V. Protection of the Rural Environment
China is a large agricultural country, and rural residents account for the
overwhelming majority of the population. Thus, it is an important
environmentalist task to control pollution of the agricultural environment and
improve the rural environment. -- Comprehensive control of the rural
environment. In recent years, the Chinese government has launched campaigns to
build towns and townships with a beautiful environment and ecologically advanced
villages, pushing forward comprehensive control of the rural environment. At
present, 178 towns and townships have been awarded the title of "National-level
Towns and Townships with a Beautiful Environment." The Chinese government is
concentrating on the demonstration of comprehensive control of pollution from
livestock, poultry and fish breeding, and non-point pollution in Taihu, Dianchi
and Chaohu lakes, as well as in the Yangtze, Zhujiang and Yellow river deltas.
Some provinces and municipalities have beefed up control of the village
environment and improved village infrastructure, and made progress in treating
rural sewage and waste and controlling agricultural non-point pollution. In
recent years, China has completed more than 800,000 rural drinking water
projects, solving difficulties and insecurity in this regard for 67 million
rural residents. The government has started the investigation of soil pollution
and demonstration of pollution control throughout the country, and set up a
system of testing and controlling the security of agricultural products;
strengthened the environmental security control of pesticides and chemical
fertilizer, popularized high-efficiency, low-toxicity and low-residue
pesticides, and prohibited the use of high-toxic and high-residual pesticides in
the production of vegetables, fruits, grain, tea and Chinese medicinal herbs;
prevented non-point pollution brought about by irrational use of chemical
fertilizer, pesticides, farm-use plastic sheeting and wastewater irrigation, so
as to ensure the security of agricultural products; developed and produced new,
safe, high-quality and high-efficiency feed, improving the utilization rate of
feed and reducing pesticide residue of breeding industry products and discharge
of harmful substances; popularized the technique of comprehensively utilizing
and treating faeces of livestock and poultry, and encouraged the development of
eco-agricultural projects that closely integrates breeding industry with crop
farming.
-- Development of eco-agriculture and ecological demonstration zones. The
Chinese government has put the development of eco-agriculture high on the agenda
for promoting the overall and coordinated development of the rural economy and
ecological environment. At present, there are more than 400 eco-agriculture
counties in China, and more than 500 counties and cities with eco-agriculture
demonstration zones. Among them, there are 102 national-level eco-agriculture
counties and 233 national-level eco-agriculture demonstration zones. In recent
years, the Chinese government has continuously improved the system for
developing and managing organic food, and issued the Measures on the
Administration of Organic Food Certification and the National Organic Food
Standards; released the national standard for good agricultural practice (GAP)
and the implementation rules on the GAP certification to tackle the organic food
problem at its source; and started to build national organic food production
bases, with 43 national-level bases having been named as such, helping the
industrialization of organic food. Well over three million ha throughout the
country have met the organic food certification requirements. -- Development of
dry-farming and water-saving agriculture. By 2005, the Chinese government had
poured over 700 million yuan into building more than 460 dry-farming and
water-saving agriculture demonstration bases in semi-arid and arid areas, making
comprehensive use of agronomic, biological and engineering measures and
dry-farming technologies, and making full use of natural precipitation to
increase water utilization and agricultural production ability, and control soil
erosion. The State has been actively popularizing protective cultivation,
including stalk coverage, no-tillage sowing, deep plowing and weeding, with the
focus on the two recently completed protective cultivation belts, one around
Beijing and Tianjin, and the other in duststorm sources in the northwest. By the
end of 2005, 100 demonstration counties had been set up. -- Development of
new-energy projects in rural areas. It is an important approach to protecting
and improving the rural ecological environment to develop and popularize new
types of energy in rural areas. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, the
State spent 3.5 billion yuan to popularize an ecological model of energy with
marsh gas as the pivot. By the end of 2005, there were more than 17 million
households using methane, and the yearly output of methane reached 6.5 billion
cu m. The government has devoted major efforts to developing a project producing
methane from wastes in livestock and poultry breeding. So far, more than 2,200
such methane projects have been completed, treating more than 60 million tons of
faeces. And 137,000 methane pits for purifying domestic sewage and over 500
central heating projects with gas from burning stalks have been built. In
addition, 189 million households now use fuel-saving stoves, and solar water
heaters cover a total of 28.5 million sq m. Meanwhile, the government has been
actively promoting the use of renewable solar, wind and geothermal energy
sources.
