The economic growth that China has experienced during the past 40 years has in more recent years raised public’s attention on resource conservation and environmental protection, food security as well as employment and income generation. The concept of sustainable development has been formulated in an international context and has been recognized by most countries around the world. The agricultural sector in China has long been recognized as the foundation of its economy.
Holding one fifth of the world’s population and only 7% of its arable land agriculture needs to be efficient enough to ensure food security for all its inhabitants. Agriculture has made strides during the past 40 years as production techniques developed with the introduction of newer technologies. Chinas difficulties in developing agriculture include population stress, soil scarcity, environment and water.
Food safety in China has been brought to the public’s attention in recent years as a result of a series of scandals that have caught the public eye. This year thousands of decaying pigs contaminated the Huangapu River affecting millions of residents in the Shanghai area while vendors in Beijing were caught selling rats as lamb.
Other reports of incidents of pollution in rivers and rice crops were reported around the southern provinces. Food safety is therefore an issue for Chinese consumer and of course for its trading partners around the world. The local Chinese are beginning to distrust local products and in some cases are recurring to imported products.
Concerns surrounding the sustainability of agricultural systems proceed on the necessity to develop new techniques that are environmentally acceptable that improve production and guarantee security and quality of production. The development of agriculture in China and productivity has been driven by increased use of fertilizers, irrigation water, machinery, and other chemicals. The green revolution has inevitably improved the quality of life for the Chinese population however it needs to integrate new methods and processes that do not interfere with the product and the environment. It is necessary to remove or minimise the use of those products or techniques that hinder the health of farmers and consumers by integrating biodiversity into the cost of production and make use of peoples knowledge and skills to solve agricultural problems such as soil erosion, irrigation and use of chemicals. These concepts help build knowledge and best practices. Acquiring knowledge to best use the genotypes of crops or animals and to adapt them to the ecological or geophysical situation that promote growth and to understand the best approaches to improve and understand all the benefits that can derive from the understanding biodiversity such as carbon balance the effects of pesticides will improve productivity and guarantee consumer with safer products as well as reduce production costs.