PROJECT ASSESSMENTS - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 126

EROCHINUT *
An interdisciplinary approach to reduce water, soil and nutrient losses by erosion in
the agricultural hilly purple area, Sichuan province, China by combined use of
participatory and modelling techniques
A) Project setting
1) What was the background and motivation of the project?
China's agricultural policy formulated in the ninth Five Year Plan (1996-2000) and
the 2010 long-term planning goals aimed at a steady annual growth of agricultural
production and farmer income (Ministry of Agriculture, 1996). The commitment of
the Chinese government to maintain over 95% self-sufficiency in grain production,
to avoid dependency on international markets for their long-term food security, puts
even more emphasis on the increase of production. The Hilly Purple area of the
Sichuan Basin, in which the project is situated, is one of the most important agri-
cultural areas in Western China. This area has been degraded by constant soil
erosion, which has reached 3.035 t km -2 in 2004. Soil erosion has direct negative
effects on the productivity of the land by loss of nutrients, water and soil. This loss
of productivity directly affects the farmers' income, because more inputs are necessary
to counteract these processes and to maintain long-term food production. Another
adverse effect is that the soil and nutrient losses are transported to the Yangtze river,
upstream of the newly build Three Gorges dam. At present, China faces a transition
from organic fertilizers to mineral ones. The replacement of the organic fertilizers
will lead to a further deterioration of the physical soil structure, and erosion and
runoff are expected to increase during the coming years. With the strong emphasis in
China on the increase of production and the efforts of the government to keep the
market prices of fertilizers as low as possible, fertilizer use is expected to grow
continuously. This might lead to even higher losses of nutrients by runoff and
erosion. The government of the P.R. of China recognizes the problem of soil erosion
and promotes a comprehensive approach to control erosion. However, there is no
proper tool to plan and evaluate the effects of changed management practices.
2) What was the institutional context (partners with which cooperated?)
The research partners were IIED, England; SUAS, Sweden; SFI, Chengdu, China;
ISWC, Yangling, China; ISSAS, Nanjing, China. The project was coordinated by
Alterra. The project is funded by the EU through the INCO-dev programme and the
* Questionnaire received 2006, revised May 2007; Project leader C. Ritsema (Alterra)