The unique “farm responsibility system” makes farms become the basic unit of China's agricultural development. Therefore, different agro-farming systems determined by different farms are bound to be crucial factors to affect the economy and environment in a catchment.

Agro-farming systems characterized by specialized agricultural activities profoundly determine the phosphorus (P) budget at the farm scale. Development of formation of agro-farming systems is generally driven by economic activities.

Hence, economic activities should have a certain association with the P budget at the farm scale. Moreover, the catchment P budget is an organic combination of various farms, which determines the release of agricultural P into the catchment environment.

Combined a regular water quality monitoring system and a three-year farm survey, a team of researchers from China Agricultural University, the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA) of Chinese Academy of Sciences employed the P budget characteristics at the farm and catchment scale under three different agro-farming systems (planting, planting–livestock, and livestock farms), and the relationships between P budget characteristics and catchment environmental quality.

They found that agro-farming systems and economic activity strongly affected the P budget characteristics at the farm scale.

The planting–livestock farm proportion was significantly negatively correlated (R² > 0.55) while the livestock farm proportion was positively correlated (R² > 0.59) with the catchment P budget items, showing a strong association of P budget characteristics between the farm and catchment scales.

“The results demonstrated strong influences of catchment P budget characteristics on water environmental quality.Considering that the planting–livestock agro-farming system has higher economic benefits and less P input and surplus intensities due to the closed P cycle loop between cropping and husbandry, this system should be promoted at the farm scale to protect catchment water environmental quality in subtropical China.” said WANG Meihui, one of the researchers.

Under the unique “farm responsibility system”, agro-farming systems determined by every farmer determine the environment in which people live, what are people going to do next is clear.

The research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0800104), the Key Research Project of Frontier Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDJ-SSW-DQC041), and the Project of Youth Innovation Team of the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2017QNCXTD_LF).
The study entitled “Agro-farming systems determine phosphorus budget characteristics at the farm and catchment scales in subtropical China” was published in the July issue of Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, more details could be found at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10705-018-9938-2 

Contact: LI Yong

E-mail: yli@isa.ac.cn

Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences