新能源、新环境、新农村——延庆农村环境保护纪实

到北京延庆县投资项目的企业家们在延庆遇到的第一个问题是:“你的这个项目会对延庆的环境造成影响吗?”生态环境成了任何一个项目想要进入延庆不可回避的第一道门槛。在各地都加快招商引资步伐的今天,延庆人民的这“第一道门槛”给延庆的财政收入带来的损失目前还没人去估算,不过据延庆县环保局局长胡春华介绍     

绿色设计——新农村建设中公共环境设施设计的新课题

论述了在新农村建设过程中的公共环境设施设计的重要性,提倡绿色健康的生活方式,逐步形成有特色的生态文化;实现人与人的和谐共存、人与环境的和谐共存,造就自然、和谐、宜居的新农村生活环境;提倡绿色设计,建设基础设施功能完善的公共环境设施设计的绿色人居生态环境。     

生态文明背景下的“新三农”

随着新世纪初"新农村建设"战略的提出,在生态文明思想的指导下,三农问题已经转变为使乡土文化资源能够跳出片面追求农业产量、农业设施和农产品加工的窠臼,转到发挥农业多功能性、发掘农村多元文化、提高农民财产性收入的方向上来,这个思路可以归纳为"新三农"。而围绕市民消费需求特征,促进城乡对接,寻求"新三农"的现实路径,则是新时期乡村建设的一个重要特征。     

推进现代农业发展夯实社会主义新农村建设

现代农业建设已经成为全球农业发展的潮流,实现农业现代化是许多国家和地区正在努力追求的目标,就我国而言,是加强社会主义新农村建设的具体体现方式,是贯彻落实科学发展观的重大举措,是确保我国现代化建设顺利推进的必要要求,是构建和谐社会的重要基础,本文尝试性地探讨了现代农业建设方面的内容,为社会主义新农村建设过程中遇到的具体问题探索理论支点。     

江苏省新农村建设评价指标体系初探——以大丰市南阳镇为例

党的十六届五中全会提出了新农村建设的任务,江苏省也于近期举办了新农村建设专题研讨会。本文通过对现存相关指标体系的回顾分析,结合新农村建设“生产发展、生活宽裕、乡风文明、村容整洁、管理民主”的内涵,对江苏省新农村建设指标体系进行了初步探讨,并采用这一体系对大丰市南阳镇新农村建设实现程度进行了评价。结果表明,虽然江苏省农村发展水平已有明显提高,但仍需要进一步加强农村工作,努力达到新农村建设的目标。     

北京市农村生活污水处理研究

农村污水处理对于改善农村生态环境及农民生产生活条件、保护首都水源安全有着重要意义,北京市已连续几年选择部分村庄作为试点村推进污水处理工程建设。针对目前农村污水处理工程前期工作不够扎实等情况,提出农村污水处理工作应根据农村实际情况,因地制宜地选择合理工艺,并落实相应的运营管理费用,保障污水处理设施的正常运营,确保项目效益的正常发挥,更好地推进北京市新农村建设。     

实施乡村清洁工程 推进社会主义新农村建设

乡村清洁工程是贯彻落实科学发展观、建设环境友好型社会的重要举措,是推进城乡统筹发展、建设社会主义新农村的具体行动。党的十七届三中全会在着重研究推进农村改革发展问题上提出《中共中央关于推进农村改革发展若干重大问题的决定》中明确要求,“实施乡村清洁工程,加快改水、改厨、改厕、改圈,开展垃圾集中处理,不断改善农村卫生条件和人居环境”。     

社会主义新农村建设与农村生态环境问题

社会主义新农村建设是我们党在新时期着手解决“三农”问题的重大举措,它是我国农村改革开放以来第二次重大的变革,目标明确,任务艰巨。长期以来,我国农业生产总体水平不高,为求得更多的农牧业生产量,而牺牲了生态环境,其代价异常沉重。城镇发展过渡靠农业、城乡经济二元结构矛盾日益尖锐,反应在生态环境上更为突出。治理农业生态环境问题,已成为社会主义新农村建设的重要课题。     

世界遗产旅游开发与新农村建设的互动发展机制研究——以张家界武陵源自然遗产为例

把世界遗产地旅游开发与新农村建设有机结合,研究世界遗产地旅游开发和新农村建设的互动发展,对促进旅游产业结构优化升级,推动新农村建设具有较强的现实意义。遗产地农民对世界遗产要有深入了解,树立保护重于开发的意识,改善遗产地旅游生态环境,发展生态旅游,建立合理的利益分配与协调机制。     

New Zealand Farmer Narratives of the Benefits of Reduced Human Intervention During Lambing in Extensive Farming Systems

Easy-care or natural lambing pertainsto those sheep able to successfully lamb andrear at least one lamb without human assistancein a difficult environment. Such sheep may havea higher survival rate, lower lamb mortality,and require less shepherding at lambing thanother sheep breeds or strains. The farmer orshepherd account of easy-care lambing revealsseveral themes. Firstly, stock were bred tosurvive or suit local environments orconditions, particularly steep hill country inNew Zealand. This involved extensive culling ofundesirable dams, regardless of how well theymight perform in traits other than the abilityto survive and to produce live lambs atweaning. Sheep that did have problems wereoften assisted, recorded or marked and thenculled at an appropriate time; thus bothartificial (culling) and natural selection wereused. Secondly, natural selection enabled theimportant traits to be identified and they weresubsequently incorporated into artificialselection programs. Thirdly, the practice wasnecessitated by the impracticality ofsupervising lambing in difficult terrain andthe cost of skilled farm labor. Finally, it wasacknowledged that disturbance at lambingcreated problems and most importantly, theeasy-care approach reduced some of the problemstraditionally associated with lambing.Easy-care lambing systems thus aim to minimizesome of the detrimental effects associated withcarefully supervised lambing in someenvironments, by selecting sheep to suit boththat environment and modern farm management.They overcame pervasive influences our culturallegacy was exerting on the way we interact withanimals, and may have produced a system more inkeeping with the biology of the animal in anextensive environment.     

Farmer Premiums for the Voluntary Adoption of Conservation Plans

Programs that reimburse farmers for the cost of implementing more environmentally benign management practices are becoming increasingly popular in both the US and the EU. Utilizing the random utility and random profit difference approaches, the paper develops a theoretical model that explains why farmers may require a premium in excess of the decrease in profits to adopt a conservation plan, and may even require a premium in the case where adoption of the plan is associated with a mean increase in profits. This premium is estimated using a survey of farmers in conjunction with predictions of changes in production costs.     

Farmer decision making and spatial variables in northern Thailand

This research has two interrelated objectives. The first is to determine the extent to which a relationship exists between farmer characteristics and farming practices in three villages in northern Thailand. The second is to use standard statistical methods for incorporating spatial variables into the analysis and to assess the effects of these variables on farmer decision making. The data base includes information on the location and size of villages, roads, streams, and fields; a digital elevation model with information on elevation, slope, and aspect; and information keyed to individual fields on crops and cropping methods and the ethnicity, income, and religion of farmers. The map data (517 plots) were entered into a computerized geographic information systems (GIS). Results suggest several hypotheses about the relationships between land use and owner characteristics. More significantly, the study concludes that spatial analysis appears to be most useful when the dependent variable is either continuous or ordinal. The outlook is not quite as optimistic when the dependent variable is a nonordinal categorical variable. Before spatial analysis can be applied regularly to social science data, better computational tools need to be developed.     

Ethical Frameworks and Farmer Participation in Controversial Farming Practices

There are a number of agricultural farming practices that are controversial. These may include using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and planting genetically modified crops, as well as the decision to dehorn cattle rather than raise polled cattle breeds. We use data from a survey of Missouri crop and livestock producers to determine whether a farmer’s ethical framework affects his or her decision to engage in these practices. We find that a plurality of farmers prefer an agricultural policy that reflects principles based on rights rather than principles of utilitarianism or justice. Furthermore, after controlling for personal and farm characteristics, we find a positive correlation between farmers preferring a rights-based policy and a farmer’s use of chemical farm inputs and polled rather than horned cattle. We also find that a combination of ethical framework and farm and farmer characteristics correlate with decisions to use farm chemicals, while only farm and farmer characteristics affect the decision to plant GM crops and only a farmer’s ethical framework affects the decision to use polled cattle.     

Farmer Participation in U.S. Farm Bill Conservation Programs

Conservation policy in agricultural systems in the United States relies primarily on voluntary action by farmers. Federal conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, offer incentives, both financial and technical, to farmers in exchange for adoption of conservation practices. Understanding motivations for (as well as barriers to) participation in voluntary programs is important for the design of future policy and effective outreach. While a significant literature has explored motivations and barriers to conservation practice adoption and participation in single programs, few studies in the U.S. context have explored general participation by farmers in one place and time. A mixed-methods research approach was utilized to explore farmer participation in all U.S. Farm Bill programs in Indiana. Current and past program engagement was high, with nearly half of survey respondents reporting participation in at least one program. Most participants had experience with the Conservation Reserve Program, with much lower participation rates in other programs. Most interview participants who had experience in programs were motivated by the environmental benefits of practices, with incentives primarily serving to reduce the financial and technical barriers to practice adoption. The current policy arrangement, which offers multiple policy approaches to conservation, offers farmers with different needs and motivations a menu of options. However, evidence suggests that the complexity of the system may be a barrier that prevents participation by farmers with scarce time or resources. Outreach efforts should focus on increasing awareness of program options, while future policy must balance flexibility of programs with complexity.     

Understanding the Scope of Farmer Perceptions of Risk: Considering Farmer Opinions on the Use of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops as a Stakeholder Voice in Policy

In the beginning, policy debates between critics and advocates of genetically modified (GM) crops focused on scientifically determined risks. Ten years later, the argument between environmentalists or consumers and regulators or industry has changed into a discussion about the implementation of more democratic policymaking about GM farming. A notable omission from the political debate about food biotechnology in the United States, however, is the opinion of farmers who cultivate the GM crops. Policymakers should value practical knowledge based on experiences from farmers, not only scientific industry reports or consumer product opinions. This project uses in-depth interviews to create an original mail survey that uses the practical discourse of farmers in order to explore the relationship of farmer attitudes and GM agriculture. Although national research indicates that larger yields are the most common reason for GM adoption, qualitative information suggest that the potential of GM crops to increase revenue per acre does not truly reflect all the concerns of modern farmers. For example, farmers who use GM seeds indicate that they constantly question the social impacts of their agricultural practices. As such, GM policies should be restructured as a political rationalization of both economic modeling and political theory because this research suggests that farmers’ business decisions are utility calucations that consider economics without ignoring environmental and political contexts. Farmers’ concerns about non-economic risks suggest that they need more information about GM crops and that governmental policies should respond to their interests, as they are more democratic or pluralistic than industry or consumer arguments.     

Land-Use and Land-Cover Change and Farmer Vulnerability in Xishuangbanna Prefecture in Southwestern China

This study investigated land-use and land-cover change in three hamlets and two state rubber farms in the Nan-e watershed of the Xishuangbanna prefecture of Yunnan province in Southwestern China. The overall objective of the study was to understand how state policies affected land use and land cover and how changes in these variables affected farmer vulnerability to economic, social, and political events. Emphasis was placed on the cultivation of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), promoted in southern Yunnan province since the 1950s as a means to meet the demands of rapid economic development. The study combined remote sensing analysis with secondary data and in-field interviews in order to understand the coupling between land-use and land-cover change and farmer vulnerability in light of the geographic, historical, and sociopolitical situation.     

Impacts of Public Policies and Farmer Preferences on Agroforestry Practices in Kerala,India

Agroforestry systems are fundamental features of the rural landscape of the Indian state of Kerala. Yet these mixed species systems are increasingly being replaced by monocultures. This paper explores how public policies on land tenure, agriculture, forestry and tree growing on private lands have interacted with farmer preferences in shaping land use dynamics and agroforestry practices. It argues that not only is there no specific policy for agroforestry in Kerala, but also that the existing sectoral policies of land tenure, agriculture, and forestry contributed to promoting plantation crops, even among marginal farmers. Forest policies, which impose restrictions on timber extraction from farmers’ fields under the garb of protecting natural forests, have often acted as a disincentive to maintaining tree-based mixed production systems on farmlands. The paper argues that public policies interact with farmers’ preferences in determining land use practices.