continuous recycle, regeneration and reuse, specifically, a repeated circulating flow depicted by this
formula “Resources + Products + Consumption + Regenerated Resources + Regenerated Products”;
through circulating economy, low waste-emission or even zero-emission can come true; through
circulating economy, contradictions between environment and development can be thoroughly cleared
up. Agricultural economy possesses the following features: first, participants within agriculture are
always pairs of reciprocal food, constituting a food cycle like that in ecological system where all main
bodies are mutually compensatory and interactive, whose reciprocal growth and benefit are intensified
to a deeper degree; second, green production and product safety are paid more attention while
application of chemical fertilizer and pesticide are under control; third, clean consumption is advocated,
which means agricultural products and by-products should return to the earth after a circle as “eating,
drying, extracting and cleaning”; fourth, the soil and water should be purified, like the saying goes,
“everything is born in the soil”, “everything needs water”. Therefore, soil, cultivated land and water
resource should be protected and get sustainable consumption. Because of the existence of above
features, agriculture can easily enter resource cycles in natural ecological system, and circulating
agriculture comes into being as a result.
3.2 A Necessity as an Effective Way to Realize Sustainable Development of Agriculture
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Agricultural economy has followed an extensive way to improve production for a long time,
bearing the increasing pressure of population, resources and environment. First, agricultural
environment suffers severe pollution. Wastewater, gas and residue in urban areas penetrate into
agricultural environment to cause serious pollution; meanwhile, agricultural production and life also
exert pollution on agricultural environment to a certain degree. Second, ecological resources of
agriculture encounter grievous destruction manifested in these important aspects such as a decrease in
cultivated land, soil erosion, emergence of sandy wasteland, soil fertility reduction. If agricultural
development continues to follow a mode of production as “huge drain, low output and high pollution”,
rural ecological environment will fall further deterioration and limited agricultural resources rush to
their exhaustion. Rural environment and resources bear much pressure that in turn tightly confines the
development of rural economy. Developing circulating agriculture and constructing ecological
agriculture not only produce healthy and high-quality agricultural products, but also be benefit for the
improvement of soil-quality, for the increase of soil organic matter, for the realization of water-saving
irrigation, for the scientific application of fertilizer and pesticide, for the promotion of agricultural
sustainable development, and finally for the thorough dissolution of contradictions among economic
development, resources and environment.[2]
3.3 A Necessity as an Effective Way to Tackle Employment Problem of Peasants
Huge population and surplus-labor constitute the core problems in rural areas. Low marginal
productivity of peasants raises grave employment situation. At present, recessive unemployment spread
in many rural areas of China. Specifically speaking, excessively low labor payment and annual income
and harsh life restrain the working capability of breadwinners and result in the emergence of peasant
problems. Developing circulating economy will speed up the progress of agricultural technology,
upgrade industrial restructuring, transform the mode of output increment, extend industrial scale of
modern agriculture and lengthen industrial chain.[3] Therefore, there can be more employment
opportunities for peasants, which will help more unemployed and recessive employed peasants to settle
down. As the efficiency of rural labors enhances, peasants get better chances to build up a family
fortune.
3. Operational Modes for Developing Circulating Agriculture
3.1 Establishing Three Circulating Levels of Agriculture
(1) Interchange and reciprocal benefiting of Matter and energy within agricultural industry can
reduce waste emission to a minimum. The best example to illustrate this point is modes of stereoscopic
plantation, for instance, the intercropping of fruit trees, medicinal materials and cash crops.
Intercropping young growth of fruit trees with cash crops like peanuts, beans, hot peppers and medicinal
materials can not only conserve water and nurture land, but also preserve heat in winter and reduce
temperature in summer, achieving the objectives depicted as: “Cultivation fund should be invested in
both short-term business and long-term business, since short-term business can earn back its investment
fund much faster while long-term business can produce huge profits. If the two can combine perfectly,
economic benefits will multiply. ”
(2) Wastes can be transformed into resources, fertilizer and feeding-stuff through interchanges in
the hierarchy of agricultural industry. For example: crop straws and livestock excrement can be
transformed into resources and fertilizers, providing clean living and productive resources for peasant
households, and nurturing the farmland with healthy and high-quality manure.
(3) Matter and energy involved in the consumption of agricultural products are in a circulating
statement. For instance, in the comprehensive exploitation of agriculture, animal husbandry and
plantation are integrated themselves with ecological projects that use fermented methane as major
resource and that initiates multipolar utilization of saccharified excrement.
3.2 Instituting an Organic Combination of Renovation, Protection and Economical Utilization of
Agricultural Resources
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(1) Water environment should undergo a synthetical renovation focusing on waterway dredging.
Channel accretion and water pollution are direct factors leading to the deterioration of water resource.
Guided by the criteria as “limpid surface, clean banks, deep bottom, green slope and running water”, we
should devote more efforts to river regulation and water purification by rigorously control the emission
of industrial and domestic sewage; moreover, we will conserve water through ecological afforestation.
Meanwhile, we should pay special attention on the realignment of river system that is a basic project of
developing circulating economy. We should promote the modernization of agriculture on the wings of
high-quality water resource and environment.
(2) We should embark on regulating and reshaping animal farms to minimize pollutant discharge
to water environment through establishing more chemical fertilizer plants to tackle animal excrement;
we should promote the modernization of animal farms through transforming animal excrement into
organic bio-fertilizer with the help of technology; we should establish a regenerated circulating chain as
“excrement processing -- organic fertilizer -- organic agriculture” through the comprehensive utilization
of excrement transformation system.
(3) We should devote major efforts to spreading water-saving agriculture and realizing circulating
utilization of water resource. First, we should construct urban industry and reuse system of living water
by ways of transforming urban drainage system and retrieving industrial and domestic sewage, putting
them in urban afforestation and suburbs farm plantation to improve utilization ratio of water resource.
Second, we should tighten up the improvement of water-saving irrigation facilities, dedicating to piping
irrigation, strengthening the exploitations of farmland with middle and low yields and the construction
of dry-farmland cultivation. Meanwhile, we should endeavor to improve utilization ratios of resources.
Third, we should upgrade techniques of plantation, popularizing aquaculture and roadbed plantation and
early-season crops to economize on water resources.
(4) We should insist on farmland protection and intensive utilization. Economic and social
development seems to be contrary to farmland utilization, but in fact they can bring out the best in each
other. The key point of this reciprocal complement lies in scientific and rational farmland protection and
intensive utilization that can maximize economic and social benefits. At present, the biggest latent
power of farmland protection and intensive utilization can be tapped through the urbanization of
countryside and the centralization of peasant households. Meanwhile, we should enforce the strictest
farmland protective laws, establishing the mechanism of farmland economy and utilization, instructing
township enterprises to develop in batches and putting an end to wastelands abandonment and
postponement. In addition, we can improve utilization ratio of existing farmland by exploitation,
arrangement, re-cultivation and calculation.
3.3 Forming Industrial Chains of Circulating Agriculture
(1) We should form a chain like “Pig Breeding (Excrement) — Methane — Environmental-Friendly
Agricultural Products”, in which Methane is a typical application of recycle principle in rural areas; Pig
Breeding (Excrement) can speed up the transformation from agriculture to animal husbandry;
Environmental-Friendly Agricultural Products can promote the reconstructing of agricultural resources
and increase high-efficient organic fertilizer, which is also a small-scaled industrial chain, healthy and
profitable. Using methane to illuminate and cook can cut down charges for electricity and fuel; Using
methane fluid and dregs to nurture land can economize on fertilizer and pesticide. Therefore, we can
establish a productive pattern as “breeding pigs without spreading earth in a pigsty; illuminating without
electricity; cooking without coal; planting vegetable without buying fertilizer; consuming green
products without pollution ”[4], putting into practical and circulating use of biological matter and energy.
(2) We should develop a mode of economy as “Orchard — Forage Grass — Livestock”, which
means: In the orchards, peasants plant forage grass that can be sold into the hands of proprietors who
own pigs, sheep, geese, cattle and fish. The excrements of pigs, cattle and geese are transformed into
fertilizers to breed fish and nurture fruit trees and forage grass. This kind of recycle not only reduces
production cost and adds lean meat in domestic animals, but also offers genuine environmental-friendly
food, beneficial to both economy and society.
(3) We should form an industrial chain as “Planting — Breeding — Food Processing — Retrieving
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and Reusing Waste Water and Materials” and likewise to drive the development of animal breeding and
processing enterprises. Upwards, this industrial chain can increase the output of corns and beans
transformed towards forage fodder and food, while the output of forage grass, sorghum stalks and
corncobs towards forage fodder and industrial chemicals; downwards, this industrial chain can promote
meticulous processing of livestock meat that will become carved meat, cooked meat and meat-bearing
products, lengthening the chain of livestock breeding and processing. We should utilize sorghum stalks,
livestock blood, bones, internal organs, excrement, feathers and wastewater in a comprehensive way,
building up a circulating chain as “Livestock Breeding and Processing — Excrement — Organic
Fertilizer — high-quality and environment-friendly Vegetable and Green Sorghum stalks Storage —
Livestock Breeding and Processing — Excrement — Methane and Dregs — Fertilizer Back to
Farmland”.
4. Constructing a Macro-Supportive System for Developing Circulating
Agriculture
4.1 The government should devote more efforts and take efficient measures to develop circulating
agriculture
while establishing a supportive mechanism to finance circulating economy with the emphases on
conservation of water supply, ecological afforestation, reuse of agricultural waste, land rehabilitation,
protection of agricultural environment and so on. We should embark on the innovation of agricultural
expansion mechanism and form an operational system for circulating economy focusing on upgrading
requisition and utilization system of collective farmland. Moreover, we should establish a new
mechanism for transforming wasteland to residential quarters, for sorting out construction land among
farmland and for balancing farmland occupation and replenishment, for attracting social fund, exploiting
water resources and remolding ecological environment[5], for encouraging enterprises home and abroad
to invest in circulating economy of agriculture, for comprehensively evaluating ecological benefits of
agriculture and circulating economy and so forth.
4.2 We should perfect administrative system and strengthen farmland protective mechanism.
First, we should consummate planning and administrative system with farmland utilization
surveillance as the core and rigorously protect farmland. Based on the balance of farmland occupation
and replenishment, we should endeavor to realize the goals of farmland reservation and protection.
Second, we should strengthen the farmland protection in key areas. On the basis of comprehensive
farmland protection and policies of economic development in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, we should
dedicate more energy to protecting farmland in grain, oil, vegetable production bases and counties, to
perfecting essential farmland protective system and planning key protective areas to further promote
general quality of farmland. Finally, we should practice strict farmland replenishing system. Farmland
replenishing programs of construction sites should submit to rigorous examinations and valuation
mechanism on the balance of farmland occupation and replenishment should be established, so as to
regulate and systemize the work of farmland occupation and replenishment.
4.3 We should impose restrictions on the waste emission by economic methods
That mainly refer to imbuing Initial Liability on producers and increasing environmental taxes. By
the enforcement of Initial Liability, producers must bear liability in the whole process of products
consumption and final disposal. The enterprises that produce mass wastes must be responsible for safe
disposal of products, giving due consideration to future recycle and reuse at the stage of products
designing. The categories of environmental taxes include: burying taxes, fuel taxes, general waste taxes,
carbon taxes for reducing greenhouse air emission and so on. Initial liability of producers, burying taxes
and carbon taxes are considered as three most important measures to decrease wastes, promote recycle
and reuse and save resources. The government can cancel the present capital levy on waste emission,
transforming charges into taxes, levying environmental compensation taxes on those who pollute the
ecological environment, according to the principles of “Those who pollute pay taxes”. These taxes can
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serves as macro-control expenditures of government, for ameliorating ecological environment,
preventing and tackling pollutions, and for realizing the sustainable development of agriculture.
4.4 We should exploit practical and widely applied technologies, establishing a
technology-supportive system for the development of circulating agricultural economy
The development of circulating agriculture is finally determined by the advancement of technology.
Therefore, we should redouble our efforts on technological innovation, which will provide technological
supports for developing circulating economy, and by analyzing agricultural material flows and energy
flows, create agriculture-friendly technologies, including waste disposal technology, waste reuse
technology, “green” production technology. Waste disposal technology belongs to traditional
environmental construction techniques, created for eliminating wastes or purifying harmful and
poisonous wastes with the help of waste-purification equipments. The specialty of this technology lies in
that it will not change productive system or technological process, but merely through waste purification
at the end of productive procedure to realize pollution control. Waste Reuse technology is designed for
regenerating and reusing wastes and industrial and living wastes can be transformed into resources for
that matter. “Green” production technology is used for producing goods with no harm or few harm to the
environment, and we can achieve zero-emission and produce green goods by these technologies.[6] They
are in the core of the system of environment-friendly technologies, sustaining the circulating
development of agricultural economy.
4.5 We should import talents to form a human-resources supportive system for developing circulating
agriculture.
We will import talents and technologies, erecting a bridge of ecological economy that connects
universities and colleges home and abroad, scientific research institutions and Tangshan agriculture,
devoting utmost efforts to shape Tangshan into a modal center of ecological industry and technological
fruits application and of talents and technologies exchange. Tangshan will offer not only talents and
technologies required by developing agricultural circulating economy, but also professional talents and
industrial workers through educational training on basic knowledge of agricultural ecology and practical
techniques and management.
References
[1] Huang Xianjin: Circulating Economy: Industrial Mode and Strategic System [M]. Nanjing: Nanjing
University, 2004. P181-188.
[2] Cui Tiening: Circulating Society and Planning Theory & Methods [M]. Beijing: Environmental
Science Press of China, 2005. P97-98.
[3] Ji Kuncen: Put Forth Effort on Developing Ecological Agriculture of Economical Type [N].
Economy Daily, 2005-11-24.
[4] Gao Deling: Advancing Circulating Economy of Agriculture in Multiple Levels [N]. People’s Daily,
2005-11-16.
[5] Feng Zhijun: Introduction to Circulating Economy [M]. Beijing: People’s Press, 2004. P359-362.
[6] Wang Xuejun: Introduction of “Green Production” [M]. Beijing: China’s Inspection Press, 2000.
P3-5.
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