Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering | 2021
GREEN AGRICULTURE AND BLUE WATER IN CHINA: REINTEGRATING CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION FOR CLEAN WATER
Abstract
Crop and livestock production are essential to maintain food security. In China, crop and livestock production were integrated in the past. Today, small backyard systems are still integrated but the larger livestock farms are landless and largely geographically separated from crop production systems. As a result, there is less recycling of animal manures and there are lower nutrient use efficiencies in the Chinese food production systems. This, in turn, results in considerable losses of nutrients, causing water pollution and harmful algal blooms in Chinese lakes, rivers and seas. To turn the tide, there is a need for agricultural “green” development for food production through reintegrating crop and livestock production. An additional wish is to turn the Chinese water systems “blue” to secure clean water for current and future generations. In this paper, current