Practice and Thinking of Conservation Tillage in China

摘要

Agriculture in China takes small scale management system as a dominant factor.Meanwhile, dryland farming plays an important role in agricultural production. Recent 10 years,experiment, demonstration and extension of conservation tillage has been gradually developed.A national on-site meeting of conservation tillage was held by Ministry of Agriculture, P. R.China in 2002, special funding was set up by financing department of central government tostart conservation tillage demonstration project. About 100 national conservation tillagedemonstration counties were set up in northern 13 provinces and cities, except Heilongjiang andJilin provinces, which marked conservation tillage in China into a new stage. Right now,extension and application of conservation tillage is in the stage of development, in whichgovernment fully supports and pushes the development of conservation tillage, meanwhileresearch and development of implement is in the ascendant, practice and application areas areextending, and social recognition increases. However, the major problem is that research anddevelopment of implement can not meet the requirement of extension, and research ofagronomy is behind.Practices in China confirm that conservation tillage can solve the conflicts between conservationand utilization of land resources, and between agricultural production and ecologicalenvironment protection. It is an inexorable choice to protect agricultural land, improve landutilization efficiency, and improve agricultural ecological environment and sustainabledevelopment. It is a very important method to prevent from and cure soil desertification, and tobring under control of dust and sand in the air. It is effective measure to reduce cost andincrease efficiency, and improve farmer income. It is a very important practice for sustainableagricultural development to apply conservation tillage in China.In China, traditional agricultural tillage has been developed for a long time, and small scalemanagement has been kept unchanged, therefore, dryland farming system and economicdevelopment are different. Based on reality, there is a need to explore a conservation tillagesystem with Chinese characteristics: 1) persist in government support direction; 2) insist onlong-term development, and continue the promotion and demonstration; 3) combine theresearch and development of agricultural machinery with agronomy, and improve thetechnology system; 4) continue to study and develop no-till planters; 5) promote and developsocial service.