Abstract:

Agriculture is the basis of national economy. With advancements in science and technology as well as an intensive utilization of land, great achievements have been made in agriculture. Meanwhile, some agro-ecological and environmental problems are arising from the processes. Being faced with the situations, people have begun to reflect on policies, patterns and technologies associated with agricultural development, and put forward new concepts on agricultural development in succession. There is growing awareness that development of agriculture can not only increase the amount of food and agricultural products to meet people’s increasing demand, but also improve product quality, insurance of food safety, exertion of ecosystem functions, and maintenance and restoration of the ecological environment. In the late 20 ^th century, China's ecologists and agronomists proposed a concept of ecological agriculture with Chinese characteristics, i.e., the ecological agriculture is derived from systematic thoughts in terms of the principles of ecology, economics, and ecological economics, with application of modern scientific and technological achievements and modern management tools, as well as effective experience in traditional agriculture. It is the modern agricultural development mode which results in a higher economic profit, ecological and social benefits. Its essence contains a series of concepts, such as integration, coordination, circulation and regeneration. After nearly 30 years of practice and development, ecological agriculture in China has achieved substantial progress, i.e., 1) established a theoretical system and summarized successful experience; 2) carried out eco-agricultural demonstration at the county-level pilots and achieved significant effects; 3) China’s eco-agriculture has been widely recognized and praised by the international community and become one of the first selected units on the agricultural cultural heritage. However, current eco-agricultural development is not perfect due to the following factors: 1) it still falls short of further research and accounting on a variety of agro-ecosystem service functions; 2) it is difficult to gain great economic benefits because of the lack of market-oriented guidance, scale management, specialized production and brand popularization for traditional self-sufficient rural economy. Development of society currently presents a new situation giving rise to a series of new problems. Progress in science broads our views and provides new means for resolving such issues. In order to further promote the development of ecological agriculture, serious reflections on ecological agriculture would result in new understanding of circular agriculture, multifunctional agriculture, high-quality agriculture and cultural agriculture in China.

Key words: Ecological Agriculture, Circular Agriculture, Multifunctional Agriculture, Agricultural Modernization, Cultural Agriculture