工程技术对农业的贡献-王茜翻译

The Role of Engineering工程技术的作用
Most nations seek to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to benefit from improving national prosperity, while living in social equity and harmony with the natural world. For a nation to be able to invest in social services, health and education, national prosperity must grow in tandem with the expectations of its people. 多数国家的目标，都是使所有国民有机会分享国家繁荣的果实，实现社会平等，以及人与自然的平衡。对于一个有能力投资于社会公益服务、卫生和教育的国家，国家繁荣必须与国民期望协同增长。
Economic wealth or prosperity is most commonly measured as GDP per capita (on a purchasing-power parity basis). In economists’ terms, GDP per capita represents the product of labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) and labour utilisation (hours worked per capita). In simple terms the former is about ‘working smarter’ and the latter is about ‘working harder’. Labour productivity represents the net effect of economic efficiency and value creation. Thus, as nations seek to create wealth and grow national prosperity they have to focus on implementing economic reforms to improve economic efficiency, increase economic activity to create more opportunities for work (and hence drive up labour utilisation), and generate economic activity that has greater value (and thus increase the value component of labour productivity). In the past, increases in labour productivity were often accomplished by increases in resource use, so resource productivity (GDP per unit resource use) tended to decline. 经济财富和繁荣一般都是用（基于平价购买力的）人均GDP衡量。根据经济学家的术语，人均GDP代表劳动生产率（每工作小时GDP）和劳动力利用率（人均工作小时）的乘积。简单而言，前者是指“工作效率”，后者是指“工作强度”。劳动生产率代表经济效率和价值创造的净效应。因此，要想创造财富、增强国民经济，国家必须着眼于经济改革，改善经济效率，增加经济活动以创造更多就业机会（从而提高劳动力利用率），并形成具有更高价值的经济活动（从而提高劳动生产率的价值成分）。过去，劳动生产率的提高往往伴随着资源使用的增加，因此资源生产率（每单位使用资源GDP）往往下降了。
For the global economy to be sustainable, while giving all people the potential to live in reasonable prosperity, humanity must improve its resource productivity. Thus, the goal of sustainable development means a commitment to grow prosperity (GDP per capita) while improving resource productivity (GDP per unit resource use) at least as fast and in some cases much faster. 要想保护全球经济的可持续性，同时使所有人都能够享受繁荣，人类必须提高资源生产率。因此，可持续发展的目标，意味着在增加繁荣（人均GDP）的同时以同样甚至更快的速度提高资源生产率（每单位使用资源GDP）。
The use of GDP per capita as an indicator must of wealth must be tempered with the realisation that the benefits of economic growth should be equitably distributed. It is more desirable to have economic growth that results in broad-based employment opportunities rather than growth from the exploitation of a natural resource that creates few jobs and relies on external investment. Thus, it is desirable to have people-centred economic growth. 运用人均GDP作为财富指标的同时，我们应认识到，经济增长带给人们的利益应得到均等分配。经济增长应带来广泛的就业机会，而不是利用自然资源创造有限的就业机会并依赖于外部投资。因此，我们应该实现以人为本的经济增长。
Sources of Prosperity in an Economy经济繁荣的来源
Worldwide, the dominant wealth-creating activity of the 20th century was industrial mass production, but this may not be so for this century. For much of the last century, creating wealth relied on competing on price for the supply of processed materials and goods. Competitive advantage came from some or all of: 20世纪，在全球范围内，带来财富增长的活动是大规模工业化生产。但是本世纪此景不再。上个世纪，财富的创造依赖于加工材料和商品的价格竞争，竞争优势来自于以下方面：
· access to cheap resources (minerals, biologically-based materials, energy, water), 对廉价资源（矿产、生物材料、能源和水）的占有；
· economies of scale, 规模经济；
· a sufficiently skilled workforce, 大量熟练劳动力；
· innovation to improve efficiency. 提高效率的创新。
Whereas the basis of many developing countries’ income was (and is) low-cost bulk supply of commodities to export markets, future growth in income will come from a more complex mix of innovations in products, processes, business models, and structural or regulatory systems. However, irrespective of the mix of production and value chain advantages that might be established, it will still be vital to innovate to lower the costs of producing and delivering products and services. But, increasingly, the empowering intellectual property is knowledge of ways to create value – not of low-cost production. Competitive advantages are expected to come from some or all of: 过去，发展中国家的收入依赖于向出口市场供应大量低成本商品，这种状况现在也未改变。而在将来，收入增长将依赖于产品创新、工艺创新、商业模式创新、结构体系和调节体系的创新的复杂混合。但是，除了生产和价值链优势的结合，降低生产成本、产品递送成本和服务成本的创新措施仍然至关重要。但是，知识产权正取代低成本生产，成为创造价值的途径。竞争优势将来自于以下方面：
· ability to continuously meet industry norms and the evolving regulatory environment associated with trade, 持续达到产业标准以及与贸易相关的、不断演变的规范环境的能力，
· economic conditions that facilitate achievement of economic efficiency, 促进经济效率的经济条件，
· ability to conceive of, and bring to fruition, new means of creating value, 构思并实现新的价值创造手段的能力，
· capacity to generate innovations throughout the life cycle of products. 在产品生命周期从始至终进行创新的能力。
To create value is to create new wealth. To create new markets, satisfy new customers, or generate new revenue streams is to create new wealth; typically this is done by creating new or improved products, but in some circumstances and some points of the product life-cycle it can be achieved through new business models. 创造价值就是创造新财富。创造新市场、满足新用户的需求、或创造新的收入点，就是创造新财富；这往往是通过创造新产品或改进产品实现的，但是在某些情况下或在产品生命周期的某个时刻，这可以通过新的商业模式实现。
Product and Process Innovation产品和工艺创新
Innovation is about change and the introduction or creation of something new or a new way of doing business. Innovation occurs in a context, thus something may be innovative in one context yet already exist in another. An innovative approach in company A, may not be at all new in company B; this does not detract from the value of the innovation to company A. 创新是指改变、引进或创立一种新的商业对象或模式。创新是在一个具体环境中产生的，因此某个环境中业已存在的事物，在另外一个环境中就可能就是创新。甲公司中的创新性方法，在乙公司中可能毫无新意可言，但这并不影响这一创新在甲公司中的价值。
Manufactured products and their associated markets transit through a well-described life-cycle; in general terms products are introduced to a market where they prosper or fail, if they prosper, sales increase and profits are made, however, over time competition from similar or new products erode the margins of the product until it ceases to be economic to continue with production. Agri-food products follow a similar process, except that because of the very slow moving nature of changes in diet, products such as wheat do not disappear from the market, but they become a commodity.工业产品及其相关市场有其明晰的生命周期。一般而言，产品进入市场后或生或灭。如果产品获得成功，那么销售增长，利润产生。但是，随着时间推移，类似产品或新产品会蚕食该产品的利润，直到它不再能带来利润并遭停产。农业食品也遵循同样规律，只是，由于人们饮食习惯的改变极其缓慢，诸如小麦等产品不会从市场中消失，而会演变为大宗标准商品。
Moore emphasises that the first three types of innovation dominate the time when the product or technology is struggling for adoption. Disruptive, application and product innovations operate together to carve out a niche or new market category. Only when this has occurred will process innovations be of value and conversely the previous types of innovation lose their leverage. As the product matures the type of innovation that can benefit sales of the product moves away from the product itself to market innovations and ultimately business model and industry structure changes. Moore强调，当产品或技术正逐渐适应市场时，前三种创新占支配地位。破坏性、应用和产品创新共同发挥作用，创造一个细分市场或新的市场类型。只有在这之后，工艺创新才具有价值，同时以前的创新类型的作用消失。随着产品的成熟，能够推动产品销售的创新种类，从产品自身创新演变为市场创新、商业模式和产业结构的改变。
In the previous section it was argued that wealth creation, that is growing GDP per capita, will increasingly be about creating value. In the agri-food sector this will mean a focus on creation of products that ‘add value’ to the outputs produced by farmers. 在上一部分，我们讨论了财富的创造，即人均GDP的增长将越来越多地依赖于价值的创造。在农业食品领域，这意味着为农民生产的产量“增加价值”的产品的创造。
Specific Contributions from Engineering工程技术的具体贡献
The contributions that engineering can make can be delineated in the context of three specific interventions, namely: 工程技术将在以下三个方面做出贡献，即：
· efforts to address food insecurity; 解决食品匮乏问题
· improving resource productivity (GDP per unit of resource used); and改善资源生产率（每单位使用资源GDP）；
· increasing the value component of labour productivity (GDP per hour worked). 提高劳动生产率的价值成分（每工作小时GDP）。
Food insecurity typically exists where food emergencies recur and where people often must rely on a poor or degraded natural resource base, have inadequate access to knowledge and technology and have poor physical access to production inputs and to markets for their goods. Lack of functioning markets – both physical infrastructure and market institutions - for the poorest and most food-insecure leads to hunger among food producers and non-food producers and hinders employment opportunities for the landless. 食品匮乏 一般存在于粮食饥荒频繁发生的地区，人们对贫乏或退化的自然资源强烈依赖的地方，缺乏知识和技术的地方，以及缺乏生产投入和商品市场的地方。最贫困和最缺乏食品的人们的有效市场（包括物质基础设施和市场机构）的缺乏，导致了食品生产者和非食品生产者的饥饿状态，阻碍没有土地的人得到就业机会。
Even adequate overall physical availability of food does not guarantee that the rural landless, urban poor or net-food-buying producers will have sufficient access to purchased food. Reducing poverty is thus a key strategy for increasing food security . But economic growth alone is insufficient for eliminating hunger because so many of the hungry are living beyond the reach of markets; they are at the bottom of the poverty trap. 即使一个地区整体而言有充足的食品供应，也不意味着农村中没有土地的人、城市里的穷人或只有能力购买粮食的生产者能买到足够食品。因此，减少贫困是提高食品保证的主要战略 。 但是，只有经济增长不可能消除饥饿，因为很多饥饿人口生活在市场之外，他们处于贫困的最底层。
It is abundantly obvious that investments to build and upgrade rural physical infrastructure (roads, water and sanitation systems, communication networks, markets, school and healthcare facilities, etc) will provide an improved base from which poor households can build a future. However, the challenge is not a technical/engineering one; generally speaking, the know-how exists and it could be done if the financial resources were made available. The challenge is to provide the physical infrastructure whilst simultaneously building human and social capital in the communities so that full advantage can be taken of the infrastructure. Ideally, the infrastructure would be built in a manner that engages the local community. For example, food for work schemes provides a social safety net whilst simultaneously providing infrastructure. The challenge is for engineers to conceive of technical solutions that are consistent with the principle of building human and social capital such that the communities can operate and maintain the systems they are creating. 用于建设或改善农村的物质基础设施（公路、水力和卫生系统、社区网络、市场、学校和医疗保健设施）的投资能够为贫困家庭带来更美好的未来。但是，我们所面临的问题并不是技术性的；一般而言，技术是有的，只要有足够的财政资源就可以实现。我们所面临的问题，是在社区打造人力资本和社会资本的同时建设物质基础设施，以使基础设施的作用能得以完全发挥。最理想的情况是，当地社区参与到基础设施的建设中来。比如，工作计划的食品在建设基础设施的同时提供了社会安全网络。我们所面临的挑战，是工程技术人员要设计出符合人力资本和社会资本的建设原则的技术解决方案，以使社区能够运作并维持其自己创建的体系。
Improving resource productivity is a long-standing area of work for agricultural engineers. In rural areas across the developing world, water is often the constraining factor in resource poor regions and it is therefore the key ingredient for efforts to reduce hunger. Crop production through irrigation is by no means the only source of food and income that depends on water. Many poor households engage in home-based industries for which water is essential. A growing number of farmers, particularly in Asia, increase rice yields and add a valuable source of protein and income by using water in rice paddies to raise fish. 提高资源生产率 是农业工程技术人员的一项长期任务。在发展中国家的农村地区，水往往是资源匮乏地区的制约因素，因此也往往是减少饥饿所需完成的主要工作之一。通过灌溉种植作物决不是水所带来的食品和收入的唯一来源。很多贫困家庭都参与到了与水息息相关的多种家庭产业中。很多农民，尤其是亚洲的农民，利用稻田里的水养鱼，不仅增加了蛋白质的摄取，还以此增加了稻米产量及收入。
Over the next 30 years, the world’s population is expected to grow by two billion people. Feeding this growing population and reducing hunger will only be possible if agricultural yields can be increased significantly; yet, utilising what is essentially a shrinking resource base. The competition for land, water and energy, coupled with the desire for sustainable agricultural systems dictates that resource productivity must grow. The challenge is double edged, because not only is more food needed and therefore yields in kg/ha must rise. But if GDP per capita is to grow it is desirable that GDP per unit of resource use also grows and so it is advantageous if scarce resources are used for high value outputs. This approach is complemented by the concept of “virtual water”. Where water is scarce and the environment fragile, achieving food security may depend on food imported from countries with an abundance of water. In such conditions it makes sense to import staple commodities and to utilise the limited water resources for high value purposes. Thus achieving food security is not necessarily the same as food self-sufficiency. For some countries, food self-sufficiency is not a realistic goal. 有效利用，才能养活如此众多的人口，并减少饥饿。土地、水和能源引起的竞争，以及对可持续农业体系的需要，都意味着资源生产率必须提高。这是一个双重挑战，因为我们不仅需要更多食品，必须提高土地的单位产量；而且如果要想提高人均GDP的话，就需要提高每单位使用资源GDP，以使利用稀缺资源进行的高价值生产变得有利可图。“虚拟水”的概念是对这一手段的补充。水资源稀缺、环境脆弱的地区，可以依赖从水资源丰富的国家进口粮食实现食品保证。这些地区可以进口大宗商品，并将有限的水资源利用于其它具有更高价值的目的。因此，实现食品安全并不等同于食品的自给自足。对于一些国家，食品的自给自足是不现实的。
It is an unfortunate fact that a number of farming systems practiced around the world result in the degradation of the environment and a loss of natural resources. One approach to combating this is the use of Conservation Agriculture (CA). This is an approach to crop production that is based on three principles: permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance, and crop rotations or crop associations. The essence and value of CA lies in the strong synergy to be gained from applying the principal components together. All three individual technologies have been previously well known, but historically little effort was made to apply them together. 不幸的是，世界上的一些农耕体系导致了环境退化以及自然资源的浪费。解决这个问题的手段之一是保护性农业（Conservation Agriculture）的介入。保护性农业是一种作物生产手段，它基于三个原则：永久性土被，最低土壤干扰，以及轮作或作物关联。保护性农业的精髓和价值在于三个主要原则同时实施所带来的强大效应。这三项技术一直为人所知，但是过去我们几乎从未做过任何工作，将其同时实施。

Farmers look to CA to solve a problem. In the formatives stages of CA the problem faced by farmers adopting CA was related to soil loss. More recently farmers have been attracted to consider CA through needs related to profitability, early crop establishment, and labour demands. The reported benefits of CA are multiple. Surface runoff and erosion are greatly reduced or eliminated. Yields become more stable, particularly in dry years, and then gradually increase, accompanied by a decreasing need for inputs. Profits are generally higher, in some cases from the beginning, but normally after a few years. Communities also benefit from improved food security and lower maintenance costs for roads and waterways. Global benefits include carbon sequestration. However, the transition to conservation agriculture is not free from cost or risk, nor is it particularly simple. The change to conservation agriculture has been proven to be easier to achieve through a community-driven development process whereby local communities and farmer associations identify and decide on the best options for conservation agriculture in their location. 农民希望保护性农业能够解决问题。在保护性农业的形成阶段，实施保护性农业的农民遇到了土壤损失问题。近年来，出于收益率、早期作物建设和劳动力需求方面的原因，农民又开始考虑实施保护性农业。我们得到了大量报告，证实了保护性农业所带来的多重利益。地表迳流和侵蚀得到了极大改观，甚至完全消失。收成、尤其是干旱之年的收成，变得更加稳定，并且有所上升，而所需投入却减少了。在一些地区，农民的收入从一开始就有所增加，但是在更多地区中农民的收入是在几年之后开始逐步增加的。社区的食品保证有所改善，同时公路和水路的维护费用有所降低。而全球范围内的炭排放也得到降低。但是，保护性农业的转型并非没有成本或风险，而且这个过程也非常复杂。大量实践已经证实，由社区带动的发展过程能够简化保护性农业转变的过程。当地社区和农民组织应发现并决定最适合其所在地区特点的保护性农业措施。

CA cannot be applied in situations at random through a ‘cook-book’ approach. Rather, each situation must be examined in the context of agro-climatic factors as well as factors such as security of land tenure, equipment supply chains, financial services, markets for increased production, and the economic viability of the necessary investments. Successful implementation of CA generally requires a measure of local adaptation. Currently knowledge gaps exist in relation to CA in arid and humid zones and in the context of mixed cropping and livestock systems. 保护性农业的实施不是照本宣科式的，我们必须考察一个地区的农业气候因素以及土地占有制、设备供应链、金融部门、额外产量的潜在市场、以及必要投资的经济生存能力等等因素。一般而言，要想成功实施保护性农业，就需要适应当地各种条件。目前，干旱地带和潮湿地带在保护性农业的混合栽培和畜牧体系方面存在知识鸿沟。

Consideration of resource productivity must also include energy or farm power. The availability of farm power is central to the success of initiatives to increase food production. It determines, in part, the area under cultivation, the timeliness of operations, the effective utilisation of other inputs and, ultimately, the productivity of the system. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and a number of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) a ‘farm power crisis’ is emerging. In both these regions agricultural productivity is constrained by a lack of farm power. In the case of SSA there remains a heavy reliance on human power and, in some locations, draft animal power. The HIV/AIDS pandemic combined with urban migration is reducing the labour available to rural households; in some cases disease and drought have decimated livestock numbers which has constrained the use of draft animals. In some of the CIS states the situation is characterised by past large-scale mechanisation that can no longer be sustained. For example, in Central Asia harvesting of much of the cotton crop has reverted to hand-picking, where it was once entirely mechanised. 能源和农业劳动力也是资源生产率的必要考虑。农业劳动力的利用率对增加粮食产量至关重要。在一定意义上，它决定着耕地面积、作业及时性、对其它投入的有效利用，以及整个体系的生产率。在撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地区，以及几个独联体国家中，“农业劳动力危机”正在涌现。这些地区的农业生产率由于农业劳动力的缺乏而受到局限。撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地区仍然对人力甚至畜力存在很大依赖。大范围HIV/AIDS感染，以及农村人口向城市的迁徙，降低了农村家庭劳动力的利用率。在某些地区，疾病和干旱导致牲畜成批死亡，限制了畜力的使用。而在一些独联体国家，过去曾经大规模使用的机械，现在再也无法使用。比如，在中亚地区，过去曾经完全依靠机械收割的棉花作物，现在又退回到手工收割。

Once again the issue in farm power is not simply addressed through technology/engineering. The economic and technical environment in which the farmers operate has a significant impact on the options available to them. 我要再次强调，农业劳动力的问题不可能仅仅通过技术/工程解决。农民作业的经济和技术环境对其本身的选择范围有极大影响。