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Appropriate-Scale Mechanization in China

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2018 ASABE Annual International Meeting  1801904.(doi:10.13031/aim.201801904)
Authors:   Minli Yang
Keywords:   appropriate-scale, mechanization, policies, measures, China

Abstract. China is a large farming nation and agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, hilly and mountainous areas are over 60%. Most are run by small farmers, but there is also some development of agricultural cooperatives, agricultural machinery cooperatives and family farms. There are challenges to the food supply and environment in China, such as population growth coupled with rising living standards, increasing urbanization, a declining rural labor force and increasing feminization of agriculture, ageing farming population, growing scarcity of fresh water resources, resource degradation and loss of biodiversity, increasing energy costs and declining farm incomes, climate change, high levels of post-harvest losses, etc. It‘s significantly important to meet growing food demands, respond to impacts of demographic change in rural areas, use natural resources in a more sustainable way, increase energy efficiency, innovate to enhance resilience, and implement post-harvest loss reduction strategies. The appropriate-scale mechanization and technological innovation makes it is possible to improve the efficiency of water, fertilizer and pesticide so as to protect the ecological environment of farmland and food safety, to increase production efficiency so as to reduce the cost of agricultural products, to improve the quality of agricultural machinery operation so as to raise crop yield, to strengthen the monitoring of crop growth so as to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products. China has some explorations and practices in appropriate-scale mechanization and has been achieved some success. The Chinese government implements a series of policies and measures to promote agricultural mechanization and agricultural machinery. The appropriate-scale mechanization will contribute to the high quality and efficient development of agriculture in China.

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