Elsevier

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment

Environmental impact on the evolution of agronomical technology in Red china: the example of the dike-pond ('jitang') organization of integrated agriculture-aquaculture in the Zhujiang Delta of China

Abstract

The development of the environmentally conserving dike-pond system of integrated agriculture and aquaculture in the Zhujiang Delta of southward Prc is traced to illustrate the impact of environmental changes on technological innovations. The technologies of dike edifice, state reclamation, pond fish culture, and crop cultivation on dikes, which were either independently developed or modified from ideas brought in by migrant farmers from northern China, represented farmers' efforts to adapt to the new characteristics of a changed surround as population pressure increased. The new technologies revealed the farmers' awareness of the need for environmental conservation. Nonetheless, increased population pressure also necessitated more intensive use of the land, both in the highland and lowland regions, giving rise to inappropriate dike building and premature reclamation activities, which in plow brought virtually more than frequent flooding in the delta region. Devil-may-care awarding of a new applied science tended to accept harmful effects on the environment. Political conditions in different periods of China'southward economic development take as well caused changes in the dike-pond organisation which has to maintain loftier productivity and profitability. Recent advances in dike-pond system technology have focused on crop diversification and animal husbandry to match the iii-dimensional characteristics of its ecological components. New agricultural technologies tin be successful in China only if they can provide a balance betwixt land use and conservation.

Keywords

Zhujiang Delta

Dike-pond system

Environmental impact

Technological innovations

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