PRIORITY AREAS, CONTENTS, AND KEY PROBLEMS OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING DISCIPLINE IN CHINA

Agricultural Engineering discipline, just as any of the general engineering disciplines like mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electical engineering, chemical engineering, managment engineering etc, has its own specific and unique object area of study, namely, the interrelations between agricultural organism, produce materials, or enviromental materials and the physical means as applied at engineering scale, either taking the group or an individual organism, its tissues, organs, systems of organs as target of investigation. Informations from the exploration of these interrelationships will help in devising effective ways to promote, measure and control biological growth, material transformation, quality change and enviromental factors. Operational planning, melioration scheme and engineering project design can then be optimized taking into consideration simultaneously the natural forces, natural resources, energy supplies, biological technics applied, chemicals applications, economical interests and social impacts. Starting from the basic conditions of Chinese agriculture and its pressing tasks, the priority areas key problems, and subdisciplines to be establisned and developed are stipulated to invite discussions in this paper.