ABSTRACT
China is the largest developing country, with only 0.09 hectare of arable land per capita. In 1991, grain output and GNP of per capita were 378.3 kg and US$390, respectively. China’s efforts to increase food production and to meet other socioeconomic objectives have had destructive impacts on the environment, including soil erosion, increasing land desertification and intensifying environmental pollution. To address these problems, since the early 1980s China has paid increasing attention to alternative farming practices or a system of sustainable agriculture that suits its own national conditions.2 By the early 1990s, some 29 sustainable agriculture pilot units had been set up at the county level, 138 at the township level and more than 1200 at the village or farm levels. These pilot projects, whose purpose is to carry out experiments and demonstrate sustainable agriculture programmes, are scattered over all provinces and municipalities in mainland China, except for the Tibet Autonomous Region. It is likely that more and more areas at different levels will be incorporated into sustainable agriculture in the future.
