SWOT Analysis and Countermeasures of Ecological Agricultural Development of Jianshan Farm

Cao Can,Wang Da-qing,Wang Hong-yan*,and Dai Lin

1 College of Resources and Environment,Northeast Agricultural University,Harbin 150030,China

2 Heilongjiang Province Reclamation Economic Research Institute,Harbin 150030,China

Introduction

With the rise of the insustainibility of modern farming day by day,it is getting more and more necessary to develop ecological farming.Ecological farming integrates economy,ecology and society in according with the laws,such as integrity of the ecological system,circulation and biodiversity,forming two virtuous cycles in ecology and economy,respectively.

Ecological farming spreads over almost all the countries in the world,and the proportion in farmland and the number of the farms taking up ecological farming are in rise.Up to now,among the countries whose farmland is ecologically utilized,Australia has the largest ecological farmland with 10.3 million hm2,the following are Argentina and Italy,having 3.192 million hm2and 1.23 million hm2,respectively.In terms of the proportion of the ecological farmland to overall farmland in one country,European countries are much more advanced in general.Most Asian countries occupy comparatively smaller size of the ecological farmland,and in a total of 40 000 hm2farmland,Turkey occupies 18 000 hm2,Japan 5 000 hm2and Israel and China 4 000 hm2,respectively.

As a state-owned farm,Jianshan Farm is characterized with mass production,mechanization and intensification,typical of the modern farming and having problems of the modern farming as well.With irrationality of the third industrial structure,imbalance of development between farming and stockbreeding and lack of soil fertility,problems remain unsettled in Jianshan Farm.As a case study,this study applied SWOT method to research and analyze how large-size state-owned farms make ecological farming into reality in Jianshan Farm,aiming to show demonstration to all the farms in Heilongjiang Province with a total of 11 871 000 hm2.

Study Area and Research Methods

Survey of study area

The state-owned farms in Heilongjiang Province are the main providers of the farm products and of great importance in national economy.The management of the state farms are in the mode of the integrated largescale agricultural production,forming the hierarchy management from farm to working zone to working station to the contractor,farms overall in charge of crop production and farming behavior.A farm holds 10-30 working stations.As management unit,farms allot the task of farming production,unifiy the plans of farming production,and as the performance unit working stations carry out the production orders delivered by the farms and submit the production results to the upper unit,and they collect and analyze the data so as to decide the next working procedure (Fig.1).

Fig.1 Jianshan Farm location map

Jianshan Farm is located in Nenjiang County,Heilongjiang Province,which is a transitional stretch from the south of Xiaoxing'anling Range along to Songnen Plains,with geographical coordinates: at 48°46′55″-49°01′18″ lattitude north and 125°19′53″-125°47′15″ longitude east.The total land area of Jianshan Farm is 40 540 hm2,among which farmland is 27 133.33 hm2,forestland 7 326.67 hm2and grassland 3 993.33 hm2.The population of the farm is 13 557.It mainly depends on planting non-genetically modified soybean,corn and animal products and developing new energy resource industry,and the ratio of planting is 62.47%,the ratio of breeding industry 31.33%,and services of farming,foresting,animal husbandry and fishing 6.09%.

Research approach

SWOT stands for strengths,weakness,opportunities and threats.SWOT analysis is for the first time put forward by professor Andrews at Harvard Business School and considered as the most widely-used analysis tool in strategically management (Zhang,2008).It is especially helpful in the field of the defining development.As for the analysis of developing ecological agriculture in Jianshan Farm,SWOT analysis is applied to analyze the opportunities and threats in the outside circumstances and the strengths and weakness in the interior circumstances.In accordance with the research results of the analyzing ecological agricultural development in Jianshan Farm,corresponding developing strategy could be set and economic development and farmers'income could be promoted.

The study mainly rested in the integrate analyses on the agricultural basic infrastructure,farming production and management level,quality of ecological environment,policy environment and agricultural population quality of the study area,and intended to put forward theoretical references and suggestions to the development of the ecological agriculture in Jiusan region typically represented by Jianshan Farm.

Results

Analysis on development advantages of Jianshan Farm ecological agriculture

Gifted and unique black soil stretch and ecological environment advantages

Heilongjiang Province has been famous for the hometown of the soybean,the planting area of which approximately occupies 60% in China.With quality soybean,Heilongjiang is the most important soybean commodity and exportation base.

The soil on the farm consists of the black soil,meadow soil,swamp soil and dark brown soil,most of which is black soil,followed by meadow soil,dark brown soil and marsh soil.Black soil has been known as the king of the soil,with more humus and high potential of fertility,pH 6.5,acidic soil,permeability coefficient 2.2,generally 50-80 cm thickness of black soil layer,the thickest to which is up to 1 m.Overall,with fertile farmland,soil organic matter content of 5%-7%,more humus and arable loam,the farmland in Jianshan Farm is good for planting soybeans,corn,wheat,potatoes,sugar beets and other crops.

Advantages of innovative agricultural production and management system

With the gradual improvement of the market economy,agricultural cooperatives as a new management organization can effectively enhance the degree of organization of farmers'production and operation and overcome the contradiction between small production and big market and solve the conflicts between small-scale agricultural productions and improve labor productivity.In recent years,Jianshan Farm has been actively exploring the innovation of management system,developing agricultural and industrial cooperatives and promoting diversified business model.There are six existing planting cooperatives on the farm,with 100% of farmland joining in the cooperatives,which is now the first in China that realized "six unification" planting pattern of overall farmland in the region.Among them,there are two dairy cooperatives,one ecological chicken breeding cooperative and one pig cooperative.Farm cooperatives have achieved large-scale operation and fully applied the large modern machinery,advanced technology and measures and scientific and technological achievements.Development of Jianshan Farm Cooperatives conforms to the spirit of central government's arrangement meeting of the modern agriculture integrated reform trial.In terms of innovative agricultural production and management system,it ranks the forefront of the reclamation and even of China and plays a demonstrative role of promoting modern agricultural integrated reform in the reclamation with the achievement of 2 hm2of arable land per capita and food production of 90 tons per capita.

Agricultural technological innovation and farming technological advantages

Jianshan Farm adheres to promote agricultural science and technology innovation and constantly enhance the overall grain production capacity,and the contribution rate of agricultural science and technology arrives at 99% (Table 1).In 2012,R ＆D expenditure of internal funds was 25.58 million Yuan,and the proportion of the total value of farm production was 2.53%,and technology platform service coverage and technology services satisfaction rate reached 100%;the Farm completed 12 refitting of agricultural technology innovation and made them promoted in Jiusan Bureau;the farm innovated agricultural production measures of all the stages,especially achieved outstanding results in terms of innovative cultivation mode,and the wide and high-density potato cultivation fulfilled the production of 65 700 kg • hm2in core area,which ranked first in all reclamation area,and 52 800 kg • hm2in the demonstrative area,ranking the second place in the Ministry of Agriculture;the per unit area yield of corn on the core area reached 13 635 kg • hm2,and the per unit area yield of corn on the demonstrative 666.67 hm2area reached 12 562.50 hm2,both yields of which were ranked the first in Jiusan Bureau;the per unit area yield of wheat and soybean in the reclamation ranked the first and the third,respectively.By the end of 2012,an area of 4 260 hm2on the farm has been certified as organic farmland,certificated green food area.

Table1 Jianshan Farm technology performance list

20 000 hm2,and the Farm has entirely achieved pollution-free cultivation,and "Tip Fragrance," and "Jianshan Barn",the two green organic food brands have a nation-wide popularity in the domestic market.

Equipment advantages of modern large agricultural machinery

In 2012,Jianshan Farm completed 12 refitting of agricultural technology innovation and made them promoted in Jiusan Bureau;and the innovative wide and high-density potato cultivation fulfilled the production of 65 700 kg • hm2in core area and 52 800 kg • hm2in the demonstrative area;the Farm has a 64 km-long agricultural sci-tech sightseeing zone and an area of 166.67 hm2of agricultural high-tech park,a large agriculturally-applied aircraft flight station;the total power capacity of 486.97 million kilowatts of the agricultural machinery and 1 200 sets of imported large-scale machinery and relevant farm machinery,all equipped with GPS automatic navigation driving system,and the rate of the agricultural mechanization was above 98.5%.

Analysis of disadvantages of ecological farming on Jianshan Farm

Structure of three industries to be further optimized

The structure of the primary,secondary and third industries of Jianshan Farm was not rationally arranged,and in 2012 the three industries accounted for 70.2%,20.0% and 9.8%,respectively.Compared with that of China,Heilongjiang Province,Heilongjiang Reclamation Zone and Jiusan Bureau (Fig.2),the primary industry took up much larger proportion,and mainly depended on agriculture,which accounted for 62.47% of the value added of the primary industry;development of the secondary and the third industries were not well-balanced,especially the third industry lagged behind others,accounting for less than 10% of the gross domestic production.The industrial structure was the "one two three" type,and the structure of three industries intended to be further optimized (Fig.3).

Imbalance between animal husbandry and crop plantation

The imbalance between animal husbandry and crop plantation brought about the serious dependence on chemical fertilizers,and with lacking of the use of organic fertilizer,circulated agricultural system has not been established yet.The Farm had a larger proportion of the primary industry,and mainly depended on agriculture;agriculture mainly depended on the plantation of the soybean and corn,and industrial structure was unitary.In 2012,the primary industry accounted for the largest ratio to the gross production of the farm,of which agricultural added value accounted for 45% of the gross production of the farm,animal husbandry added value accounted for 22%;proportion of secondary industry was much smaller,of which industrial added value accounted for 16% of the gross production of the farm;the third industry mainly referred to farm-owned house renting and estate industry of farm staff,both of which accounted for 7% of the gross production of the farm.

Fig.2 Three industrial structure comparisons of Jianshan Farm in 2012

Fig.3 The first industrial structure of Jianshan Farm in 2012

Crop plantation was mainly grains,soybean and corn accounting for 90%,and high-efficient cash crops a small percentage (Fig.4).Generally speaking,the proportion of farm industries was unbalanced,incomplete,and with short industrial chain,the entire circulated economic structure hadn't been developed,and ready to further optimize the ecological system.

Fig.4 Planting structure of Jianshan Farm in 2012

Thinning of soil layer lead to decline of fertility

The black soil zone in the north-east mainly consists of Songnen Plains,Sanjiang Plains,Daxing'anling Frontmount Plains and Liaohe Plains.Black soil is the fumic layer of the soil,the thickness of which is one of the important indicators for fertility of the soil.Professor Liu Baoyuan of College of Geography and Remote Sensing Science of Beijing Normal University,once said,during the Sino-Russian joint expedition from 1956 till 1959,the thickness of black soil was 55 cm;according to the conclusion drawn by the Nanjing Soil Institute of Chinese Academy of Science from 1973 to 1978,the thickness of black soil was 45 cm,and the second nationwide soil survey (1979-1983) found that the thickness was changed to 40 cm.It was observed that the layer of black soil was becoming thinner.In presence,most layer of the black soil was just 30 cm.Large-scale agicultural cultivation and irrational farming operations were the crucial causes of soil erosion and degradation in the zone of black soil and the north-east black soil zone was likely to be undermined for its rough fluctuation of the topography.

Soil organic matter is an important measurement of soil fertility,and its degradation should not be ignored.According to the statistics of fixed supervision by Heilongjiang Agricultural Committee,in 2010,the average soil organic matter content was 26.8 g • kg-1,38.0% lower than 43.2% of 1982.The average total nitrogen content in soil layer from 0-20 cm was 1.84 g • kg-1,15% less than that of 1982;average soil available potassium content was 146.8mg/kg,49% lower than that of 1982.Some experts believed that,in China black soil has been highly utilized and poorly maintained,with low management level,long-term extensive farming,lacking of curing measurements and ignorance of soil sustenance,which ultimately caused the sharp decline of the fertility and water retention of the soil.

Analysis on opportunities for ecological farming in Jianshan Farm

Policy opportunity to initiate ecological farming in China

In the 18th National Congress report of the CPC,ecological civilization construction has been first and singly introduced as an individual chapter,and agriculture is the most closely related to nature,with profound significance to ecological civilization,and it is doomed to being the important part of the national ecological civilization construction.Developing ecologically friendly agriculture and constructing new agricultural management system have been important goals for agricultural development in China.Meanwhile,with the increasing improvement of the level of people's life in China and further understanding of the ideas,such as green consumption and healthy consumption,people are getting more concerned about quality of the products.Under such circumstances,some ecological agricultural products and local natural products are becoming new options of the consumers.Therefore,producing pollutant-free,high quality agricultural products is the interior need for the development of ecological agriculture.Farms should sieze the opportunity of national policies,and provide the service and support for the developement of ecological agriculture in constructing the pioneering farm and demonstration farm of modern agricultural integrated and uniformed reform.

Policy opportunity to support development of nongenetically transferred soybean

In 2012,the total of the imported soybean was 58.38 million tons,the dependency on imported soybean arrived at 80%.While the domestic soybean production and processing industry were shrinking (Fig.5).Being alert on the possible challenges against crop security in China caused by the sharp increase of the imported crops,such as soybean,the state council together with the agricultural ministry,financial ministry,commercial ministry and ministry of industry and information technology was endeavoring to draw out new policy about soybean.Jianshan Farm was located in the potent non-genetically transferred soybean plantation zone in Heilongjiang Province,core non-genetically transferred soybean reserve on the reclamation area,the national agricultural standardization demonstration farm and modern large-scale agriculture demonstration farm,in which soybean was the mainstay industry,and national protection and support policy to non-genetically transferred soybean would provide development opportunities for the soybean industry in Jianshan Farm (Li,2013;Wu,2012).

Fig.5 Domestic soybean supply and demand trend from year 2003 to 2012

Opportunity of Jiusan Bureau upgrading into provincial economic development zone

In 2011,Jiusan Bureau set up its development framework with the following four developing goals: making the east main urban area,the west new urban area,zone of economic development and Shuangshan demonstration zone,and the Bureau established its own Jiusan Management Council,constructing provincial economic developing area,so as to go further to perfect the functions of Jiusan economic developing area,making the bureau area into a central town with the population of 100 000 people.Jianshan Farm was 12 miles away from Jiusan Bureau,the extensive part of the provincial development area.The construction of the provincial economic development area of Jiusan Bureau brought about the unique opportunity for the farm to build up its ecological farming system.

Analysis on challenges against ecological agriculture of Jianshan Farm

Impacts of Alien genetically-transferred crops (soybean and corn) on domestic markets

Take the example of challenge of American and Brazilian genetically-transferred varieties against domestic soybean and corn,because of low cost and lower price of the genetically-transferred varieties,these countries more or less have the authority of price-setting and deciding,brought certain impact on domestic market,together with compensation given by these countries,advocated the plantation and development of genetically transferred crops;above all the genetical transfer technology exerted its influence on the safety of soil ecology,and the soil on which genetically-transferred crops had been planted for quite a long time,causing the futility of herbicides and changes of soil organic matter,thus destroying soil ecological circulation system.Therefore,the alien genetically-transferred crops undoubtedly were the enormous challenge our domestic market must face (Li et al.,2008;Pan et al.,2011).

Prolonged industry chain of domestic nongenetically transferred soybean

Domestic soybean processing industrial chain are constantly being prolonged,for example,from soymilk factory to the leading enterprise of soybean products,Wei Weis industrial chain is constantly being prolonged.Competition of non-genetically transferred soybean processing products in domestic market is getting hot day by day.While soybean plantation in Jianshan is simple,short in industrial chain,with few processing enterprises.How to extend the industrial chain of non-genetically transferred soybean,how to increase the employment opportunities for the staff,solve the unemployment for the non-agricultural population and rationally introduce the surplus of labor force into enterprises and towns,providing sufficient manual dependence for the development and expansion of the towns,which are the challenges Jianshan Farm is confronted with.

Modern agricultural non-point source pollution control and soil sustainable utility

Overuse of chemical fertilizer and pesticides (Table 2)and disorderly disposal of animal manures are the main causes of agricultural non-point source pollution,therefore,no use or a little use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and making full use of the animal manures tend to the essential ways of solving the problems of agricultural non-point source pollution.The black soil on the Jianshan Farm is our nonrenewable precious treasure gifted by nature,and it will take about 300 years to form 1 cm thick black soil,so how to control over the non-point source pollution and realize the sustainable utility of the farm soil are the enormous challenges against the ecological agriculture in Jianshan Farm (Liu,2005).

Table2 2002-2012 amount of pesticide and fertilizer applied nationwide

Advancing ecological circulation agriculture favors the development and utilization of agricultural resources.The realization of the circulation of agricultural interior resources may lighten resources and environment pressures and radically solve the problems of non-point source pollution;it does favor to improve the integrated benefits of agricultural production and the quality of agricultural products;and it is good for developing agriculture healthily,quickly and efficiently (He,2008).

Countermeasures of Developing Ecological Agriculture on Jianshan Farm in Heilongjiang Province

Developing ecological circulation agriculture

Establishing the ecological agriculture circulation mode,in which animal manures on the farm could be utilized to produce organic fertilizer,with the use of the compost technology to fertilize the soil,and the wastes could be recycled to plantation,and the planted crop products could be used as the feed stuff to raise the livestock;and livestock products could be used as the raw material in processing industry,the products in processing industry also feedback husbandry as feeds,thus form the circulation mode of the plantation,animal feeding and processing industry to make ecological agriculture sustainable (Fig.6).The goal for circulation agriculture is to return the wastes to the soil,improve the integrated productivity of the soil,establish the healthy farmland ecological system and reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides (Liu,2013).

Fig.6 Internal industry circulating pattern of Jianshan Farm

Cultivating crop reserve of non-genetically transferred soybean

Maintaining the safety of the national crops and food and endeavoring to construct national food safe production basis are the starting point and standpoint,listing the market need as the driving force of the industrial development,improving the living level and happiness index of the faculty as their goal,adding the yield per hm2and quality as breakthrough,Jianshan Farm aims to actively enlarge the organic crop plantation area,vigorously develop protein soybean and oil soybean breeds and establish seed breeding base for special variety,optimize the soybean processing industry,regulate the competition between the enterprises and comprehensively enhance the competence of the non-genetically transferred soybean,aiming to build up the brand of non-genetically transferred soybean of Jianshan Farm (Gu et al.,2013).

Developing and building up soybean-corn rotation culture area

The cultivated area of corn and soybean of Jianshan Farm are 15 866.67 hm2and 8 533.33 hm2,respectively,accounting for 58.5% and 31.57% of the total planted area.Make the most of technical advantages of dry farming agriculture and advantages of farming machinery of Jianshan Farm and promote the soybeancorn rotation system,corn and soybean are acted as the most idealistic cultural "partners",and rational culturing and mutual rotation may enhance the yield of the crops,under the condition of the unchanged cost,rotation may add up the yield 10% higher than succession cropping,and it might obviously decrease the insect pest damage and improve the utilization of the fertilizer.To explore the construction of regional distribution and "corn-corn-soybean" rotation culture,realize the rational culture of planting industry so that the sustainable development of highly efficient agriculture of Jianshan Farm could be promoted (Lu,2013).

Developing and building up healthy culture area

In accordance with the overall demand for the integrated "planting-culturing-processing-promoting"system,utilize the favorable circumstances,focus on developing dairy husbandry assisted with beef cattle and live pig,developing scale-benefit characteristic aquaculture,mainly perfecting uniformed service system construction,regulating the refined management of the cultivation area,enhancing the promotion and use of advanced production technology,fastening the transition from husbandry to large-scale,standardized and ecological livestock raising,quickly establishing quite complete healthy culture industrial system inte-grated with husbandry breeding,culturing,processing and promoting industries (Yan,2006).

Developing new resource industry

Based on the abundant biomass and wind energy resource advantages on the farm,focus on transforming economic development mode,transforming the agricultural waste into recycled resource and wind energy resource,strengthening the resource utilization of animal manures and crop stalks on the farm and nearby the farm,aiming at promoting the development of ecological agriculture,constructing "crop-husbandry-fertilizer-crop" circulation industrial development mode,and realizing the intensification and sustainable development of circulation industry on the farm (Zheng,2013).

Conclusions

As for the ecological agriculture of Jianshan Farm,its advantages are superior to its disadvantages,opportunities are superior to its challenges.The emphasis lies in striding to develop livestock raising on the basis of the crop plantation,taking advantages of abundant agricultural resources to establish a mode of developing ecological agriculture,in which husbandry is to be promoted by plantation,industry flourished by husbandry,and agriculture supported by industry.Taking lead in developing livestock raising,laying the foundation of the crop plantation,and treating processing industry as support,intending to establish plantation and raising interactively promoted and wellcoordinated ecological virtuous circulation mode.

Meanwhile,Heilongjiang Reclamation Zone plantation and husbandry united ecological agricultural mode typical of Jianshan Farm is what we concern in the future.We intend to establish a kind of "uniting crop plantation,husbandry,biogas and processing industry" composite ecological agricultural mode,an essential tendency for Heilongjiang Reclamation to develop ecological agriculture,which unites crop plantation,livestock raising,fermentation biogas and animal product processing industry together,dependent on each other and complementary to each other,so as to integrate the economic benefit,social benefit and ecological benefit,making them harmoniously developed so that high efficiency,circulation and recycling of the resources can be realized.

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