北方旱地农业是指沿昆仑山 -秦岭 -淮河一线以北的依靠天然降水补充灌溉农业的地区 ,可分为干旱、半干旱偏旱、半干旱、半湿润偏旱和半湿润五个子区。从农业资源利用现状与生产实践看 ,北方旱地农业发展潜力巨大 ,增产潜力远没有得到发挥。随着国家对食物安全、生态安全、经济安全的重视 ,旱地农业研究必然提上议事日程。本文从国内外旱地农业研究现状入手 ,对旱地农业的战略地位、国内外研究现状、发展潜力进行了深入分析 ,提出了我国北方旱地农业发展的若干策略

Arid land agriculture in northern China is located to the north of the line from Kunlun Mountains through Qinling to Huaihe River. The agriculture of this area is rain fed in nature, so its development is greatly restricted by the water resources. And also this means there are great potentials in agricultural development in the light of the status quo of resources utilization and production practice in northern China where the level of agricultural production is low and the eco environment is execrable. As China has put emphasis on food security, eco system and economy, it is necessary for us to develop arid land in northern China with comprehensive methods and strategies. This paper recounts the research status of the arid land agriculture in China and other countries. On the basis of the analysis, the paper concludes that the same experience of the foreign countries in research and practice is that they attach importance to the combination of the amelioration of environment and the increase of crop output. Remarkable achievements have been gained in these aspects: 1) under conditions of water scarcity, most of the countries paid more attention to the collocation of the water and soil resources, especially to the durative increase of the efficiency of water use; 2) in the past several years many countries increased the level of mechanization and got rapid development of the research on the industrialization of technique. The production efficiency is 2.5 times as much as that of ten years ago; and 3) the benign circulation between the mechanization and industrialization of technique has been formed. At the same time, Chinese arid land agriculture has also gained great achievements. Firstly, on the basis of the 5 first level districts and 57 second level districts, the structure of agricultural products and planting system which are suitable for different types of arid land have been established in China. Secondly, both the protection and reasonable exploitation of the renewable resources and the artificial replacement of nonrenewable resources have made rapid progress. For the future development of China's arid land, we have to recognize the demerits of our strategies. So finally the strategies of the development of arid land agriculture in northern China are put forward.