Agricultural land provides not only food and fiber (important elements of food security), but also serves as non-market commodity with characteristic externalities and public services. Payments for paddy ecosystem services promote farmers’ engagement in ecological or organic agricultural practices and agro-ecological/environmental supply. Standard of payments for ecosystem services is one...

The Hani Rice Terraces System is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) sites approved by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). With the development of modern agriculture and tourism, the terraces face several threats, especially from the agricultural sector. Using Zuofu and Mitian Villages of Jiayin Town (Honghe...

In the past 30 years after the economic reform, agricultural production in China has shifted from traditional to modern agriculture. This has featured high input, high consumption and high productivity agriculture in the country. Although modern agriculture has greatly improved food production in China, it has also exerted huge pressures...

Due to advances in science and technology and intensive utilization of land, significant agricultural achievements have been attained at the expense certain eco-agricultural and environmental problems. At the same time, it has also been noted that some traditional farming methods are uniquely advantageous regarding adaptation to climate change, ecosystem services...

Raising ducks in paddy fields is a traditional agricultural model in China. Field experiments were conducted in rice-duck mutualist ecosystems in the double rice cropping region of Hunan Province during May to October of 2010. A conventional rice field was used as the control. The characteristics of nutrient return and...

The authors reviewed the history and characteristics of agroecology and pointed out that research areas of agroecology are broadening in both macroscopic and microscopic scales. At the macroscopic level, the investigation of agroecology was expanding from a pure macroscopic study of agricultural biology to a sociological study concerning the issues...