Agricultural environmental footprint index based on planetary boundary: Framework and case on Chinese agriculture

Xian, Yuanran; Cai, Guangyuan; Sang, Jianan; Chen, Yong; Wang, Xiaolong

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135699

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…As a result, the agricultural production sector is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, with agriculture and land use change accounting for about a quarter of total global greenhouse gas emissions [6]. In addition, a large amount of purchased resources are invested in conventional agricultural management [4], which in turn increases the cost of agricultural production and greenhouse gas emissions, making it possible to obtain poorer net income and ecological benefits [7]. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop cropmanagement technologies that maintain and increase crop yield while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving crop water use efficiency to increase agricultural benefit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Analysis of Maize Production under Previous Wheat Straw Returning in Arid Irrigated Areas

Yin

Chen

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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Conservation tillage is widely recognized as an important way to improve soil quality, ensure food security and mitigate climate change. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the subject in terms of sustainable evaluation of environmental and economic benefits of the combination of no tillage and straw returning for maize production in arid irrigated areas. In this study, grain yield (GY) and water use efficiency based on grain yield (WUEGY), soil carbon emission characteristics and economic benefits were investigated, and a sustainability evaluation index based on the above indicators was assessed in maize production under a wheat–maize rotation system from 2009 to 2012. Four wheat straw returning approaches were designed: no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw mulching (NTSMP), no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw standing (NTSSP), conventional tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw incorporation (CTSP), and conventional tillage without wheat straw returning (CTP). The results showed that NTSMP treatment could effectively regulate water consumption characteristics of maize fields and meet the water conditions for high grain yield formation, thus gaining higher GY and WUEGY. NTSMP increased GY and WUEGY of maize by 13.7–17.5% and 15.4–16.7% over the CTP treatment, and by 5.6–9.0% and 2.3–11.2% over the CTSP treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, compared with CTP, the NTSMP treatment could effectively reduce carbon emissions from maize fields, where average soil carbon emission fluxes (ACf), carbon emission (CE) and water use efficiency based on carbon emission (WUECE) were reduced by 17.7–18.9%, 11.1–11.2% and 8.8–12.8% and carbon emission efficiency (CEE) was increased by 10.2–14.7%. In addition, the NTSMP and NTSSP treatments could effectively increase total output and reduce human labor and farm machinery input, resulting in higher economic benefit. Among them, the NTSMP treatment was the most effective, net income (NI) and benefit per cubic meter of water (BPW) were increased by 16.1–34.2% and 19.1–31.8% over the CTP treatment, and by 13.2–13.3% and 9.8–15.6% over the CTSP treatment, respectively. The sustainability analysis showed that the NTSMP treatment had a high sustainability evaluation index and was a promising field-management strategy. Therefore, no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw mulching is a sustainable maize-management practice for increasing economic benefits and improving environmental impacts in arid irrigated areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%