IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i6p1180-d1667981.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatiotemporal Differentiation of Fertilizer and Pesticide Use and Its Driving Factors in the Yangtze River Delta of China: An Analysis at the County Scale

Author

Listed:
  • Ke Wu

    (State Key Laboratory of Lake and Watershed Science for Water Security, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, China
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)

  • Cheng Chen

    (State Key Laboratory of Lake and Watershed Science for Water Security, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, China)

Abstract

Reducing fertilizer and pesticide use is a crucial path for the green transformation of agricultural production, which has garnered sustained attention in research on sustainable agricultural development. Based on the theoretical analysis, this article analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of fertilizer and pesticide usage intensity (FUI and PUI) in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) over the past 20 years and uses a Two-Way Fixed Effects Model to test their impacts and mechanisms. Findings show that agricultural development in the YRD shows a pattern of specialization and intensification with a significant north–south divide, with zero growth and reduction in fertilizer and pesticide use across the region from 2010 to 2015, but the current FUI and PUI are still nearly three and five times higher than the global average. Over the past 20 years, the FUI is high in the north and low in the south, high in the plains and low in mountainous-hilly areas, and high in suburban areas and low in remote counties. Adversely, the PUI is high in the south and low in the north, high in mountainous-hilly areas and low in plains, and high in suburban areas and low in remote counties. The FUI and PUI of characteristic agricultural areas of fruit, tea, and forestry in southern Anhui and southwestern Zhejiang, as well as the agroecological and facility agriculture clusters in southern Jiangsu and the suburbs of Shanghai, have approached the peak and successfully moved into the new green development stage earlier compared to other areas. In contrast, the grain and oil production plains areas along the Yangtze River, the coast, in northern Anhui, and in northern Jiangsu are relatively lagging behind. The combination of soil, water, light, and heat resource conditions and modes of agriculture production shape the absolute figures of FUI and PUI, and factors such as the level of local economic development and public fiscal expenditure significantly influence the trajectories of spatiotemporal differentiation in the progress of reducing fertilizer and pesticide in the YRD.

Suggested Citation

  • Ke Wu & Cheng Chen, 2025. "Spatiotemporal Differentiation of Fertilizer and Pesticide Use and Its Driving Factors in the Yangtze River Delta of China: An Analysis at the County Scale," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:1180-:d:1667981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1180/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/6/1180/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qiu, Tongwei & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Shangpu & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Does land renting-in reduce grain production? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Xu, Dingde & Deng, Xin & Huang, Kai & Liu, Yi & Yong, Zhuolin & Liu, Shaoquan, 2019. "Relationships between labor migration and cropland abandonment in rural China from the perspective of village types," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Hu, Siwei & Wang, Yongsheng & Liu, Yansui, 2025. "Understanding organic agriculture based on coupled human-earth systems for sustainable land use and rural development in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    4. Bente Castro Campos & Xue Qi, 2024. "A literature review on the drivers and barriers of organic food consumption in China," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, December.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:ags:aaea22:337098 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2021. "Market-oriented agriculture and farm performance: Evidence from rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    8. Zhang, Yingnan & Long, Hualou & Li, Yurui & Ge, Dazhuan & Tu, Shuangshuang, 2020. "How does off-farm work affect chemical fertilizer application? Evidence from China’s mountainous and plain areas," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Hu, Xiaoliang & Li, Hongbo & Zhang, Xiaolin & Yuan, Yuan & Jia, Kaiyang, 2024. "How rent facilitates capital accumulation: A case study of rural land capitalization in Suzhou, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Verena Seufert & Navin Ramankutty & Jonathan A. Foley, 2012. "Comparing the yields of organic and conventional agriculture," Nature, Nature, vol. 485(7397), pages 229-232, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Zhang, Daojun & Yang, Wanjing & Kang, Dingrong & Zhang, Han, 2023. "Spatial-temporal characteristics and policy implication for non-grain production of cultivated land in Guanzhong Region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Huanxin Yang & Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Capital and Land Transfer of Different Types of Farmers: Evidence from Panel Data in Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Hao Li & Tiantian Li & Wei-Yew Chang, 2023. "Family Identity, Place Identity, and Chinese Farmers’ Environment-Friendly Production Behavior," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, June.
    4. Song, Hengfei & Li, Xiubin & Xin, Liangjie & Wang, Xue, 2025. "Improving mechanization conditions or encouraging non-grain crop production? Strategies for mitigating farmland abandonment in China’s mountainous areas," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Liang Chi & Shuqing Han & Meili Huan & Yajuan Li & Jifang Liu, 2022. "Land Fragmentation, Technology Adoption and Chemical Fertilizer Application: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-17, July.
    6. Lu, Dan & Su, Kangchuan & Wang, Zhanpeng & Hou, Mengjie & Li, Xinxin & Lin, Aiwen & Yang, Qingyuan, 2025. "Patterns and drivers of terrace abandonment in China: Monitoring based on multi-source remote sensing data," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    7. Weiwen Wang & Jian Gong & Ying Wang & Yang Shen, 2022. "The Causal Pathway of Rural Human Settlement, Livelihood Capital, and Agricultural Land Transfer Decision-Making: Is It Regional Consistency?," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, July.
    8. Wang, Linlin & Li, Qiang & Coulter, Jeffrey A. & Xie, Junhong & Luo, Zhuzhu & Zhang, Renzhi & Deng, Xiping & Li, Linglin, 2020. "Winter wheat yield and water use efficiency response to organic fertilization in northern China: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    9. Daniel P. Roberts & Autar K. Mattoo, 2018. "Sustainable Agriculture—Enhancing Environmental Benefits, Food Nutritional Quality and Building Crop Resilience to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, January.
    10. Hanna Dudek & Joanna Myszkowska-Ryciak & Agnieszka Wojewódzka-Wiewiórska, 2021. "Profiles of Food Insecurity: Similarities and Differences across Selected CEE Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    11. Sadowski, Arkadiusz & Wojcieszak-Zbierska, Monika Małgorzata & Zmyślona, Jagoda, 2024. "Agricultural production in the least developed countries and its impact on emission of greenhouse gases – An energy approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    12. Kalaitzandonakes, Nicholas & Lusk, Jayson & Magnier, Alexandre, 2018. "The price of non-genetically modified (non-GM) food," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 38-50.
    13. Zuzana Fuksová & Iveta Bošková & Jana Hlaváčková & Marek Novák, 2025. "The economic aspects of organic farms selling their products to organic or conventional market," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 71(4), pages 218-227.
    14. Nesar Ahmed & Shirley Thompson & Giovanni M. Turchini, 2020. "Organic aquaculture productivity, environmental sustainability, and food security: insights from organic agriculture," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(6), pages 1253-1267, December.
    15. Bourceret, Amélie & Accatino, Francesco & Robert, Corinne, 2024. "A modeling framework of a territorial socio-ecosystem to study the trajectories of change in agricultural phytosanitary practices," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 494(C).
    16. Bruna Moreira & Alexandre Gonçalves & Luís Pinto & Miguel A. Prieto & Márcio Carocho & Cristina Caleja & Lillian Barros, 2024. "Intercropping Systems: An Opportunity for Environment Conservation within Nut Production," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, July.
    17. Zhixing Ma & Shili Guo & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Community resilience and resident's disaster preparedness: evidence from China's earthquake-stricken areas," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 108(1), pages 567-591, August.
    18. Siyu Zhang & Zhe Ji & Wu Jiao & Chengbo Shen & Yaojun Qin & Yunzhi Huang & Menghan Huang & Shuming Kang & Xuan Liu & Shunqi Li & Zulong Mo & Ying Yu & Bingyu Jiang & Yanan Tian & Longfei Wang & Qingxi, 2025. "Natural variation of OsWRKY23 drives difference in nitrate use efficiency between indica and japonica rice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Kalle Margus & Viacheslav Eremeev & Evelin Loit & Eve Runno-Paurson & Erkki Mäeorg & Anne Luik & Liina Talgre, 2022. "Impact of Farming System on Potato Yield and Tuber Quality in Northern Baltic Sea Climate Conditions," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-12, April.
    20. de la Cruz, Vera Ysabel V. & Tantriani, & Cheng, Weiguo & Tawaraya, Keitaro, 2023. "Yield gap between organic and conventional farming systems across climate types and sub-types: A meta-analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).

    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:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:6:p:1180-:d:1667981. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.