Study On Construction Planning Of Jari Demonstration Plot Of Ecological Agriculture In Ethiopia

According to the tripartite agreement signed by FAO, China and Ethiopia in a bid to settle the food-deficit issue of low income countries and harness the soil erosion, China's South-South Cooperation Program has sent expert panels on agriculture and forestry to Ethiopia to establish demonstration plots which will provide feasible references to the country concerning the soil erosion and the food security issues by properly utilizing the natural resources. Amhara State has become the worst one in soil erosion situation. The establishment of Jari demonstration plot is to perform an integrated control over soil erosion, popularize Chinese experience in agriculture and forestry development and ecological recovery, especially in water saving agriculture, water and soil conservation, soil improvement and crop production.Over disafforestation has nearly resulted in the natural ecological system on the brink of collapse, soil fertility loss and soil erosion, therefore, the degradation of ecosystems has impacted directly on the agricultural development. The agricultural economy is stagnated due to the great loss of arable land; as a result, food shortage is severe.Actually, the ecology recovery issue has been posed for quite a long time, the international aid in technology and economy has been rendered from different channels. However, without an effective and integrated planning, the destruction to the forest ecological landscape has been becoming even severer; therefore, the past decade could scarcely see any development in agricultural production.Through the scientific research on the current situation, existing problems have been probed, and the structural and functional relationship of the factors inside the landscape has been analyzed. Meanwhile, various ecological landscape resources have been properly employed, and the topmost priority to natural factors has been granted. Based on the structural differences in different geo characteristics, we divided the demonstration plot into six small-scale model ecological systems which include forest ecosystem, wetland ecosystem, agro-ecosystem, prairie ecosystem, courtyard ecosystem and microorganism ecosystem. According to the vertical distribution of the ecological landscape, firstly, series reforestation techniques, such as closing hill for reforestation, returning land for farming to forestry, ecological forest and non-timber product forest establishment, integrated erosion control measure and planting firewood forest have been adopted in the planning for the purpose of intercepting surface water. Secondly, rotational grazing based on division of areas, grain for grassland, yard feeding with crop straw are performed to protect and develop the natural grassland and recover the prairie ecosystem. Thirdly, Improve wetland ecosystem and recover natural landscape on the river banks to enrich the biodiversity of Mille River so as to stop surface soil on lower land from losing. Fourthly, different agro-techniques are implemented including rationalization of cultivation, soil improvement, enhancement of soil output coefficient, scientific crop allocation, extension of improved variety and cover culture, together with hydraulic engineering of irrigation sections on farmlands on which water saving irrigations are treated in accordance with local conditions to increase the farmland ecosystem output. Last but...