Analysis and suggestions on agroecological practices in China: a study based on 431 national eco-farms

Eco-farms are important agroecological practitioners that pursue sustainable agricultural production. Based on data from 431 national eco-farms in China, we analyzed the characteristics of agroecological practices and provided suggestions. The 431 eco-farms cover all regions across China, except Qinghai, Xizang, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Among them, 278 eco-farms conduct a planting business, 40 eco-farms conduct livestock or fish breeding, and 113 eco-farms conduct a combination business, including both planting and breeding. The results show that: 1) The average size of these eco-farms is 317.4 hm², and the average registered capital is 23 million ¥. Eco-farms produce various types of agricultural products and develop integrated businesses, and 94.3% of them have at least one certification on products or on farm management. The average age of the eco-farm owners is 47.6 and 96.7% of them had finished high school studies or above. 2) All eco-farms with planting processes use agroecological techniques. Manual weeding, insecticidal lamps, soil testing and formula fertilization, crop straw return, and yellow/blue board are the most popular measures. The choice of different measures may be related to planting experience, difficulty of techniques, and policy guidance. 3) The agricultural waste recycling rate of eco-farms is high and aerobic composting is the commonly used treatment for organic waste. The processing methods are not diverse, which may be due to the characteristics of the waste, processing costs, difficulty of the techniques implementation, and policy guidance. In addition, during our field investigations, we found several other shortcomings of these eco-farms. 1) Many eco-farms ignore the importance of landscape patterns and, therefore, lack ecological function plots, such as corridors and patches associated with natural ecosystems. 2) There is a lack of guidance on the selection of agroecological techniques from official departments or experts; therefore, it is difficult for these eco-farms to improve their application of techniques according to local conditions. 3) Only a few agroecologically supportive policies or subsidies exist, and most consumers tend to spend less money on agricultural products; thus, many eco-farms cannot sustain extra spending on ecological techniques. 4) The regulatory authorities have paid insufficient attention to the monitoring of temporal changes in the agricultural ecological environment; hence, many eco-farms have shown a lack of motivation to regularly detect soil pollutants, organic matter, irrigation water quality, or other indicators. Furthermore, we provided the following suggestions for the development of agroecology in China. 1) Guide and support agricultural business entities with different land sizes or organizational types through differentiated policies and pay more attention to the evaluation of the benefits of various incentives and subsidies that have been provided. 2) Encourage agricultural business entities with economic and technical abilities to explore and apply appropriate ecological techniques under general policy guidance. 3) Experts and technicians should provide technical guidance, help with eco-environmental monitoring, and integrate and promote agroecological practice models for agricultural businesses. 4) In addition to the development and application of ecological techniques, researchers should enhance their analyses of the socioecological benefits of agroecological practices.