Eco-compensation mechanism to be established for food functional areas
- Details
- Category: Ningbo News
- Published: Monday, 15 June 2015 19:08
The commonly seen rice fields in the plain areas are not only connected with food security, but also an indispensable part of the ecological wetland system. It is learned from the departments concerned that from 2015 on Ningbo will implement the eco-compensation mechanism for food functional areas, in the hope of promoting the transformation of agricultural development pattern.
It is estimated by experts that the profit of rice per mu is around 3800 yuan, with the ecological profit accounting for over 80%. Researches show that the eco-system of the agricultural fields can purify the air, maintain the water and soil, foster the water sources, consume the waste and improve the local climate, and meanwhile, the field soil has the undeniable function of carbon sink. With regard to climate conditioning, the temperature reduction effect of one mu of rice field is equivalent to that of 100 5P air-conditioners. With regard to bio-diversity, the farmland is a kind of buffer and isolation belt connecting urban area and natural eco-system. It can isolate and reduce the impact of urban lives on the natural environment, as well as expanding the moving and living space of the living creatures in the natural eco-system.
According to insiders, we have become accustomed to confine the profits of rice planting to rice output, while neglecting the hidden eco-function. By establishing the eco-compensation mechanism of the food functional areas, the government provides the eco-subsidies for the rice growing as a kind of compensation for public services, in order to arouse people's awareness of the importance of the agricultural eco-function.
The recently released notice on food production and sales points out that from this year on, the government will grant a 50-yuan subsidy for each mu of the over 400,000-mu food production functional areas at the municipal level. The subsidies, jointly undertaken by the municipal government and the county governments, will be used as the facility maintenance fee and ecological compensation for the functional areas. The specific implementations of the eco-compensation will be drafted by the municipal agricultural departments.
