Agro-ecological engineering in China: A way towards sustainable agriculture

Sustainable development, as a `hot topic', concerns not only economic development but also environmental protection. Agriculture, the base of other economic activities, has faced many difficulties that include over-growth population, land decrease, and land degradation and so on. Therefore, how to increase the food supply, to meet the over-growth population demands, is the main task all over the world at present, especially in the developing countries, such as China, but we also must protect agricultural environment for medium- and long-term development simultaneously. Hence, sustainable development in agriculture is the most important estate that we must concern. Its sustainable development determines the sustainability of other economic development to a great extent. Despite Chinese government has paid much attention to develop agricultural production and obtained great successions, there are also many shortcomings in Chinese agriculture. Therefore, China must seek new approaches for its development and environmental protection that suit local conditions and are based on local resources. Agro-ecological engineering, the application of ecological engineering in agriculture, is very thriving in China in recent decades. In this paper, the ecological, economic and social benefits of agro-ecological engineering are analyzed. The principles are discussed. The results indicated that agro-ecological engineering can meet the farmer's short-, medium- and long-term benefits. In the meanwhile, it also concerns not only economic benefits but ecological and social benefits. Therefore, agro-ecological engineering is a way that leads to sustainable agriculture in the future in China.