Scarcity of Ecosystem Services and Ecological Contribution of Agriculture

Abstract

Traditionally, the role of agriculture in the process of industrialization can be summarized into four contributions: product contribution, factor contribution, foreign currency contribution and market contribution. Historically, the importance of the four contributions was different at different stages of industrialization. At the initial industrialization stage, the primary tasks of agriculture were to feed non-agricultural population in urban areas, to accumulate funds for industrialization and to provide land and labor for industrial development. At the mid-stage of industrialization, as the proportion of agriculture in GDP and the Engel coefficient kept falling, the reliance of industry on funds and products from agriculture reduced gradually. As the demand of urban residents for industrial products was almost saturated, the countryside became an important market for industrial products, and the market contribution of agriculture increased. In the late stage of industrialization, as a bond for energy exchange between men and nature, agriculture experienced a transformation of its role with an emerging fifth contribution – ecological contribution. At a time when the “deficit financing” of men to nature severely hinders the sustainable development of human society, the focus of agriculture has shifted from purely economic significance to both economic and ecological significance. Consequently, the ecological contribution of agriculture and the importance of its ecological output has become a highlight