Ecological agriculture represents an important trend and direction for the future of farming. Following a path of sustainable development has become the common choice of countries around the world. We should actively learn from successful experiences at home and abroad, and vigorously promote the development of ecological circular agriculture in China.
The year 2025 is a critical one for ecological circular agriculture. According to the Notice on Issuing the Guidelines for Regional Ecological Circular Agriculture Projects under Comprehensive Agricultural Development, the state will establish about 300 regional projects. These efforts aim to actively promote resource-conserving, environmentally friendly, and ecologically protective farming, while improving food quality and safety, standardization in production, and overall agricultural sustainability.
Ecological circular agriculture generally refers to ecological farming. It requires integrating food crop production with various cash crops, combining field planting with forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, and sideline production, and linking agriculture with secondary and tertiary industries. By combining the essence of traditional farming with modern scientific and technological achievements, and through the artificial design of ecological projects, it seeks to balance development with environmental protection and resource utilization with conservation. This creates a dual virtuous cycle—ecological and economic—achieving unity across economic, ecological, and social benefits.
Ecological agriculture first emerged in Europe in 1924, developed further in Switzerland, the UK, and Japan during the 1930s–40s, and gained traction in the 1960s when many European farms shifted to ecological cultivation. By the late 1970s, Southeast Asia had also begun to explore ecological agriculture. Choosing the sustainable path has since become a shared direction for agricultural development across the globe.

Three Major Models of Ecological Circular Agriculture

1. Reduction Model

Based on the specific conditions of each operational unit in the field, the reduction model precisely manages soil and crops to optimize the use of agricultural inputs (such as fertilizers, pesticides, water, seeds, etc.) to achieve maximum yield and economic benefits while minimizing chemical use and protecting the agricultural ecological environment. This model seeks to achieve high quality, high output, and high efficiency with the least input, and is also known as Precision Agriculture.

Case Studies:

Precision Agriculture in the United States
The United States is one of the earliest adopters of precision agriculture in the world. Since the 1990s, GPS technology has been applied in agricultural production. Farms in Minnesota conducted precision agriculture trials, using GPS to guide fertilization. Results showed a yield increase of about 30% compared to conventional balanced fertilization methods. Following these successful trials, precision agriculture technology began to be applied to the production management of crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. By the mid-1990s, precision agriculture developed rapidly in the United States; by 1996, the number of harvesters equipped with yield monitors had grown to 9,000 units.

Water-Saving Agriculture in Israel
Israel’s circular agriculture is prominently reflected in its advanced water-saving agricultural system. Technologies such as sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation, micro-sprinkling, and micro-drip irrigation are widely used. Over 80% of farmland irrigation in Israel uses drip irrigation, 10% uses micro-sprinkling, and 5% uses mobile sprinklers, completely replacing traditional furrow irrigation.
Drip irrigation technology achieves the greatest results:
1.Water is delivered directly to the roots of crops, saving about 20% more water compared to sprinkler irrigation.
2.Drip irrigation on sloped farmland does not exacerbate soil erosion.
3.Treated wastewater with higher salt concentration than freshwater can be safely used for drip irrigation without causing soil salinization.
Drip irrigation saves over 30% of both water and fertilizers compared to traditional irrigation methods and promotes the recycling of wastewater. To expand water resources, Israel has invested heavily in wastewater treatment and recycling. Israel plans for all agricultural irrigation to use treated recycled water. Currently, 80% of urban wastewater is treated and reused, primarily for agriculture, accounting for 20% of agricultural water use. Treated wastewater is also returned to aquifers after irrigation use.

2. Ecological Industrial Park Model

Circular agriculture operates at three scales: departmental, regional, and societal.

• The departmental level refers to a single enterprise or farmer as the unit of circulation.
• The societal level refers to a “circular rural society.”
• The regional level follows ecological principles, integrating materials, energy, and information among enterprises to form ecological industrial parks driven by leading enterprises, containing multiple small- and medium-sized enterprises and farmers.

Case Study:

Maya Farm, Philippines
Originally a flour mill, Maya Farm began in the 1970s and, after 10 years of development, evolved into an integrated agricultural-forestry-livestock-aquaculture ecosystem with a virtuous cycle.

The flour mill generated large quantities of bran. To avoid waste, the farm established livestock farms and fish ponds. To increase income, meat processing and canned food factories were built to deeply process livestock and aquatic products.
By 1981, the farm comprised 36 hectares of rice paddies and economic forests, raising 25,000 pigs, 70 cattle, and 10,000 ducks. To control pollution from livestock manure and recycle waste from processing plants, the farm established more than ten biogas plants, producing hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of biogas daily to meet the energy needs of both production and household life.
From the biogas residue, part was recycled as livestock feed, while the remainder was used as organic fertilizer. The treated biogas liquid was supplied to ponds for fish and duck farming, with pond water and sludge finally used to fertilize the fields.
The grain produced on the farmland was returned to the flour mill for processing, entering a new production cycle. Maya Farm did not need to purchase external raw materials, fuel, or fertilizers, yet maintained high profitability without pollution from waste gas, wastewater, or residue — achieving full material recycling.

3. Waste Reuse Model

The waste reuse model in circular agriculture emphasizes multi-level recycling of agricultural waste, turning waste or by-products from one industry into raw materials for the next. Common examples include the utilization of biogas and livestock manure.
Biogas Comprehensive Utilization
Using biogas as a link, livestock manure, crop straw, and rural domestic wastewater are processed as biogas substrates. The produced biogas is used as fuel, while biogas slurry and residue serve as organic fertilizers. This approach, combined with soil testing-based fertilization, farmland fertility enhancement, high-quality agricultural base construction, and pollution-free agricultural product initiatives, has led to exploring a “one biogas, two slurries” integrated utilization model. Research and demonstration of ecological recycling technologies for biogas residue and slurry are promoted, along with implementing cyclic models such as “Pig–Biogas–Fruit (Vegetables, Grain, Mulberry, Forest)”, forming a new ecological circular agriculture pattern linking livestock and crop production.

Livestock Manure Collection, Treatment, and Organic Fertilizer Processing
Well-equipped livestock manure collection and processing centers, operating under standardized mechanisms for household collection, village transportation, and regional collection, can achieve livestock manure collection rates and comprehensive utilization rates of over 95%.
Crop Straw-Based Recycling Model
This model enables hierarchical utilization of straw resources and zero pollutant discharge, turning straw waste into valuable resources. It addresses environmental pollution and resource waste caused by indiscriminate straw burning while producing organic fertilizers, clean energy, and biomass raw materials. Examples include building industrial chains such as:

• “Straw–Substrate–Edible Fungi”
• “Straw–Formed Fuel–Fuel–Farmer”
• “Straw–Silage Feed–Livestock Industry”

Case Studies:

Japan — Circular Agriculture
In Aito Town, rapeseed production leaves oil cake residues that can be processed into high-quality organic fertilizer or feed through composting or feed conversion. Waste cooking oil is also collected and processed into biofuel.
In Hanyu Town, one of Japan’s earliest and most successful circular agriculture regions, the “Natural Agriculture Development Ordinance” (1988) banned pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and other non-organic fertilizers in agricultural production. The agricultural products are organically produced, without chemical fertilizer or pesticide residues. The town uses small-scale sewage sludge, poultry manure, and enterprise organic waste as inputs into fermentation equipment to produce methane for electricity generation. Remaining semi-solid residues undergo solid-liquid separation, with solids composted and dried, and liquids treated for reuse or safe discharge. This achieves high-level resource reuse and waste harmlessness. The town also centrally collects and processes kitchen waste into organic fertilizer.
Germany — “Green Energy” Agriculture
In the early 1990s, German scientists discovered that certain crops could produce mineral energy and chemical raw material substitutes, enabling agricultural product recycling without pollution. The federal government emphasized developing such crops. Selective breeding of sugar beet, potato, rapeseed, and corn produced ethanol and methane as green energy. Jerusalem artichoke was used for alcohol production, and winged beans for alkaloid extraction. Rapeseed became Germany’s most important energy crop, used as a chemical raw material and to produce biodiesel as a mineral diesel substitute.
United Kingdom — “Permanent Agriculture”
Permanent agriculture is an important form of waste resource utilization in the circular economy. It focuses on maximizing beneficial relationships through efficient element allocation while conserving resources and avoiding environmental harm.