IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v154y2022ics1364032121011606.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The sustainability of staple crops in China can be substantially improved through localized strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Zhuang, Minghao
  • Liu, Yize
  • Yang, Yi
  • Zhang, Qingsong
  • Ying, Hao
  • Yin, Yulong
  • Cui, Zhenling

Abstract

China's staple crop systems face great challenges to reduce the intensive use of agrochemicals and associated pollution while ensuring food security. Given the large variation in resource endowment, climatic and socioeconomic conditions, improving the sustainability of staple crops requires localized strategies. What strategies to pursue at local levels and to what extent they can improve crop sustainability remain unclear. Here, we present the first crop-specific county-level sustainability assessment of China's staple crops (wheat, maize, and rice) and their potentials for improvement using emergy analysis. Results show that the current mean emergy sustainability index of wheat, maize and rice is relatively low (i.e., at 2.35, 2.45, 1.94, respectively), indicating the production system of staple crops in China is relatively vigor but has still a large potential for improvement. Their sustainability is driven primarily by crop yield, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer use, and thus can be notably improved by such strategies as closing yield and nutrient-use efficiency gaps. Staple crops sustainability at the county level exhibits a large spatial heterogeneity, and the top 25% counties of emergy sustainability are mainly concentrated in the northern plain (for wheat), in the southwest regions and the central region (for maize), and in the southwest regions (for rice). More importantly, the county-level improvement potential shows a large spatial variation between strategies, suggesting that different regions would benefit more from different strategies. With the optimal strategy suited to each region, the mean emergy sustainability index of wheat, maize, and rice would increase by 35.6%, 40.5%, 26.6% compared with the current level, respectively. Overall, our study based on high-solution spatially-explicit analyses can inform farmers and policy makers on sustainable agricultural management, and provide a reference for other developing countries facing similar challenges. The comprehensive and detailed county-level crop database we have compiled can also be used broadly for analyses of China's agricultural pollution and food security.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhuang, Minghao & Liu, Yize & Yang, Yi & Zhang, Qingsong & Ying, Hao & Yin, Yulong & Cui, Zhenling, 2022. "The sustainability of staple crops in China can be substantially improved through localized strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:154:y:2022:i:c:s1364032121011606
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121011606
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111893?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amaral, Luís P. & Martins, Nélson & Gouveia, Joaquim B., 2016. "A review of emergy theory, its application and latest developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 882-888.
    2. Brown, Mark T. & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2016. "Emergy assessment of global renewable sources," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 339(C), pages 148-156.
    3. Xuejun Liu & Ying Zhang & Wenxuan Han & Aohan Tang & Jianlin Shen & Zhenling Cui & Peter Vitousek & Jan Willem Erisman & Keith Goulding & Peter Christie & Andreas Fangmeier & Fusuo Zhang, 2013. "Enhanced nitrogen deposition over China," Nature, Nature, vol. 494(7438), pages 459-462, February.
    4. Deepak K. Ray & Navin Ramankutty & Nathaniel D. Mueller & Paul C. West & Jonathan A. Foley, 2012. "Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, January.
    5. Zhenling Cui & Hongyan Zhang & Xinping Chen & Chaochun Zhang & Wenqi Ma & Chengdong Huang & Weifeng Zhang & Guohua Mi & Yuxin Miao & Xiaolin Li & Qiang Gao & Jianchang Yang & Zhaohui Wang & Youliang Y, 2018. "Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers," Nature, Nature, vol. 555(7696), pages 363-366, March.
    6. Zhenci Xu & Xiuzhi Chen & Jianguo Liu & Yu Zhang & Sophia Chau & Nishan Bhattarai & Ye Wang & Yingjie Li & Thomas Connor & Yunkai Li, 2020. "Impacts of irrigated agriculture on food–energy–water–CO2 nexus across metacoupled systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Xin Zhang & Eric A. Davidson & Denise L. Mauzerall & Timothy D. Searchinger & Patrice Dumas & Ye Shen, 2015. "Managing nitrogen for sustainable development," Nature, Nature, vol. 528(7580), pages 51-59, December.
    8. David Tilman & Kenneth G. Cassman & Pamela A. Matson & Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky, 2002. "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 671-677, August.
    9. Xinping Chen & Zhenling Cui & Mingsheng Fan & Peter Vitousek & Ming Zhao & Wenqi Ma & Zhenlin Wang & Weijian Zhang & Xiaoyuan Yan & Jianchang Yang & Xiping Deng & Qiang Gao & Qiang Zhang & Shiwei Guo , 2014. "Producing more grain with lower environmental costs," Nature, Nature, vol. 514(7523), pages 486-489, October.
    10. Nanyan Deng & Patricio Grassini & Haishun Yang & Jianliang Huang & Kenneth G. Cassman & Shaobing Peng, 2019. "Closing yield gaps for rice self-sufficiency in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    11. Yuantao Yang & Shen Qu & Bofeng Cai & Sai Liang & Zhaohua Wang & Jinnan Wang & Ming Xu, 2020. "Mapping global carbon footprint in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    12. Chen, Wei & Liu, Wenjing & Geng, Yong & Brown, Mark T. & Gao, Cuixia & Wu, Rui, 2017. "Recent progress on emergy research: A bibliometric analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1051-1060.
    13. Brown, Mark T. & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2010. "Updated evaluation of exergy and emergy driving the geobiosphere: A review and refinement of the emergy baseline," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(20), pages 2501-2508.
    14. Zhang, Peng & Zhang, Junjie & Chen, Minpeng, 2017. "Economic impacts of climate change on agriculture: The importance of additional climatic variables other than temperature and precipitation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 8-31.
    15. Shilong Piao & Philippe Ciais & Yao Huang & Zehao Shen & Shushi Peng & Junsheng Li & Liping Zhou & Hongyan Liu & Yuecun Ma & Yihui Ding & Pierre Friedlingstein & Chunzhen Liu & Kun Tan & Yongqiang Yu , 2010. "The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7311), pages 43-51, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mengjin Ma & Huan Li & Dongliang Yan & Yihan Zhang & Miaomiao Song & Yongchao Wang & Hao Wang & Ruixin Shao & Jiameng Guo & Qinghua Yang, 2022. "Application of Blended Controlled-Release and Normal Urea with Suitable Maize Varieties to Achieve Integrated Agronomic and Environmental Impact in a High-Yielding Summer Maize System," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Zhiyuan Zhu & Jiajia Duan & Shilin Li & Zhenzhong Dai & Yongzhong Feng, 2022. "Phenomenon of Non-Grain Production of Cultivated Land Has Become Increasingly Prominent over the Last 20 Years: Evidence from Guanzhong Plain, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Qiu, Bingwen & Jian, Zeyu & Yang, Peng & Tang, Zhenghong & Zhu, Xiaolin & Duan, Mingjie & Yu, Qiangyi & Chen, Xuehong & Zhang, Miao & Tu, Ping & Xu, Weiming & Zhao, Zhiyuan, 2024. "Unveiling grain production patterns in China (2005–2020) towards targeted sustainable intensification," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    4. Qu, Ziren & Luo, Ning & Guo, Jiameng & Xu, Jie & Wang, Pu & Meng, Qingfeng, 2024. "Enhancing sustainability in the new variety-based low emergy system for maize production by nitrogen optimization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    5. Yan, Jie & Kong, Zhaoyang & Liu, Yize & Li, Ning & Yang, Xiaolin & Zhuang, Minghao, 2023. "A high-resolution energy use efficiency assessment of China’s staple food crop production and associated improvement potential," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    6. Jiangfeng Hu & Jingjing Lyu & Xinyuan Zhang, 2022. "Evaluating Agricultural Sustainability and Green GDP in China: An Emergy Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Xia, Longlong & Chen, Wenhao & Lu, Bufan & Wang, Shanshan & Xiao, Lishan & Liu, Beibei & Yang, Hongqiang & Huang, Chu-Long & Wang, Hongtao & Yang, Yang & Lin, Litao & Zhu, Xiangdong & Chen, Wei-Qiang , 2023. "Climate mitigation potential of sustainable biochar production in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Guo, Xiao-Xia & Li, Ke-Li & Liu, Yi-Ze & Zhuang, Ming-Hao & Wang, Chong, 2022. "Toward the economic-environmental sustainability of smallholder farming systems through judicious management strategies and optimized planting structures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. Chen, Qiuwen & Ma, Xiaohan & Hu, Jiayu & Zhang, Xiaohong, 2023. "Comparison of comprehensive performance of kiwifruit production in China, Iran, and Italy based on emergy and carbon emissions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 483(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhongen Niu & Huimin Yan & Fang Liu, 2020. "Decreasing Cropping Intensity Dominated the Negative Trend of Cropland Productivity in Southern China in 2000–2015," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Guo, Xiao-Xia & Li, Ke-Li & Liu, Yi-Ze & Zhuang, Ming-Hao & Wang, Chong, 2022. "Toward the economic-environmental sustainability of smallholder farming systems through judicious management strategies and optimized planting structures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    3. Bo Sun & Yongming Luo & Dianlin Yang & Jingsong Yang & Yuguo Zhao & Jiabao Zhang, 2023. "Coordinative Management of Soil Resources and Agricultural Farmland Environment for Food Security and Sustainable Development in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Wang, Hongzhang & Ren, Hao & Zhang, Lihua & Zhao, Yali & Liu, Yuee & He, Qijin & Li, Geng & Han, Kun & Zhang, Jiwang & Zhao, Bin & Ren, Baizhao & Liu, Peng, 2023. "A sustainable approach to narrowing the summer maize yield gap experienced by smallholders in the North China Plain," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    5. Zhang, Bangbang & Li, Xian & Chen, Haibin & Niu, Wenhao & Kong, Xiangbin & Yu, Qiang & Zhao, Minjuan & Xia, Xianli, 2022. "Identifying opportunities to close yield gaps in China by use of certificated cultivars to estimate potential productivity," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Cristiano, S. & Ulgiati, S. & Gonella, F., 2021. "Systemic sustainability and resilience assessment of health systems, addressing global societal priorities: Learnings from a top nonprofit hospital in a bioclimatic building in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    7. Shen Yuan & Bruce A. Linquist & Lloyd T. Wilson & Kenneth G. Cassman & Alexander M. Stuart & Valerien Pede & Berta Miro & Kazuki Saito & Nurwulan Agustiani & Vina Eka Aristya & Leonardus Y. Krisnadi &, 2021. "Sustainable intensification for a larger global rice bowl," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Lyu, Yanfeng & Yang, Xiangdong & Ma, Xiaohan & Pan, Hengyu & Zhang, Xiaohong, 2023. "Promoting coordinated development of the fertilizer production-crop plantation combined system through an integrated approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 478(C).
    9. Weishou Shen & Yaou Long & Zijian Qiu & Nan Gao & Yoko Masuda & Hideomi Itoh & Hirotomo Ohba & Yutaka Shiratori & Adharsh Rajasekar & Keishi Senoo, 2022. "Investigation of Rice Yields and Critical N Losses from Paddy Soil under Different N Fertilization Rates with Iron Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-16, July.
    10. Jun Li & Minglei Wang & Wenjiao Shi & Xiaoli Shi, 2024. "Halving Environmental Impacts of Diverse Crop Production in Fujian, China through Optimized Nitrogen Management," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Jianjian He & Siqi Wang & Reinout Heijungs & Yi Yang & Shumiao Shu & Weiwen Zhang & Anqi Xu & Kai Fang, 2024. "Interprovincial food trade aggravates China’s land scarcity," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Ana Carolina V. Nadalini & Ricardo de Araujo Kalid & Ednildo Andrade Torres, 2021. "Emergy as a Tool to Evaluate Ecosystem Services: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-14, June.
    13. Yu, Wenjia & Yue, Yaojie & Wang, Fangxiong, 2022. "The spatial-temporal coupling pattern of grain yield and fertilization in the North China plain," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    14. Xu, Zhuo & He, Ping & Yin, Xinyou & Huang, Qiuhong & Ding, Wencheng & Xu, Xinpeng & Struik, Paul C., 2023. "Can the advisory system Nutrient Expert® balance productivity, profitability and sustainability for rice production systems in China?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    15. Penghui Wang & Rui Ding & Wenjiao Shi & Jun Li, 2024. "Potential Reductions in the Environmental Impacts of Agricultural Production in Hubei Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Tenorio, Fatima A.M. & McLellan, Eileen L. & Eagle, Alison J. & Cassman, Kenneth G. & Torrion, Jessica A. & Grassini, Patricio, 2021. "Disentangling management factors influencing nitrogen balance in producer fields in the western Corn Belt," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    17. Shen Yuan & Shaobing Peng, 2017. "Exploring the Trends in Nitrogen Input and Nitrogen Use Efficiency for Agricultural Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Paul L. G. Vlek & Asia Khamzina & Hossein Azadi & Anik Bhaduri & Luna Bharati & Ademola Braimoh & Christopher Martius & Terry Sunderland & Fatemeh Taheri, 2017. "Trade-Offs in Multi-Purpose Land Use under Land Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-19, November.
    19. Lu, Jie & Bai, Zhaohai & Velthof, Gerard L. & Wu, Zhiguo & Chadwick, David & Ma, Lin, 2019. "Accumulation and leaching of nitrate in soils in wheat-maize production in China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 407-415.
    20. Tiziano Gomiero, 2016. "Soil Degradation, Land Scarcity and Food Security: Reviewing a Complex Challenge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-41, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:154:y:2022:i:c:s1364032121011606. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.