ecological agriculture a band-aid to food security, climate challenges in China
A new report by Greenpeace, Climate Change and Food Security in China, warns that China will lose its ability in food production as aboriginal as 2030 because of climate change. Climate change is affecting Agricultural production through changes in temperature, water availability, soil condition, extreme weathers, crop diseases and pest outbreaks, with serious consequences for food security. This adversity can only be averted if the government takes actual activity to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and accept policies auspicious more climate-friendly ecological agriculture.
The report was authored by Chinas top climate experts and agronomists commissioned by Greenpeace. Led by the lead columnist, Professor Lin Erda from the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who is also Chinas top scientist for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the report points out that ecological agriculture, which works with nature rather than against it, can drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, compared with todays destructive chemical and fossil energy intensive agriculture, ecological agriculture better adapts to and survives the effects of climate change.
The Executive Summary of the report is reproduced beneath. More advice is accessible at http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/news/climate-change-food-security and the full report (in Chinese) is available at http://act.greenpeace.org.cn/event/olympic/climate-agriculture.pdf
With best wishes,
Lim Li Ching
Third World Network
131 Jalan Macalister
10400 Penang
Malaysia
Email: twnet@po.jaring.my
Websites: www.twnside.org.sg, www.biosafety-info.net
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/china/en/press/reports/climate-food-report-summary.pdf
Executive Summary
Climate change has become one of the greatest challenges faced by the human chase. It affects about all aspects of our society, including food supply. Agriculture has long been the foundation of Chinas social and economic development. With a ample agricultural population and a huge burden placed on resources, as well as a large production breadth that appearance circuitous topography and distinct patterns of climate, Chinas farming industry is very vulnerable to climate change. Against this accomplishments, ecological agriculture therefore has its obvious advantages. It is of abundant accent for the sustainable development of agricultural and national security to actuate the impact of climate change on agriculture and food security in the country, and to devise and implement appropriate measures to avoid these problems.
Climate Change threatens Chinas Food Security
Climate change affects agricultural production through changes in temperature, water resources, soil condition, as well as causing extreme weather events, disease and pest outbreaks. Its access varies between different regions and seasons. Generally speaking, its impact on Chinas agriculture has both a positive and a negative aspect, with the closing getting dominant. Climate change will lead to increasing fluctuations in the countrys food production, and threaten the countrys food security.
Rising temperature is the a lot of prominent feature of climate change. It directly affects the advance of crops from a physiological perspective, and therefore affects food production capability. It is estimated that because of climate change, over the next 20 to 50 years, Chinas rice, corn and wheat production will bead decidedly, while the overall agricultural productivity will also be hit hard. If no effective measures are taken, a civic average temperature increase of 2.5-3 will lead to decreases in the yield of these three above crops. The primary aftereffect of a new study shows that, with the accumulated effects of the increase in temperature and the decrease in agricultural water resources and abundant land, Chinas overall food production will abatement by 14%-23% by 2050 from 2000 (if the total food production was 500 actor tons).
In arctic China, rising temperatures will worsen water shortages, especially in arid and semi-arid regions where desertification is accelerating. On the other hand, strong precipitations in the average and lower alcove of the Yangtze River are happening at an increased rate and will cause more adverse calamity. These droughts and precipitations have a absolute impact on agricultural production. Crop yields may be reduced, with some being absolutely wiped out.
Chinas agriculture is relatively vulnerable to climatic disasters. Currently, as abundant as 50 million hectares of crops in China are threatened by various climatic disasters every year. With increased abundance and intensity of acute weather contest, including calefaction waves, rainstorms, droughts, floods and typhoons, China may ache even beyond losses in agricultural production in the future.
Climate change will also lead to added action of clay microorganisms. That will cause a accident of organic amount and nitrogen in the soil, accelerated soil abasement, erosion and alkalinizing, as able-bodied as weakening in the adequacy of the agricultural ecosystem to abide accustomed disasters.
Environmental changes due to climate change can aggravate the spread of bulb diseases, pests and weed growth. Plant diseases and pests are currently causing a 20%-25% average annual loss to Chinas agriculture achievement amount. Rising winter temperatures have helped abounding pests and pathogens to survive added easily, increasing the amount of ancestors in a individual year and therefore the anticipation of harming crops.
Climate change also poses a claiming to Chinas agricultural production pattern and planting system accustomed over hundreds of years because of the changes it makes to water and temperature conditions, especially in low-latitude areas. However, these changes have also made it possible to acquaint the multiple-crop planting systems in mid and high latitude areas as well as in plateau areas, such as rice planting in Heilongjiang and the northward expansion of winter wheat planting operations.
We have apparent an increasing use of pesticides and actinic fertilizers in an accomplishment to adapt to the negative climate impact. In addition, climate change can also increase irrigation costs and costs for soil improvement and conservation, thus increasing total agricultural investment.
The increasing appeal for aliment and bio-fuel and the abatement in both crop crop and storage around the globe due to natural disasters, has caused all-around food prices to shoot up. Climate change may further deteriorate the bearings. For China, this means serious after-effects for food production. Taking into consideration increased demands for food in the future, climate change will affect the countrys adeptness to balance food accumulation and demand. Under a top greenhouse gas emission scenario, basic food food will become bereft about 2030. Under a mid to low emission scenario, this botheration may not action but it may not be accessible to meet the food requirements for acceptable social development.
Therefore, it becomes abnormally important to devise suitable policies to adapt to these scenarios, which cover better irrigation, more appropriately called seeding times, and alternating {among|a part of} altered crops. Meanwhile, more emphasis should be placed on ecological agriculture, which is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture while ensuring production yield.
The Advantages of Ecological Agriculture
This report has pointed out that compared to the accepted production mode which depends heavily on agro-chemical ascribe, the more comprehensive ecological access to agriculture can effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Also, due to its characteristics, ecological agriculture can more easily adapt to climate change, and its associated problems such as rising temperatures, water shortages, extreme weather, soil degradation and increasing frequency of disease and pest outbreaks. Eco-agriculture can help to ensure the countrys food production and food security.
The capital features of ecological agriculture include maintaining soil fertility through organic measures and reducing dependence on synthesized abstracts such as fertilizers, pesticides and other agro-chemicals. It works with nature by following the way nature functions, protecting and rationally application natural resources, announcement animal breeding methods that better baby to the animals needs, adapting to the local environment and providing highly adapted operation modes.
Ecological agriculture can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can increase carbon aloofness.
On greenhouse gas emissions: According to the report, the rice-fish system is shown to be able to improve the oxidation-reduction action of soil and significantly decrease methane emissions. The rice-duck system is also able of improving the microclimate in the field and reducing methane emissions. The construction of biogas generators in rural areas can control methane emissions during the processing of organic fertiliser. The utilising of biogas instead of atramentous is accepted to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3,077,700-45,928,000 tons and sulphur dioxide emissions by 130,000-988, 700 tons annually amid 2010 and 2050.
The use of organic fertiliser can also reduce dependence on nitrogenous fertilisers. Nitrous oxide emissions can also be reduced.
On carbon sequestration: The report credibility out that conservation agriculture methods in ecological agronomics, including the restoration of farmland to backwoods and grassland, no-till or less-till agriculture and abiding harbinger and axis to the field, can abundantly increase the carbon storage capacity of Chinassoil and improve the overall ecological ambiance, therefore mitigating the impact of climate change.
As a comprehensive and analytical agricultural production adjustment that suits local circumstances, ecological agriculture can bigger adapt to climate change. The report has illustrated the high adaptability of ecological agriculture to climate change examples including the northward relocation of winter wheat planting in Liaoning and conservation farming operations in Inner Mongolia.
Ecological agriculture can also control the threat from disease, pests and weeds, and reduce the use of agro-chemicals. By increasing biodiversity in the field, plantdisease can be effectively controlled through the natural competition among different species, therefore significantly reducing the need for agro-chemicals and resulting in less pollution. Experiments carried out in Yunnan have shown that by planting only the disease vulnerable adhering rice, an average incidence of 20% for rice bang is empiric. After intercropping adhering rice with other rice varieties, however, the incidence rate was bargain to only 1%. Intercropping of glutinous rice and other rice varieties reduces the production loss caused by rice blast and rice falling over and increases production yield by 6.5%-8%.
By integrating physical, agricultural and biological measures, ache, pests and weeds that affect crops can be better controlled. According to the report, measures including planting lettuce with cucumbers and the rice-duck, rice-fish systems can finer control disease, pests and weeds, while the income of farmers is also boosted. These methods also advice to decrease human intervention to the natural ecological system in the forms of herbicides and pesticides. Studies show that the rice-duck system is 65.5% effective in authoritative the rice planthopper pest. A four-year consecutive adoption of rice-duck mode will control 99% of the rice field weeds, cut the infection rate of rice roots to rice sheath blight by 56.0% and the infection amount of rice stripe by 57.7%. Climate change may cause increased incidence of disease, pests and weeds, while the eco-agricultural mode presents an effective means to solve the countrys agricultural abuse and food security problems.
The report presents two cases in Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, in which the effectiveness of ecological agriculture in adapting to climate change is acutely demonstrated. The northward relocation of winter wheat burying absolutely utilises acreage and climate resources, improves the alternating planting mode, and increases the cropping index. It is a acceptable example assuming the development of ecological agriculture and its ability to climate change. Through measures including no-till, less-till and surface accoutrement, conservation farming increases the alteration of natural precipitation and reduces ground flow and evaporation, therefore convalescent the operations ability adjoin aridity and its water conservation, thus mitigating the negative effects of climate change. Conservation farming can adjust to changes in temperature and damp in the field, abate the respiration of crops while increasing the assimilation of carbon. It can also prevent erosion by wind or baptize, while accouterment protection from sandstorms. It improves the quality of life and increases the income of farmers.
These methods have apparent good abeyant in increasing the regions adaptability to climate change. Also, an integrated agricultural system called farmland shelterbelt network has been developed based on these methods. It combines farmland with forest, and can serve to stop sandstorms and drought, adjust bounded climate, improve agricultural production altitude, ensure a high and stable agricultural yield, while also increasing the regions adaptability to climate change and mitigate its impact.
Policy Recommendations
It has become actual important to devise suitable counter-measures to deal with the increasing blackmail from climate change. This is essential to ensure the countrys food aegis and sustainable development.