The System Of Economic Policies For Control And Management Of Agricultural Non-point Sources Pollution

The load composition of water pollution has been changed obviously with the effectively control on point source pollution in recent years. Non-point source pollution (NPSP) has become the chief cause of impaired water quality, especially agricultural NPSP occupies a larger proportion of total pollution load. Researches and practices on agricultural pollution control have been accomplished in many west countries for a few decades. A series of effective control measurements have been designed and implemented and more incentive policies are applied. However, there are few research related this field in China. This paper mainly discusses the establishment of economic policy system for control and management of agricultural NPSP in China.Firstly, the current situation of serious agricultural NPSP in China is described. The main causes and the characteristics of the agricultural non-point sources pollution in China are discussed in detail. It is indicated that the unreasonable agriculture practices and the conventional life ways in rural areas are the important factors contributing to the agriculture pollution and the lack of the agriculture environment management policies is another important reason.Based on environmental policy and economics theories, the system of economic policies for control and management of agricultural NPSP is designed in this paper. This system includes the policy objective, the designing principle and the methods. The key contents consist of pollution charge, inputs tax and subsides as well as effluent trading. The functions and suitability of the policies are also analyzed in the paper.The watershed of Chao River, one of the main sources of Miyun reservoir in Miyun county of Beijing, is chosen as the demonstrative research area. According to the field experiment results and other relating economic data in this area, some economic approaches to reducing agricultural NPSP are proposed. The main idea is to encourage and support the farmers to improve their farming way, and to implement the policy of castigation charge simultaneity The feasibility of the policies is analyzed with consideration of economy, technology and institution. It is concluded that the economic policies is necessary and feasible.Lastly, the further research approach to policy system for control and management of agricultural NPSP is proposed in this paper.