Sustainable agriculture and rural development has been the worldwide concern,and particularly important for China.Geography should have its own perspectives,theories and methodologies for studying this topic.Directing the key issues faced by the sustainable agriculture and rural development of
China,and linked with international experiences and the sustainable factors in Chinese traditional agriculture,geography should research the transformation mechanism of sustainable agriculture and rural development.Based upon natural structure and focusing on the human-land relationship,geography should search,
at the regional scale,the indicators,approaches and regional models of sustainable agriculture and rural development.In this way,geography can provide regional strategies and operationalizing measures for China in implementing the transformations from planned economy to market economy and from extensive man-
agement to intensive management,and the strategies of sustainable development and science-education promotion.