An independent, peer reviewed journal for policy makers and practitioners in agriculture and related industries, assessing the interactions between population growth, resources, the environment and climate change.
Summary
A not insignificant development challenge in Southeast Asia is linked to the incredible diversity of life, both on land and in the sea. Continued and heightened international awareness of the rich fauna and flora and the rapid loss of the habitats that sustain them, places the region under a certain degree of scrutiny, fair or otherwise, as it strives to develop. What are the environmental costs to date and likely future costs of this development? To examine these issues the …
Summary
The Loess Plateau is the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization and a place where dryland agriculture originated; it is also one of the world’s most vulnerable ecological systems with the most serious soil erosion problems. The plateau has supported a population of more than 100 million and over 70% of which are rural and are relatively weak. Dryland agriculture has played a key role in providing sufficient food for the inhabitants, as well as , environmental conservation and economic …
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the construction of irrigation and water conservation projects reached a peak in the 1960s and 1970s with farmland irrigation area of about 45 Mha (1) nationwide. This provides the base from which farmland can achieve its potential. In the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of limited and fragmented investment in the long term, this in turn gives rise to widespread agricultural infrastructure disrepair and functional degradation.
Given the …
