Sustainable Traditional Agriculture in the Tai Lake Region of China
Open accessAbstract
Traditional agriculture in China's Tai Lake Region sustained high productivity for more than nine centuries. This article examines the ecological basis for this high long-term productivity in a historical context, with a focus on the role of nutrient limitation. From 1000 AD to the 1950s, agricultural technology remained basically unchanged, as did the yields of rice, wheat and other crops. Still, total grain production and net farm income increased over time, as a result of increased multiple cropping, expanded mulberry/silk production, and the intensified use of organic fertilizers. Without degrading soil resources, continuous intensive farm management supported the nutritional and other needs of the rural population, which grew to nearly ten people per hectare of cultivated land by the 1930s. Ecological limitations to human carrying capacity that seem apparent in the mid 1800s appear to have been overcome since the 1960s by chemical nitrogen subsidy of agroecosystems. Human populations are now nearly twice their traditional maximum, and the region remains one of the world's most productive agricultural regions thanks in part to heavy fertilizer applications that have changed nitrogen from a limiting nutrient to a potential source of pollution. Whether these high inputs and/or other agricultural technologies will continue to sustain food self-sufficiency for the region's farmers remains to be seen. The high long-term productivity of Tai Lake Region agroecosystems make them ideal for study of the ecological basis for sustainable agriculture.
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By the 1500s and even earlier in some regions of Asia and Europe, agricultural productivity had reached remarkable levels through intensive use of a wide variety of highly developed technologies, including irrigation, multiple cropping, crop rotations incorporating legumes, and a wide range of fertilizers, including manures, ashes, and even commercially traded oil seed cakes.
“By the 1500s and even earlier in some regions of Asia and Europe, agricultural productivity had reached remarkable levels through intensive use of a wide variety of highly developed technologies, including irrigation, multiple cropping, crop rotations incorporating legumes, and a wide range of fertilizers, including manures, ashes, and even commercially traded oil seed cakes (44, 92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [92]
In China, historical evidence supports a long and gradual history of extensification and later intensification of rice production, even though advanced technologies were available early.
“In China, historical evidence supports a long and gradual history of extensification and later intensification of rice production, even though advanced technologies were available early (92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [92]
Agricultural yields within the most densely populated and productive preindustrial land-use systems compared well with modern yields and were sustained in some regions for centuries to millennia, even though they also tended to require extreme inputs of labor and other socially unsustainable hardships.
“Agricultural yields within the most densely populated and productive preindustrial land-use systems compared well with modern yields and were sustained in some regions for centuries to millennia, even though they also tended to require extreme inputs of labor and other socially unsustainable hardships (43–45, 92).”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [92]
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- Authors
- Ellis, E. C., & Wang, S. M.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Nanjing Agricultural University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Ellis, E.C.
- Venue
- Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1997-02
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 2-3
- Pages
- 177-193
- ISSN
- 0167-8809 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2060498481
- Cited by
- 155
- References
- 75
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 4.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (9523944, 9303261)
- China Agricultural University
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Agricultural Science and Fertilization
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Agricultural Systems and Practices
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Keywords
- traditional agriculture, Tai Lake region, sustainable agriculture, nutrient limitation, nitrogen limitation, multiple cropping, organic fertilizer, chemical nitrogen fertilizer, human carrying capacity, food self-sufficiency, agroecosystem sustainability
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