We currently face several challenges in the world: global population, food, energy and environmental crises are some examples. In this context, agricultural problems have become more acute. This paper identifies current weaknesses in ecological theory and propose future preferential actions.

We identified four main weaknesses related to eco-agriculture: 1) Lack of synthesis studies on environmental factors. There was the need to integrate research in areas such as soil, water, nutrition, climate or pollution for a better understanding of field observations. Such examples were the decline in soil organic carbon in black soils in Northeast China and the reverse in South, the driving factors of soil acidification in main crop farmlands and the influence of soil texture on the accumulation and concentration of soil nutrients. 2) Agricultural biodiversity consisted of plant and animal genetic resources, natural enemy organisms, pollination insects and soil biota. However, current knowledge had mainly focused on the genetic resources of crops and animals with important lack of systematic assessments on soil biodiversity, natural enemy resources and pollinators’ diversity. 3) Agricultural food webs were reduced to four levels among the above five biodiversity categories with plants as the core. Plant interacted with soil biodiversity at farmland level, with natural enemy organisms and pollinators at landscape level, and with husbandry at region level, respectively. However, such interactions structure and processes have not been usually observed. 4) The underlying relationship between intensive agriculture and ecosystem structure had neither been confirmed nor had the influencing of ecosystem structure processes on the related functions been clarified.

In order to orient future efforts, a simplified "route-map" was proposed. In complex agriculture environments, soil quality investigation had taken priority, based on which land use was programmed. In complex agricultural communities, cultivation pattern regulation was advantageous. After that, it was advisable to regulate husbandry, forestry and fruit plantations in sequence, followed by pollution and technical hazard control, which eventually led to ecological restoration.

For future actions, it was suggested to lay priority on three urgent tasks. The first was to conduct soil quality census. The second was to assess ecological risks based on soil quality, which involved analyzing properties such as soil inorganic phosphorus accumulation, soil organic carbon sink, CO₂ emission from soils into the atmosphere, changes in food webs in soil ecosystems, etc. The third was to regulate agricultural cultivation patterns. It was suggested to increase the study of economics and sociology of agriculture. Areas as pricing mechanisms of agricultural products, investment scales and fundamental constructions of farmlands, economic costs of hazard controls and ecological restorations, and changes in rural social structures, farmer livelihood and welfare needed detailed studies. In conclusion, there was the need for a holistic vision and methodology of studies aimed at resolving current problems in agriculture.