Comprehensive prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution with whole factors and chain in an integrated system

Agricultural non-point source pollution has been the leading cause of water quality in recent years. The prevention and control of non-point source pollution can improve the ecological environment quality in the green transformation of agricultural development and rural revitalization. However, agricultural non-point source pollution has been the prominent difficulty for the water environment protection with the effective control of industrial and urban point source pollution. Particularly, water environment protection is still remained elusive in the watershed scale. This study aimed to review the current situation to determine the main bottlenecks in the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution. Key measures were also explored in the whole factors and chain. The optimization and maintenance paths were proposed for the typical pilot areas in the Yangtze River Basin. Firstly, the agricultural non-point source pollution was reduced with a significant decrease in the water pollution emissions. But the emissions proportion was also remained high. Secondly, the bottlenecks were clarified using various operations, such as data collection, on-site research, and expert discussions, in term of governance entities, investment factors, technological systems and industrial chains. The single governance body, scattered departmental functions, and independent governance fields were the critical factors for the main body of agricultural non-point source pollution control. It was very necessary to construct the digital platform for the investment elements, such as technological support, regulatory system, financial investment and ecological compensation. The linear production model of "resource-product-waste discharge" was also needed to gradually shift towards an ecological circular industrial chain with the multi-dimensional and multi-levels. Thirdly, the connotation was defined in the entire element and chain of integrated system. Among them, the integrated system was referred to the top-level design and systematic promotion from the perspective of development concepts and ideas. Whole factors were referred to the aggregation of funds, integrated application of technology, development of governance entities, and digital intensive empowerment. Full chain was to unblock the ecological cycle of the front, middle, and end of agricultural non-point source pollution control, in order to construct a multi-scale agricultural ecosystem with the large, medium, and small cycles, and then form an integrated pattern of production life ecology. Fourthly, the typical cases were selected from the national agricultural green development pilot zones. The implementation path and application effectiveness was elaborated for the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution with the "whole factors" and "whole chain" in an integrated system. Three types of work were carried out in the typical cases: "integrated organizational system" on the grid scale, "whole chain" on the specialized extension, and "whole factors" on the pollution prevention and control in various aspects. The finding can provide the support to the prevention and control of non-point source pollution in the green transformation of modern agriculture.