Chapter 20
Agro - environmental management and practice
Main content
20.1 Agricultural ecological environmental
problems and its harm 20.2 Agro - environmental management and practice 20.3 Ecological agriculture 20.4 Modern intensive sustainable agriculture 20.5 Case study
20.1 Agricultural ecological environmental problems and its harm 20.1.1 Environmental problems of agricultural production
Figure 20-1 Schematic diagram of common agricultural environmental problems and its harm
（ 1 ） Pesticide pollution
Migration, proliferation, residues, aggregation behavior
will pollute the atmosphere, water and soil and is harmful
to the organisms
The organisms accumulate gradually in vivo by the food
chain,which make the top of the food chain organisms
(including humans) with higher pesticide content in vivo
It makes ecosystems lose their balance, cause the
system’s structure variation and function decline, and loss
biodiversity.
Figure 20-2 The cycle of pesticide in the environment （ Li and Fleck, 1972 ）
① Organochlorine pesticides
Chlorinated aromatic derivatives,including BHC, Dieldrin,and DDT
etc.
Stable structure,difficult to be oxidized, difficult to be
dissociated ,high toxic, easy to be dissociated in organic solvents,
particularly in adipose tissue, and is high efficient, high toxic,and
high pesticide residue
It accumulates in the organisms’ fat and liver by the food chain in a
large number, harms the nerve center,casues liver enzyme changing,
has pathological changes by violating the kidney, and the toxicity is
difficult to degrade.
It has been forbidden to use since 1983, but the accumulation of
pesticides in the past, will continue to play a role in quite a long time
② Organophosphorus pesticide Most containing phosphorus organic compounds are phosphate or
amides, such as DDVP, 1605, malathion and kitazine etc.
Highly toxic, easy to break down,the time of residue in the
environment is short,not easy to accumulate in plants and
animals,so it is often considered safe pesticides
But it’s high toxicity to humans and animals,it can inhibit the
acetylcholine esterase, lipase and serine proteases aliphatic in the
body to disrupt normal nerve function, causing disorders of
biochemical processes in vivo with the symptoms as vomiting,
diarrhea, fecal incontinence and blood pressure rising, eventually
leading to death. Therefore, its environment toxicity still can not be
ignored.
③ Carbamate pesticides
With phenyl-N-alkyl ester’s structure, the same as organic
phosphorus pesticides,they all have a role in anti-cholinesterase, the
same in poisoning symptoms, but there are differences in the
mechanism
It is easy to decompose in the natural environment, and can be
metabolized rapidly in vivo. Usually the metabolites have more
toxicity than their own, and are low-residue pesticides.
Some species have acute toxicity, such as furadan, its oral LD50 is
8-14mg/Kg,and it is a high toxic pesticide
This kind of pesticides may have the potential to cause carcinoma
and teratogenesis.
（ 2 ） Fertilizer pollution
It play a considerable role in agricultural production, but if
applying improperly it may be seriously cause the impact and
harm to the soil, air, water, agricultural products, and the
whole ecosystem.
Ecosystem pollution is a multi-media environment pollution
and contaminants in various environment media have physical,
chemical and biological processes.So the pollutants in multi-
media environment demonstrate relevance, transferability and
cycle. （ figure 20-3)
Figure 20-3 Migration transformation rule of chemical fertilizer nutrient element in the environment
① Nitrogen fertilizer pollution
Figure 20-4 Nitrogen fertilizer pollution brings environmental problems
② Phosphate fertilizer pollutionPhosphate fertilizer is not to be volatiled and weted.It has
less effect to the atmospheric and ground water. However,it
usually contains a variety of heavy metal and has potential
impact to the soil and crops.
In our phosphate rock, the amount of its fluoride
containing is basically proportional to the phosphate
containing, resulting increasing the fluoride content in the
soil
Phosphate fertilizer also contains trace amounts of natural
radioactive elements. Especially in surrounding of the
phosphate rock, there is a potential danger of radioactive
pollution,and it is also polluting the environment in
production process, transportation, and the trial process.
③ Potassium fertilizer and microelement fertilizer pollutionWith the development of agricultural production, potash
fertilizer and trace fertilizer are used widely. But if it is used
improperly,it may still harm to the environment
It may easy to destroy soil structure resulting in soil
compaction,if improper use of potassium sulfate;It may
accumulate the chloride ion in the soil, destroy soil structure, and
reduce the quality and yield of some crops ,if potassium chloride
is used improperly.
Excessive trace elements could easily pollute the soil poisoning
the crops, affecting the yield and quality
（ 3 ） Poultry excrement pollution
Large -scale livestock breeding base takes great pollution to the
environment
According to the statistics,the amount of livestock manure is
more than 2.5 billion ton in China in year 2000,and is much more
than the total national industrial solid waster
Take a sample of the Hangzhou Bay,which has the most
pollution in Yangtze River region. Its pollution is mainly caused
by agricultural pollution,especially pesticides, fertilizers and
poultry excrement pollution.
Research shows that poultry excrement is the main renson which
causing the pollution indicators of Hangzhou Bay exceeding the
standard seriously.(see table20-1) At the same time, the pollution
proportion is trending to increase(see table 20-2).
Table 20-1 The proportion of main sources of pollution indicators of Hangzhou Bay in
year 1994 （ unit ： % ）
pollution source
livestock manure
agriculture
fertilizers
industrial pollution
domestic pollutant
other pollution
inorganic nitrogen
35 40 5 10 10
total phosphoru
s
21 6 0 14 59
BOD 18 0 17 22 43
Notes ： quoted from Yang Chaofei ， 2001
Table 20-2 The proportion of main sources of pollution indicators of Hangzhou Bay in year 2013 （ unit ： % ）
pollution source
livestock manure
agriculture fertilizers
industrial pollution
domestic pollutant
other pollution
inorganic nitrogen
49 32 4 7 8
total phosphorus
29 10 7 24 30
BOD 29 0 17 24 30
Notes ： quoted from Yang Chaofei ， 2001
The reason of why the faeces cause the pollution is that it has
high concentrations of pollutants,and also contains large amounts
of protein nitrogen, albuminoid nitrogen ,ammonia nitrogen and
many phosphorus and a large number of pathogens (see table 20-
3)
When the faeces was directly discharged into the
environment without treatment,it may :
Pollute the soil and groundwater
Pollute the surface water, even the drinking water and
endangering human health
Stench pollution of the livestock’s faeces
Table 20-3 Physical and chemical properties of livestock wastes
Item cattle manure
bovine urine
pig manure
pig urine chicken manure
human excrement
s Moisture （ % ）
86.2 94.2 70.5 95.5 77.5
pH 7.0 8.3 7.2 8.0 6.36 7.0~9.0
suspended matter
（ ppm ）
119000 5000 223000 4500 132800 22000~26000
BOD （ ppm ） 24000 3900 62000 5000 65400 8000-15000
COD （ ppm ） 19600 5997 35030 9297 45000
total nitrogen （ ppm ）
9430 8344 4664 7780 14600 5000~6000
ammonia nitrogen
（ ppm ）
2086 320 426 1082 1150 3000~4000
Notes ： quoted from Chen Weixin ， 1993
（ 4 ） Biological pollution
① Biology invasion The harm caused by biology invasion to the agricultural
ecological environment and natural resources damage is
irreversible,and it accelerates biodiversity loss and species
extinction
Once the success alien species invasion, it will be very difficult to
eradicate, and it will be expensive to control the damage.
The direct economy loss caused by biological invasion is 122.6
billion U.S. dollars annually in America.
The economy loss caused by several main invasive species is
54.7 billion Yuan per year,in China
② Transgenic organism
As unnatural evolution products, it has been
widely disputed for its potential impact in human
health and ecological environment safety since the
success of recombinant DNA technology.
Some experts believe that transgene crops or its
wild relatives species can be changed to "super"
weeds; may cause gene escape, resulting in "super
virus"; danger to biological diversity; may
adversely affect to human health
20.1.2 Agro-ecosystems damage
（ 1 ） The reduction of biodiversity
On one hand ,agricultural production activities such
as farming, the use of pesticide and fertilizer and
plant and animal genetic improvement in agriculture
improves the productivity ,on the other hand it also
impacts the biological diversity in agricultural
ecosystems. Figure 20-5 shows the components and
functions of biological diversity in agricultural
ecosystems
Figure 20-5 Component and function of biodiversity in agro-ecosystems
Notes ： quoted from Chenxin,etc ， 2002
（ 2 ） Soil degradation
It is a phenomena and process,which the soil environment
quality and carrying ability decline rapidly caused by human’s
improper development and utilization in natural environment.
In the early stage of reclamation soil, it only destroys the
balance of the natural vegetation and fertility of the soil and
the vegetation can also be restored by abandonment of
cultivated land and the fertility can be restored by use organic
manure.
But overuse of soil may cause the soil erosion,
desertification, salinization, swampiness and soil fertility
decline and other soil degradation phenomenon . Figure 20-6 is
the classification of soil degradation
Figure 20-6 Classification pattern of soil degradation
（ quoted from Li Tianjie ， 1995 ）
20.2 Agro - environmental management and practice
20.2.1 Agricultural environmental management system
(1) Agricultural environmental management agency Our national first-level environment division is Environment
Protection Energy department of agriculture ministry.Meanwhile
Agriculture Ministry sets up Environment Protection Committee
to organize and coordinate environmental protection work in
various sectors of agriculture.The corresponding environment
management institution has also been set up in the agricultural
sector of each province, autonomous region and municipality.
(2) Agricultural environmental management object
Figure 20-7 Agricultural environmental management object
20.2.2 Agricultural environmental management approach
Figure 20-8 The classification of agricultural environmental management measures
20.2.3 Agricultural environmental management policy
(1) Environment management in the constructing process in small towns
① industrialization makes agriculture lose the resources in process of urbanization land occupation
the loss of high-quality workforce
the of resources
Table 20-4 The environment problem in small town construction
② The environment problem in small town construction
Main problem Cause
Productionproblem
Occupy land in large number Abuse arable land, unreasonable landplanning ,large waste of land resources
Serious pollution of townshipform
High energy consumption, high pollution,increasing emissions, as the mainpollution source of small town
Ecological damage Many unreasonable conduct inconstruction, resulting in the rapid decayof natural resources even to depletion
Live problem Serious water pollution Lack appropriate sewage disposal system,poor infrastructure
Solid waste pollution No facility for garbage to pile up
③ Environment measures to small towns construction
Adhere to balance the construction and ecological
protection, enlarge environment planning for the small
town
Adhere to innovate in Intermediated Financing
pluralistic system, enlarge investment in small-town
environment protection
Adhere to the sustainable development strategy,
enlarge the ecological environment construction of
small town
（ 2 ） Reform of agricultural production mode Agricultural industrialization is the new reform of agricultural production mode
figure 20-9 The agricultural production mode change meaning to the environment
20.3 Ecological agriculture 20.3.1 Basic principles of Chinese eco-agriculture construction20.3.2 Technology type of ecological agriculture
Figure 20-10 Mulberry-Dyke-Fish-Pond—Schematic diagram of water and land exchange production systems
（ quoted from the State Environmental Protection Administration ， Chinese Eco-Agriculture ， 1991 ）
20.3.3 Typical technology and environmental protection
（ 1 ） Main techniques and environment effects of material cycles in ecological agriculture system
Figure20-11 Main practical technology and environmental benefits
（ 2 ） In-system matter cycle process
Figure 20-12 Cycle model of Guquan ecological farm （ quoted from the State Environmental Protection Administration ， 1991 ）
（ 3 ） Ecological agricultural system and environment of
circular use of materials Biogas is central link of system energy conversion, material
recycling and comprehensive utilization of organic fertilizers, is the
tie combining the primary producers, primary consumers and
decomposers
As the figure 20-13a,the energy substance is not fully used and
just used a part of it in the agricultural cycle without biogas.
The cycle becomes perfect and improves the utilization of energy
substance after using the biogas (see figure 20-13b).It reduces the
harm to the resource environment and is conducive to
agricultural environment protection
a. The traditional agricultural circulation （ incomplete circulation ） b. Virtuous circle of ecological agriculture system
Figure 20-13 Comparison figure of two agricultural circulation
（ 4 ） Ecological agricultural system energy analysis of circular use of materials
The energy input of natural ecosystem is maily the solar
energy.But the energy inputs of artificial ecosystem are with
many additional energy beside the solar energy which is
named as artificial energy
Agro-ecosystem is an artificial ecosystem,it can determine
whether high yield and stability, and can find the problem in
certain places and certain aspects to adopt effective measures
by the analysis of energy input-output.
Figure 20-14 Input/output of material circular ecological agriculture system energy
20.4 Modern intensive sustainable agriculture 20.4.1 The concept and aim of modern intensive sustainable
agriculture
Definition: an acceptable mode of agricultural production operation
which adopts the base methods to maintain the natural resource, ensures
the people of present and future generations to meet the demand for
agricultural products by technology and mechanisms transform ,
maintains the land, water, plant and animal genetic resources,and will not
cause environment degradation.Its technology is appropriate,and also
feasible in economy point.
Aim ： Resource intensivism
Production modernization
Management industrialization
20.5 Case study
The construction of Dazu eco-agriculture demonstration zones
Dazu County locates in southeast of Sichuan Basin,and west of Chongqing
City
Survey and zoning work of agricultural resources have been taking in
Dazu County from 1980 -1982 ,and there were serious problems in
agriculture ecological environment: the forest cover reduces to 320,000 mu
in 1987 from the 1190,000 mu in early 1950’s ,and the soil erosion is
serious, the loss area achieving 40.2% of the whole county covers area.
In view of this serious situation, " the overall planning of eco-agriculture
for south-north Mountain of Dazu County,."was completed in May 1984
Figure 20-15 Geographical diagram of Dazu(map of Chongqing)
Figure 20-16 The content of ecological agriculture construction in Dazu
(1) Ecological benefits analysis
① The ecological benefits analysis of rice-fish culture
model
Use of resources have been improved
Improve the soil fertility and save the amount of
fertilizer
Beneficial to inhibit weed and pests, reducing the
use of pesticide
Figure 20-17 Material cycle and energy conversion brief chart of fishing in paddy field
② Analysis on biogas ecological project
Dazu county is an agricultural county, and the
straw output of rice, wheat, corn, beans, sorghum and
other crops is much.The annual output of straw is
355,300 tons. It can produce 71 million m3 biogas if
fully used the straw as raw material
Figure 20-5 Analysis on typical model Samples of model
Financial analysis
Environment Economy analysis
The main problem of effecting the promotion
Policy focus
Rice-fish culture
excellent excellent Whether the financial benefits can be achieved smoothly ,it mainly depends on whether the output and price of fish is stable
Maintain the financial benefits of the farmers
Biogas engineering
Just so so excellent One-time investment is too large and it needs operating cost. Farmers’s direct financial benefit is not high
external benefits from the society to the farmers
Grain for Green Project
Poor excellent It requires considerable material and labor, and financial gain is difficult to implement in a short term
Encourage and guide the farmers to adjust mode of operation
Thank you !
