Towards an integral approach to sustainable agriculture and healthy nutrition : vision of the Scientific Council for Integral Sustainable Agriculture and Nutrition

It is argued that sociology and the other social sciences can contribute to agricultural sustainability in several ways, one of which is to help in assessing and understanding the social forces that affect agricultural research and agricultural policy. Many of the conditions that gave rise to expansion of sustainable agriculture in the 1980s are changing, and sustainable agriculture faces several fiscal and political vulnerabilities. A typology of sustainable agriculture research is developed to illustrate the point that scientists and proponents of sustainable agriculture can help to address these vulnerabilities by deversifying their approaches to developing environmentally sound agricultural technologies.

Traditionally scientists have looked at agriculture merely as a production system. It is only in recent times when issues of sustainability have been regularly cropping up, that there is a paradigm shift. There is now an attempt to look at agriculture also as an ecological system. India and China are two large rapidly industrializing countries that have a large and heterogeneous population load to carry. India and China are also very ancient agricultural countries with a long and rich tradition of natural resource conservation linked sustainable management of agriculture. There is a need for linking cultural diversity with biological diversity, so rich in the India-China context, as the basis for sustainable management of natural resources, leading towards human wellbeing, and thus contributing towards human security.

This paper provides a perspective on the potential of Chinese ecological agriculture to address sustainable human–environmental interactions. As Chinese agriculture is increasingly challenged by the constraints of population, resources and environment emerging from its modern development, it is imperative to explore a sustainable agricultural paradigm that could accommodate economic and socio-cultural needs within an already stressed natural resource base. The rise of ecological agriculture is suggested as a workable alternative that has the potential to mitigate negative impacts of modern conventional agriculture and at the same time, to overcome limitations of traditional agriculture in meeting the needs of China's growing population. Ecological agriculture represents a site-specific manifestation of the application of ecological economics, among others, to agricultural practices. Some challenges being experienced in translating this rhetoric into practice are identified and discussed. Highlighted is the view that sustainable agricultural development is meaningful only when it is tailored to specific ecological, economic, political and socio-cultural settings.

Extension could play a key role in fostering sustainability through its educational programs but there has been a growing realization that traditional extension models have not been sufficiently effective in promoting adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Since sustainable agriculture is a knowledgeintensive system, it requires a new kind of knowledge, which differs from other forms on the basis of conventional agricultural practices. In fact, conventional extension system cannot accomplish sustainability in agriculture; because today's agricultural extension must consider environmental implications, social issues, and overall economic growth within the agriculture sector. The purpose of this paper is to describe new extension model to achieve sustainable agriculture.

The concept of the sustainable development of agricultural production marked the beginning of a new era in agriculture worldwide. The term sustainability was first interpreted primarily as the sustainability of the environment, due to the ever more serious problems experienced in this connection on a global scale. In searching for a solution, however, focus shifted to a complex approach to sustainable development. It became clear that in addition to the sustainability of the environment, a long-term solution could only be achieved if economic and social sustainability was also ensured. This is particularly true of agriculture, since the existing problems cannot be solved purely on the basis of environmental considerations. Only the comprehensive handling of ecological, economic and social challenges can produce a satisfactory answer to the questions involved in sustainable development. This will necessarily mean a change in the tasks facing agriculture, which will be responsible for more numerous, more varied functions than previously. If these new tasks are to be successfully performed, new technological systems will need to be elaborated, requiring an acceleration of research and development throughout the world.

Sustainable development of agriculture is the fundamental way to the development of modern agriculture and it is the inevitable choice, but also an important part of the overall strategy of sustainable development in China. Sustainable development of agriculture denotes that promotes rural economic development and improves the quality of life and protects the ecological environment under conditions within the resources and environment carrying capacity. Its connotation features include fairness, persistence and coordination. In the face of low quality of human resources in rural areas, there is a loss of a large number of high-quality labor; and agricultural nature resouces also face a shortage crisis, serious pollution and deteriorate ecological environment and backward facilities and equipment for the development of modern agriculture; the lack of agricultural inputs; the contradiction between agricultural products and the needs of the society, all these problems in sustainable agricultural development fiercely need to propose strategies such as raise the level of awareness of the issue; take effective measures to protect good agricultural ecological environment; improve the overall quality of farmers; enhance the level of agricultural science and technology; develop ecological agriculture and improve the government’s macro-control mechanism for agriculture; etc. to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture.

Recognizing the detrimental consequences of industrial agriculture, a growing number of farmers, environmentalists, and agricultural researchers have begun to explore better farming methods. Sustainable agriculture, which seeks to achieve the often conflicting goals of environmental protection and farmers’ economic profitability, has the potential to transform modern agriculture. However, little federal or state legislation has been passed to specifically direct sustainable agricultural practices. Instead, legislation has mostly emphasized the need for research and “the exchange of scientific and practical information on sustainable agriculture.” Sustainable agriculture will not replace conventional practices based on research alone. Therefore, governments must implement regulations and creatively strategize how to move agriculture toward a sustainable system. While increased interest in sustainability and the farming industry may serve as a catalyst for change in the industry’s environmentally detrimental practices, the movement must not lose sight of the potential of law and policy to promote sustainable agriculture and reinforce the importance of a sustainable plan. This note will argue that a new agricultural approach mandating specific sustainable techniques is necessary to ensure the future availability of farming land and resources. A land use planning process that is attentive to the needs of both the environment and the economic well-being of the agricultural community can be of tremendous value to the success of implementing a sustainable agricultural system.

In the international background of the integration of global economy and the mentality of sustainable development,sustainable development of agriculture has steadly changed from an academic trend of thought at first into a basic strategy for most countries to develop their agriculture up to now, and has been widely accepted in human society.As a result,firstly,the sustainable development of agriculture and farmer's ability of sustainable development have become a focus which agiculturally is the most worthy of being paid attention to by developing countries in the era of the world economic integration;Secondly,biological technology has been so closely connected to the sustainable development of agriculture that,in the light of the requirement of sustainable development,how reasonably,scientifically and rationally to develop a technological system for agricultural production with biological technology as the core becomes a key problem to furthering the sustainable development of agrieulture; Thirdly, as a result of the fact that sustainable development has been widely applied to agriculture,a kind of trade barrier called green barrier becomes a tool for trade protection with which developed countries place all sorts of import obstacles before developing countries,thus how to take advantage of the green barrier in both developed and developing countries becomes a new problem of the 21st century trade barrier for agricultual products.

China is a large agricultural nation and the sustainable development of agriculture is the foundation for sustainable development of the whole society.Therefore,how to guarantee the sustainable development of agriculture in China,is an extremely urgent realistic problem.In the process of realizing the sustainable development of agriculture,what kind of responsibility the government should have as well as how to realize it becomes the question which urgently awaits to be solved.

It is necessary for China's agricultural sustainable development to base on the advancement of science and technology,take the goal of raising productive rate,balancing rural bio-environment and protecting natural resource continuously.Recent statistics show that there are some obstacles for the sustainable development,therefore developing knowledge-based agriculture according to the requirement of the population,resource and economic development.

Agriculture is the basis of national economy.With advancements in science and technology as well as an intensive utilization of land,great achievements have been made in agriculture.Meanwhile,some agro-ecological and environmental problems are arising from the processes.Being faced with the situations,people have begun to reflect on policies,patterns and technologies associated with agricultural development,and put forward new concepts on agricultural development in succession.There is growing awareness that development of agriculture can not only increase the amount of food and agricultural products to meet people's increasing demand,but also improve product quality,insurance of food safety,exertion of ecosystem functions,and maintenance and restoration of the ecological environment.In the late 20th century,China's ecologists and agronomists proposed a concept of ecological agriculture with Chinese characteristics,i.e.,the ecological agriculture is derived from systematic thoughts in terms of the principles of ecology,economics,and ecological economics,with application of modern scientific and technological achievements and modern management tools,as well as effective experience in traditional agriculture.It is the modern agricultural development mode which results in a higher economic profit,ecological and social benefits.Its essence contains a series of concepts,such as integration,coordination,circulation and regeneration.After nearly 30 years of practice and development,ecological agriculture in China has achieved substantial progress,i.e.,1) established a theoretical system and summarized successful experience;2) carried out eco-agricultural demonstration at the county-level pilots and achieved significant effects;and 3) China’s eco-agriculture has been widely recognized and praised by the international community and become one of the first selected units on the agricultural cultural heritage.However,current eco-agricultural development is not perfect due to the following factors: 1) it still falls short of further research and accounting on a variety of agro-ecosystem service functions;and 2) it is difficult to gain great economic benefits because of the lack of market-oriented guidance,scale management,specialized production and brand popularization for traditional self-sufficient rural economy.Development of society currently presents a new situation giving rise to a series of new problems.Progress in science broads our views and provides new means for resolving such issues.In order to further promote the development of ecological agriculture,serious reflections on ecological agriculture would result in new understanding of circular agriculture,multifunctional agriculture,high-quality agriculture and cultural agriculture in China.

Realizing sustainable agricultural development is a universal recognition and trend.The development of agriculture will move towards modern,intensive,sustainable and industrialized agriculture.This article deals with the concept and theories of sustainable agriculture.In light of the overseas practice in this respect,the author points out that to develop sustainable agriculture in China we must take China's reality into consideration,which includes a large population,inadequate natural resources,worsening environment,low level of productivity and tremendous potential in utilizing resources so as to choose a right development mode,direction and objectivity.

Sustainable development is the important strategy applied by our government in 20th 90s,because the agriculture is the base of our nation economy.The sustainable development of agriculture become the important problem in our social economy development.Sustainable development of agriculture has serious relation with science and technology and we must depend on its progress.

Agriculture is a key problem in sustainable development in our country.Through analyzing the current situation of agriculture in our country and some main factors which restrict its sustainable development,I attempt to put forward some measures to promote the sustainable development of agriculture in our country in this article,such as carrying on system innovation,improving human capital,fostering and developing economic cooperation organizations in agriculture,increasing input in agriculture and strengthening ecological agriculture building.

As the important composition and first domain of Chinese sustainable development overall strategy,the agricultural sustainable development is the rational choice and practical path of China's contemporary agricultural development.The essence of agriculture is to seek the ordering and the continuous operating of the integrity of various essential factors and various related systems, the system and the external environment in the agriculture is to maintain the positive circulation of productivity the agricultural system.But sustainable development of the Chinese contemporary agriculture has difficulties and challenges: The insufficiency of management system and backwardness of facilities cause the weak agricultural development foundation;flaws of essential factors such as manpower,capital,and science and technology cause the insufficient support of agricultural development;shortage of the farming land and the water resources becomes the bottleneck restricting sustainable development of agriculture;the imbalance of the agricultural production and the market demands,and the agricultural product quality security problems cause that the final products can not meet the social needs.Authors thought the practical path of the Chinese modern agricultural development with its own characteristics should be based on the following aspects: pay attention to human capital cultivation,advance the cooperativization of agriculture,speed up the rural finance innovation,promote science and technology level of agriculture,develop labor-intensive agriculture,and fulfill the idea of the ecological agriculture in practice.

The sustainable development of agriculture largely relied on the sustainable use of agricultural natural resources.The author used the way of systems analysis to discuss the challenges in the sustainable development of agriculture in Huaihua,among which ideas were backward;the utilization ratio of natural resources was low and the waste is serious;ecological environment of agriculture was getting worse and worse;and natural disasters happened frequently.Also,the author put forward some practical measures,pointing out that agriculture should be developed sustainably by getting rid of its unfavorable factors in nature,economy and social reproduction process.Ecological agriculture should be actively developed in China.

Agriculture is the main source of living maintenance for the mankind,and the nation's economic foundation as well.China is a big country in agriculture but not a mighty one.As China's industrialization of agriculture is low,a rational planning of agriculture is necessary for promoting agriculture industrialization and expanding agricultural economy.With geological theory as bases,agrigeology links with macro-agriculture theory for solving the issues related with agriculture,serving agriculture for the sake of obtaining the ultimate social and economic profits.In the course of agrigeological investigation universally in China,much information in agrigeology has been acquired but with a low extent of use,and undesirable economic benefit.The significance and existing issues in the fields of agrigeological research in China are stated in the text,and the application of agrigeological information in agriculture planning is also discussed in the text.

The sustainable development of agriculture and nival areas is the guarantee and prior field for our country' s sustainable development, but it is now seriously impeded by the increasingly deteriorating ecological environment. Therefore, we must choose ecological agriculture, a long- run strategy for the sustainable development of agriculture, which can both protect and better the ecological enviroment so as to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture.

At present, there exist a lot of internal and external factors which effect the our agriculture sustainable development, but it is necessary for our agriculture modernization to take a sustainable development way, strengthen the integration of production, efficiency and development, pay more attention the nature and circumstance of agriculture economic development, and set up a sustainable system.

Over the years, the definition of sustainability in development literature has varied widely and broadened in scope. The concept arose in response to economic growth models that characterized development approaches over the last half century. It was eventually recognized that such models did not adequately address social inequalities and led to environmental degradation. The concept gained wider use after the World Commission on Environment and Development published Our common future (Brundtland 1987). The economic, social, political and ecological dimensions of the rural environment are complex and have multiple implications, starting with theoretical and practical reasons. The process of urbanization that takes place at world-wide level has become one of the global problems of mankind, because of the disparities created between the countryside and the city, which are materialized in the cultural, economical and social aspects that are synthesized in the terms of urban and rural civilizations, which define the different realities of the geographical space. Because the concept of sustainable agriculture is still evolving, this paper reviews the ideas, practices and policies that make the basis of sustainable agriculture concept, in order to suggest to others practical steps that may be appropriate for them in moving toward sustainable agriculture.