Impacts of Urbanization and Industrialization on Agriculture in Zhujiang Delta ZD

1
Impacts of Urbanization and Industrialization on
Agriculture in Zhujiang Delta (ZD)

• Dr. Ng Sai Leung (???)
• Department of Geography and Resource Management
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• September 2001

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Agriculture in ZD
• Urbanization and Industrialization Impacts on
  ZDs Agriculture

3
Zhujiang

• Zhujiang (??, in Chinese, means Pearl River) is
  named because of the Pearl Rock (???, a red
  Cretaceous sandstone exposure located at
  Guangzhou).
• Zhujiang is not a single river, but a river
  network.
• 3 major rivers and 8 outlets (????,????)
• ZD is a compound delta (?????)

4
Zhujiang and Agriculture

• Zhujiang Delta has a total area of 453,000 km2.
  3/4 of land is flatland with fertile soil and
  sufficient supply of fresh water.
• Traditionally, it is the most important and one
  of the ten most important grain production areas
  in in Guangdong province and China.
• Zhujiang Delta has experienced remarkable
  economic growth since 1978.

5
Significance of Agriculture in ZD

• Whether or Zhujiang Delta can sustainably
  develop, agriculture plays a vital role.
• Agriculture is of importance to 20 million people
  in the region not only in the sense of providing
  foods and grains but also in offering job
  opportunities.
• Agriculture is important in terms of environment
  and ecology.

6
Favourable factors to agriculture

• Climate
• Soil
• Arable land
• Natural ecology
• River network
• Location

7
Climate

• Subtropical monsoon maritime climate (plently
  precipitation and gt10oC the accumulative annual
  temperature is greater than 7500oC).
• Long cropping season and multiple cropping (3
  seasons for rice and the 4th for bean, ??????).
• Guangdong and Hainan are two only regions in
  China, which can produces tropical crops.

8
Soil

• The deposits of the delta are generally 20-40m in
  thickness.
• Sediments are rich in organic substances (about
  0.6 million tones per year).
• Long soil formation period enables to accumulate
  nutrients.

9
Arable land

• Zhujiang has a discharges approx. 7 times of
  Yellow River. Sediment content is
  0.13-0.34kg/m3, total loading is 85 mill ton.
• The coast extends 100 m outward every year,
  translating into a total area of 15 thousand
  hectares.
• More than 0.3 million hectares have been
  recreated from reclamation since 1949.
• Because of large river discharge, salt content in
  soil can be removed quickly and easily.

10
Natural Ecology

• Terrestrial habitats because of topography
• Estuary habitats because of sedimentation

11
River networks

• High accessibility of Zhujiang River provides
  fast and convenient transportation for the
  region. There are many advantages
• Cut down the cost of transportation
• Reduce damages of grain and crops
• Maintain the freshness of produces

12
Location

• Close linkage with Hong Kong and Macau in terms
  of culture, economics and technology
• A large outlet for agricultural produces.

13
Characteristics of agriculture in ZD

• Fragmented
• Intensive
• Integrated
• Special techniques tidal irrigation, ecological
  dyke ponds, etc.

14
Landuse in Guangdong
15
Paddy field (??)

• Mainly for cultivating paddy rice (about 80) and
  sugar cane (about 10).
• Sustain three crops a year. Cultivation sequence
  is rice-rice-vegetables (or rest) or rice-sugar
  cane rotation.
• Series of paddy field align along the
  coast-inland transact
• Xiantian (saline field, ??), shatian (sand field,
  ??), weitian (reclaimed field, ??), langtian
  (field on the hill, ??), tungtian (field on the
  basin, ??) and hangtian (stony field, ??).
• Only two crops (paddy rice) are allowed in low
  productive fields, e.g., saline field.

16
Dry field (??)

• Distribute over plateaus and undulating with an
  elevation of 1-40m, slope is relatively steep
  (5-15o).
• Parent materials are usually granite or reddish
  siltstone.
• Difficulty in irrigation and soil erosion are
  main concerns.

17
Orchard (??)

• Including land for vegetables and fruits. They
  are not large in area, usually lt100 acres They
  are usually scattered at the fringes of cities
  and market towns.
• Four fruits of Lingnan ???? are tangerine,
  banana, pineapple and lychee.

18
Woodland

• Original subtropical monsoon evergreen
  broad-leaved forest has almost disappeared.
• Secondary forest (characterized by pines and
  shrubs) is the dominant type now.
• Small pieces of Fung Shui woodland can be found
  in remote villages.
• Wind break can also found in coastal areas while
  mangrove found in mudflats.

19
Grassland

• Grassland is a relatively primitive ecological
  habitat.
• It is an artifact of human disturbance.
• Natural grasslands are found at hilly areas and
  low hills.
• Artificial grasslands developed in recent years,
  mainly for cow and fish feeds are scattered over
  the dyke pond area.

20
Dyke pond (??)

• The excavated soils are used to construct the
  dykes.
• Dikes are usually 0.5-4m in height, ponds are 30m
  in width and normally 100m in length.
• According to area of dyke, proportion of dyke to
  pond can be classified into 37, 46 (commonest)
  and 73.
• Dyke ponds which are classified based on the
  dominant crop grown. There are 4 mulberry, sugar
  cane, fruit, and miscellaneous.

21
Tidal flat

• Tidal flat is shallow beach at coastal area, it
  mainly located at Humen, Jiaomen, Hengmen,
  Modaomen.
• According to the sediment size, it can be
  classified into sand beach, muddy beach, grass
  beach and mangrove area. Sand beach can be found
  at the river month while other three can be found
  adjacently.

22
Impacts of Economic on Agriculture

• Loss of arable land
• Pollution
• Structural transformation

23
Loss of arable land
24
Environmental problems

• Over-emphasis on economic growth, failure in
  central policy planning and ignorance of
  environment
• 3 wastes water, air and solid pollution
• Point source vs non-point source pollution
• Ecological degradation habitat loss, pollution
  and human disturbance
• Chinas accession to WTO

25
Structural transformation

• Manpower
• Market economy
• Decline in grain production
• Rise of economic crops.
• Three highs (????)

26
Shrinkage of grain production
27
Development of Zhujiang Delta

• End