Integrated Farming Systems at Different Scales 433Case study I: Shandu eco-village
Background
In Jiande City of Zhejiang Province, an ecological demonstrative project, The
building of Grand Shandu Eco-village System was launched in 1988, and has
made remarkable achievements in the course of pursuing village-level eco-
construction.
Grand Shandu Eco-village System (GSES) is located at the confluence of the
Xin’an, Lan and Fuchun Rivers, consisting of four small villages. In 1988, when
the demonstration project of GSES was initiated, there were 888 households with
a total population of 3211. The total area of the project was 1225.54ha, of which
arable land, hilly land and waterbodies were 1557, 7384 and 137.47ha, respec-
tively [sic]. Gross agricultural revenue was only 2.78 million yuan RMB and annual
income was 602 yuan RMB per peasant. There were only a few small cottage fac-
tories, such as an umbrella manufactory, a tea processing factory and an electro-
plating factory. The total output value of the village industry amounted to 11.50
million yuan RMB. Before implementation of the project, the main constraints to
development of these villages were:
1 Low-efficiency in exploiting natural resources. The forest coverage was rela-
tively low with barren land and mountains of 146.67ha. A large waterbody
was not completely exploited.
2 Irrational structure of different sectors in agriculture. In 1988, the total agri-
cultural output value was 2.88 million yuan RMB, in which cereal crops, for-
estry, husbandry, sidelines and fishery occupied 21.88 per cent, 58.23 per cent,
11.61 per cent, 2.35 per cent and 5.93 per cent, respectively. The latter three
were relatively underdeveloped.
3 Reduction of soil fertility and topsoil depth. Because of long-term over-
cultivation and high input of chemical fertilizers (the average fertilization was
3157.5kg/ha), arable land with a depth of topsoil below 13cm occupied more
than 50 per cent of the total area of arable land. Fifty per cent of the land had
low organic matter content (below 1.5 per cent) and all arable land had a low
content of phosphorus and potassium.
4 Inefficient utilization and protection of water resources. The total water area
used for fishery was only 6.93 ha, a mere 5 per cent of the total, and some parts
were ecologically damaged due to over-fishing.
5 Backward village infrastructure and irrational land-use layout. Scattered
houses, narrow roads and poor sanitary conditions were some typical features
due to the lack of general village planning and insufficient investment.
6 Large amount of pollution emissions from rural industry. The mediocre and
outmoded technical equipment used in village enterprises caused heavy pollu-
tion and environmental degradation.