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The developed countries have already marched a long way and accumulated rich experience in utilizing crop straw, which is fairly ahead of China particularly in the fields of the administrative policies and regulations. The total yield of crop straw in China ranks the first place in the world in recent years. Yet the policies and regulations of crop straw management in China are insufficient, and it is of great importance to learn the specific practice and advanced management measures from foreign countries. Based on a large amount of literature research and analysis, in the paper we reviewed the policies and regulations of crop straw utilization in foreign countries and summarized the successful experiences. The results show that crop straw in developed countries gives priority to recycle as fertilizer to the field, which plays an important role in forming reasonable fertilization structure. And major developed countries have established mature and efficient system of straw collection, storage and transportation, which is the key issue to develop crop straw utilization industry. In order to make full use of crop straw and reduce open burning, many developed countries have carried out some pertinent policies and regulations. Policies of straw utilization in foreign countries mainly focus on target strategy, government investment and financial support, tax incentives and concessional loans, as well as incentive mechanism. The main 2 types of laws and regulations on crop straw utilization in foreign countries are agriculture-type regulation and energy-type regulation. The former type mainly involves the regulations on tillage conservation and soil fertilization by crop straw returning. The latter one involves the regulations on renewable energy and biomass energy. The crop straw in China has the characteristics of large quantity, scattered distribution, and so on. Policies and regulations of crop straw utilization and management should be made according to the reality in China. Based on the advanced experiences in foreign countries, the recommended policies and regulations on how to improve straw utilization in China are proposed as follows: 1) Clarify targets and dominant modes of crop straw utilization; the goals of straw utilization will be broken into achievable goals, projects and actions in different years and areas, and straw returning is recommended to establish the fertilization system in China which also includes stable manure and chemical fertilizer; 2) Bring government’s function into full play to improve investment supporting in order to provide various financial supports, and the main measures are as follows: supports on technology equipment development and industrialization demonstration project, financial subsidy of green products, purchase allowance on agricultural machinery, and subsidies of mechanization of straw returning based on working area; 3) Make and implement tax, and credit and loan preference polices on straw processing and utilization of enterprises, as well as straw collection and transportation companies, carry out investment tax compensation and deduction of value added tax (VAT) policy on straw utilization projects, and formulate and implement different carbon tax policies, such as laying high carbon tax on fossil energy but free carbon tax on biomass energy; 4) Establish policy incentive mechanism by improving the incentives for investing, such as building fund-raising system including central and local government and management body, and implementing rural electricity price on straw collection, storage and processing, and reduction and exemption policy on road and bridge toll; 5) Formulate and promulgate laws and regulations of straw utilization and set up relatively mature law system; amend laws about crop straw utilization, for example, add regulations of raising animal with crop straw to Animal Husbandry Law, and add relevant regulations of conservation tillage to Soil and Water Conservation Law, and establish regulations on crop straw collection-storage system and “5F” (fertilizer, fuel, fodder, fiber, feed stock) utilization. Requirement and relevant standards of straw comprehensive utilization and safe handling should be clarified in regulation of new countryside and beautiful countryside construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]