Affiliations: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
Abstract: Sustainable development, as a "hot topic", concerns not only
economic development but also environmental protection. Agriculture, the base
of other economic activities, has faced many difficulties that include
over-growth population, land decrease, end land degradation and so on.
Therefore, how to increase the food supply, to meet the over-growth population
demands, is the main task all over the world at present, especially in the
developing countries, such as China, but we also must protect agricultural
environment for medium- and long-term development simultaneously. Hence,
sustainable development in agriculture is the most important estate that we
must concern. Its sustainable development determines the sustainability of
other economic development to a great extent. Despite Chinese government has
paid much attention to develop agricultural production and obtained great
successions, there are also many shortcomings in Chinese agriculture.
Therefore, China must seek new approaches for its development end environmental
protection that suit local conditions and are based on local resources.
Agro-ecological engineering, the application of ecological engineering in
agriculture, is very thriving in China in recent decades. In this paper, the
ecological, economic and social benefits of agro-ecological engineering are
analyzed. The principles are discussed. The results indicated that
agro-ecological engineering can meet the farmer's short-, medium- and long-term
benefits. In the meanwhile, it also concerns not only economic benefits but
ecological and social benefits. Therefore, agro-ecological engineering is a way
that leads to sustainable agriculture in the future in China.
