Research on the construction and technical measures of the coupling of production-ecology-life at Mountain Tea Garden

This paper summarises the successful implementation of a production-ecology-life strategy and the related challenges for the case study of mountain tea garden in Fujian province. Thanks to our experience in researching and constructing ecological tea gardens in hilly red soil, the concept of "production-ecology-life" coupling in tea gardens was devised and implemented, and the theoretical basis of the "Sansheng" coupled tea garden was elaborated. The "Sansheng" concept entails specific agricultural development systems, which are constructed according to the principle of ecological economics and can bring multiple benefits to the production, ecology and life functions of mountain tea gardens. These benefits are achieved through an optimal combination of various elements in the system and ordered links in time and space. The construction elements and the technical implementation points of the "Sansheng" coupled tea garden were proposed in terms of scientific soil reclamation, water and fertilizer regulation, soil and water conservation, dimensional interplanting/breeding, ecological restoration and tea garden landscape conservation, combination of green environment and tea plantation tourism, diversified development and health leisure. The results of energy analysis from the case study showed that the self-support rate of the "Sansheng" tea garden is 36.31% higher than that of a traditional tea garden, and its sustainability index is 2.68 times that of a traditional tea garden. This altogether indicates that the "Sansheng" tea garden mode performs better than a conventional tea garden in terms of production efficiency and sustainable development. Finally, in the light of the state of development of green tea cultivation in Fujian province, the paper presents technical and management measures for developing "Sansheng" coupled tea gardens, in order to provide references for tea companies and farms and aid them in the green development process.