Improving China’s food and environmental security with conservation agriculture†

China has achieved impressive increases in agricultural output in recent decades. Yet, past approaches centred on a growing use of fertilizers, pesticides, fuel and water are not likely to achieve the required 30–50% additional increases in food production by mid-century. We show that efficiencies of production are falling and the costs of environmental harm are increasing. Agricultural innovations that improve natural capital are urgently needed. Conservation agriculture (CA) is now practised on >8?Mha in China and is offering promising prospects of both enhanced yields and environmental services. Our meta-analysis of 60 papers with 395 observations in China shows notable benefits from CA. Mean yield increase was 4.5% or 263?kg?ha^?1 for wheat, 8.3% or 424?kg?ha^?1 for maize, and 1.65% or 250?kg?ha^?1 for rice. In 34 datasets from 22 published papers (experimental duration: 2–17 years), 26 datasets (76.5%) show that CA increased yield and soil organic carbon (mean SOC increase of >3?g.kg^?1 in 0–10?cm soil depth) when compared with traditional tillage. Key priorities for the spread of more sustainable forms of agriculture in China are national policy and financial support, better coordination across agencies, and better extension for farmers.     

Beyond the agroecological and sustainable agricultural intensification debate: Is blended sustainability the way forward?

With the sustainable development goals has come a renewed global interest in ending hunger and achieving food security, while preventing natural resource degradation. Despite this renewed interest and increased commitments to invest in agricultural development, there is an outstanding debate over the technological trajectories to sustainability. The debate centres on sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) and agroecological intensification (AEI) pathways to agricultural sustainability. Using a systematic literature review approach, this study examines the debate over AEI and SAI. This study employs a theoretical framework based on the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of sustainable agriculture within a policy and institutional space. Based on the sustainability dimensions, a discourse analytical technique is applied to unravel the debate. The results reveal differences in actor composition in the SAI and AEI pathways. Both pathways aim to promote food security with optimal and sustainable use of inputs; however, the actors differ on discourse relating to the concept of farming, the role of genetic engineering, the scale of operation, land use and soil health. Resolving these differences requires a blended sustainability approach that moves beyond the current AEI and SAI debate by acknowledging the tradeoffs and synergies of the socio-economic and ecological dimensions.     

An assessment of the economic and environmental potential of biomass production in an agricultural region

The establishment of deep-rooted perennial species and their processing for biomass-based products such as renewable energy can have benefits for both local and global scale environmental objectives. In this study, we assess the potential economic viability of biomass production in the South Australian River Murray Corridor and quantify the resultant benefits for local and global scale environmental objectives. We model the spatial distribution of economically viable biomass production in a Geographic Information System and quantify the model sensitivity and uncertainty using Monte Carlo analysis. The total potentially viable area for biomass production under the Most Likely Scenario is 360,728 ha (57.7% of the dryland agricultural area), producing over 3 million tonnes of green biomass per annum, with a total Net Present Value over 100 years of A$ 88 million. The salinity in the River Murray could be reduced by 2.65 EC (μS/cm) over a 100-year timeframe, and over 96,000 ha of land with high wind erosion potential could be stabilised over a much shorter period. With sufficient generating capacity, our Most Likely Scenario suggests that economically viable biomass production could reduce carbon emissions by over 1.7 million tonnes per annum through the production of renewable energy and a reduced reliance on coal-based electricity generation. Our analyses suggest that biomass production is a potentially viable alternative agricultural system that can have substantial local scale environmental benefits with complimentary global scale benefits for climate change mitigation.     

Defining and delivering ‘sustainable’ agriculture in the UK after Brexit: interdisciplinary lessons from experiences of agricultural reform

Defining and achieving sustainability in the context of complex, multi-scale, and constantly changing agricultural systems is a challenge for research and policy. In UK agriculture, the European Union and its Common Agricultural Policy has been a key source of funding for and approaches to sustainability in the agriculture and rural development sectors. The decision to leave the European Union represents a significant moment in UK agriculture and rural development policy, and both an opportunity and responsibility for the UK government to set out and commit towards achieving sustainability goals for the sector. In this study, a combination of ethnographic case study research, focusing on the case of upland farmers in the Yorkshire Dales, policy analysis and national agricultural sector data is referred to in describing experiences of agricultural policy reform over recent decades. From these experiences, lessons for the design and delivery of future agriculture and rural development are drawn out. It is argued that the integrated assessment of multiple sources of knowledge can provide a means to critically reflecting on evidence about sustainability in complex systems, better understanding trade-offs, and creating a more complete and inclusive knowledge base from which to define sustainable agriculture.     

北京市土地储备开发集约化策略研究

研究目的：通过对北京市土地储备开发的研究,寻求土地储备开发集约化的策略。研究方法：文献资料法和因果分析法。研究结果：建立了新的土地储备开发集约化实施和管理机制,并确定了土地储备开发集约化的实施保障措施,以保证土地储备开发集约化的实现。研究结论：本文从土地储备开发集约化角度出发,找到一条与区域土地开发和城市建设管理相统筹的路子,创新土地储备开发机制,实现资源利用最大化,为更加科学合理地进行土地储备开发提供了新思路。     

Induced innovation and land degradation: Results from a bioeconomic model of a village in West Africa

This paper introduces a modeling method which simulates a village's response to population and market pressure. The method combines a recursive and dynamic linear programming model with a biophysical model of soil condition and plant growth that predicts yields and land degradation for different type of land, land use and cropping patterns. The linear programming model simulates farmers' plans aggregated at the village level under constraints of risk aversion, food consumption, land area, soil fertility, soil depth, labor and cash availability. Detailed agroecological factors determine Ihe main processes of land degradation. A large number of technological alternatives, representing different degrees of labor and/or land-saving techniques available in the study areas, are introduced, taking into account their respective constraints, costs and advantages. The method has been calibrated for a village located in the sub-humid region of Burkina Faso. Several simulations are carried out to the Year 2030. The results show that population pressure leads to intensification and investment in land conservation practices out not necessarily to better farm incomes. Increasing market opportunities can play a more positive role in boosting productivity, but for the next decades the best way to increase production per farmer is to let farmers migrate from the high-population-density areas to the low-population-density areas because, under the current economic conditions of most Sahelian countries, intensification per hectare is stil more expensive than the fallow system.     

农史研究的新工具--中国农业遗产信息平台的设计与构建

农史文献数量庞大、类型多样，是农史研究的重要基础。本文阐明了在当今计算机和网络技术高度发达的时代，进行农史文献数字化的必然性和意义，并以南京农业大学中华农业文明研究院“中国农业遗产信息平台”建设为例，分析了农史文献数字化的步骤和流程，以及探讨农史研究人员如何利用这一信息平台，实现资源共建共享。     

苏南人口与经济协调发展评价与分析

文章从人口和经济两方面,选取了16个指标构建了人口与经济协调发展度评价指标体系.采用2008年数据,运用层次分析法及DPS软件,综合评价了苏南五个地级市的人口与经济发展水平,量化了人口与经济协调发展的关系,分析表明苏州,无锡人口与经济达到了优质协调;南京,常州达到了基本协调;镇江处于极不协调.在此基础上,提出了实现人口...     

Economic indicators of sustainable forest management: theory versus practice

There appears to be a divergence between the conceptual literature in economics on forest sustainability indicators and the practical literature on economic indicators of sustainable forest management. The former focuses on forest resource accounts and issues related to measurement of integrated natural or forest capital accounts. The latter includes some elements of capital accounts but also contains a variety of other community level economic activity indicators. The divergence between these two bodies of literature is evaluated in this paper. Some explanations for the differences are offered as are some suggestions for improvement and investigation in the area of economic sustainability indicators.     

区域创新资源配置模式研究

在分析了创新资源及其配置相关概念的基础上,从宏观、中观和微观三个层次进一步分析了创新资源的配置,结合区域创新系统的相关特征,综合考虑创新资源配置过程中的市场与计划机制,探讨了区域创新资源配置的基本模式。