Crop Diversification in the Asia-Pacific region - United Nations in ...

5. CHALLENGES FACED BY CROP DIVERSIFICATION (PROBLEMS ANDLIMITING FACTORS)At a certain point of time in the future, with the increase of the total population,improvement of people's living conditions and decrease of the area of arable land, enhancingthe yield and quality of crops will be the primary task facing China’s agriculture. Afterentering WTO, Chinese agricultural products will encounter stronger internationalcompetition and market pressures. These facts, to some degree, will promote intensity, scaleand specialization of crop production, and these will also challenge the development of thecrop diversification process. Besides, with the increase of agricultural produce trade afterjoining WTO, more attention should be focused on "biological incursion" or "biologicalcontamination" of adventitious species and genetically engineered material, which willendanger our crops and their living environment as well as people's security. For instance,the black rot of sweet potato originated from America, entered China through Japan in the1930’s, spread over 20 provinces throughout China from the 1940’s to 1960’s causing greatlosses, and is still harming the crops up to now. Another case in point is that of fusarium andverticillium wilt of cotton that originated from America, entered China with seeds in the1930’s, and became the most serious diseases in the history of cotton cultivation in China.Therefore, strengthening biological quarantine and scientific prevention of "biologicalincursion" will become essential topics of crop diversification issues in the future.6. CONCLUSIONSThe Chinese government attaches importance to and supports the broader concept ofdiversification of crops in China and significant social effect has been obtained. Theadministrative and scientific research departments at all levels have accumulated a wealth ofdata relating to the current status of resources and development and most of the residentshave received or participated in the activities of the judicious use of resources and theenvironment. China is a developing country with a huge population. However, thedevelopment of the economy has brought increasing pressure on its natural resources andenvironment. The solution of the relationship between development and protection and therealization of sustainable development of resources and environment and improvement of thecountry’s economy will be the challenge of the century that faces China in the future. SinceChina’s population is daily on the increase while its farmland is daily on the decrease, moreproblems and contradictions between the development of agricultural production and thediversification of crops will need to be solved, so the burden is heavy and the road is long inthe development of peasant agriculture through the diversification of crops in China.With the development of a market economy, the role of administrative intervention ison the decline while the costs are on the increase. Therefore, under the present conditions ofChina, diversification of crops must find a broad living space under the theoretical guidanceof coordination for sustainable development.Policies, rules and regulations and other peremptory protections are necessary.However, as the development of the national economy is still at a relatively low level and thestate finance is still insufficient, all social forces should be mobilized to participate in thecrop diversification process. In addition, various departments and the people at all levels inthe production areas in particular, must be mobilized for active participation and variousmethods should be adopted to coordinate the problems of resource utilization and30