Increasingly prominent resource limitations and environmental problems have constrained the Chinese agricultural production. The main issues include the shortage of agricultural irrigation water supply, low efficiency of agricultural water use, a continuous decrease of farmland resources, worsening of farmland soil quality, and contamination of water, soil, and air in agricultural production areas. Due to the vast territory of China, these resources and environmental issues occur in a variegated regional distribution. The zoning of agricultural resources and the environment was performed for the Chinese territory according to the Chinese Agriculture Zoning [1], the Atlas of China’s Land Resources [2], and China’s 1:4 Million Geomorphic Map [3]. Issues concerning the resources and the environment, and the characteristics of the agricultural production in various zones were analyzed. Finally, the spatial layout and the directions of development for a rational utilization and protection of the agricultural resources and the environment in China were proposed.

The county boundary was taken as the minimum mapping unit for the Chinese agricultural resource and environment zoning. The zoning consisted of two levels, with 10 first-level and 57 second-level zones being identified (Table 1). The first-level zones were identified according to regional differences in climatic and geotectonic conditions, while the second-level zones were differentiated according to water resources, land resources, and environmental conditions.

Table 1. Characteristics of the Chinese agricultural resource and environment zoning.

Table 1 (continued)

The eastern coastal region is the pioneer area of the international grain trade and of the export-oriented modern agriculture. Three metropolitan regions, the Bohai Gulf, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta zones are the most developed economic and social areas, and also the main areas consuming agricultural products. To meet the needs of the urban consumption of agricultural products, the agricultural development must work towards a capital and technology-intensive agriculture, and towards building an international trade market and a grain reserve base. The Yellow River Delta, the coastal regions of the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujiang, and Guangxi provinces, and Hainan Island could take advantage of their coastal ports and accelerate the development of a highly efficient, high-quality, and export-oriented agriculture focusing on horticultural products, livestock, and aquatic products.

The central region links the eastern and western regions and has the advantage of developing modern plains agriculture. China’s agricultural production zones are mainly located in the central region and include the Sanjiang, Songnen, Huang−Huai−Hai, and Jianghan Plain zones, the Poyang Lake and the Dongting Lake Plain zones, and the Yangtze−Huai zone. The direction of development of these regions is towards supporting the development of an industry that processes the agricultural product, strengthening the construction of large-scale intensive farmlands, and establishing agricultural modernization. These measures include the protection of farmlands, the adjustment of planting structures, and the reduction of crops that are highly dependent on irrigation.

The development direction of the western region is the eco-agriculture and the characteristic agriculture. The western region is an ecologically fragile region in China, with a conflict between water and land resources. On the basis of natural resource benefits and the protection of the agricultural production environment, the agricultural development strategy is to follow both the environmental protection and the development. Agricultural development in the northwestern region would strengthen grassland construction, develop grassland livestock husbandry, save water for dryland farming and high-quality characteristic agriculture, and accelerate the transformation of low- and medium-yield fields and the reduction of saline-alkaline soils. The southwestern region should highlight a comprehensive watershed management, develop and utilize grassland resources, construct water shortage engineering countermeasures, strictly protect Pingba paddy fields, and develop water-saving irrigation agriculture, animal husbandry, and tropical and subtropical characteristic agriculture.

The main regions of agricultural production are located in central and eastern China. These regions include Northeast China, the Huang−Huai−Hai drainage basin, plains and hills in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, hills and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Southwest China regions. The Northeast China region is the production area of commodities, with the highest yields and the largest potential for increasing grain production in China. The North China region (Huang−Huai−Hai drainage basin) is the largest grain production region but has the most significant conflict between agricultural resources and the environment. The South China region is the largest rice and sugar production area but also the most contradictory area of food supply and demand in China. Based on these regional characteristics and problems concerning the resources and the environment, the overall strategy of “improving Northeast China, regulating North China, and recovering South China” was presented.

The Northeast China region, specifically the Sanjiang and Songnen Plain zones, were suggested as areas to build China’s largest commercial grain and agricultural specialization base. Four measures were devised. First, it was suggested to enforce an agricultural cropping pattern reform. This included establishing a comprehensive dry agriculture pattern, a compound agricultural model with grain-soybean rotation, grain-grass (feeding) rotation, and a combination of planting-breeding recycling modes. Second, stabilization and protection were suggested for the rice production base in the Northeast China region, including appropriately reducing the corn planting area in the “sickle bay” area. The third measure was to promote the construction of agricultural production and processing bases, taking advantage of the superior location for agricultural production. This would include developing the entire production chain that would consist of standardized planting, fine processing, and high-efficiency logistics. Finally, the sustainable utilization of the black soil project was suggested, in order to support the sustainable agricultural development of the Northeast China region, through the implementation of a comprehensive management of salinization, desertification, and grassland degradation in the ecologically fragile regions.

In the North China region, it was suggested that the North China Plain zone be the key rehabilitation area, and the Huang−Huai Plain zone be the key agricultural production area. This would require comprehensively regulating the agricultural resources and the environment to achieve a sustainable development of the largest grain production base in China. The first measure was to adjust the planting configuration, including a north-to-south shift for the winter wheat sown area, and moderately reducing the wheat planting area in North China, an area where groundwater has been severely over-exploited. The second measure was to intensify the comprehensive management of water resources, including developing regulated deficit irrigation techniques, promoting the sprinkler irrigation, drip irrigation, and water-fertilizer integration irrigation techniques, and comprehensively adjusting and planning water systems and groundwater recovery projects, with the opportunity of a south-to-north water diversion project. The third measure was to comprehensively regulate the agricultural eco-environment, involving the adjustment of regional industrial structures and population distribution structures to alleviate pressures on the environment, preventing atmospheric, water, and soil pollution, and implementing restoration measures.

The South China region includes the plains and hills in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region, the hills and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Southwest China region. Different regional directions with four improvement measures were suggested for improving a sustainable agricultural development. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River would focus on the protection and development of the main rice production region, and the southeast coastal region would develop export-oriented modern agriculture. The first measure was to protect the farmlands, stabilize the cultivated areas of double cropping rice, increase the production of feed grain, and expand the scale of the north-south food production and tropical crop industry. The second measure was to take advantage of the location and technology in the southeast coastal region, develop export-oriented agriculture such as flower, vegetable, potted plant, and fruit production, promote agricultural intelligence, efficiency and precision, and vigorously develop modern agriculture. The third measure was to promote the comprehensive development of agriculture-forestry-fruit and agriculture mechanization and to develop a stereo ecological agriculture in the hilly and mountainous regions. The fourth measure was to intensify the source control of acid rain and heavy metal pollution, and carry out remediation of contaminated soil.

According to agricultural production data at the county level in 2014, twenty-seven main agricultural production zones for China’s supply of agricultural products were analyzed. The total area of these zones was 64.43% of the national cultivated area. The production of rice, wheat, corn, soybean, potato, oil, cotton, sugar, vegetables, and fruit accounted for 81.88%, 91.61%, 79.65%, 61.75%, 60.19%, 81.75%, 96.27%, 95.54%, 80.54%, and 67.90% of the total national production, respectively. The development directions and construction measures of the major agricultural production regions were proposed in Table 2.

Table 2. Directions and measures of China’s major agricultural production regions.

Table 2 (continued)

Table 2 (continued)

Table 2 (continued)

The author wishes to thank the Academician Shi Yulin for his careful guidance and valuable advice on the zoning strategy.