IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i1p342-d473682.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of Sustainability of Irrigated Crops in Arid Regions, China

Author

Listed:
  • Fan Fan

    (College of Resource & Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • Bei Li

    (College of Resource & Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • Weifeng Zhang

    (College of Resource & Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

  • John R. Porter

    (Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, 1870 Frederiskberg, Denmark)

  • Fusuo Zhang

    (College of Resource & Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China)

Abstract

Ensuring national food security amidst ongoing economic development whilst both protecting the environment and reducing the dependence on fossil fuels are significant challenges for Chinese sustainable development. The main objectives of this study were to reveal irrigated crop (wheat, maize, and sunflower) performance in terms of energy, economic, and environmental aspects in China’s largest designed irrigation area, Hetao irrigation district (HID), and to evaluate agricultural suitability based on plant structure. An integrated indicator and comprehensively assessment method were used to evaluate the above objectives based on the results from in-person surveys. The results show that maize exhibits the best overall performance compared to two other major crops (wheat and sunflower), which supports the government policy of adjust and optimize the planting structure program (AOPST), an effective way to achieve the multiple-objectives for sustainable agricultural development. However, reducing fertilizer remains a more critical factor than AOPST. These study results provide useful guidance for policy-makers and relevant stake-holders both in a regional context for the HID and at the global agricultural governance and management level.

Suggested Citation

  • Fan Fan & Bei Li & Weifeng Zhang & John R. Porter & Fusuo Zhang, 2021. "Evaluation of Sustainability of Irrigated Crops in Arid Regions, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:1:p:342-:d:473682
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/342/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/1/342/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Mani, Indra & Kumar, Pradeep & Panwar, J.S. & Kant, Kamal, 2007. "Variation in energy consumption in production of wheat–maize with varying altitudes in hilly regions of Himachal Pradesh, India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2336-2339.
    3. Wang, Xiaobing & Yamauchi, Futoshi & Otsuka, Keijiro & Huang, Jikun, 2016. "Wage Growth, Landholding, and Mechanization in Chinese Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 30-45.
    4. Zhang, Xiaobo & Yang, Jin & Reardon, Thomas, 2020. "Mechanization outsourcing clusters and division of labor in Chinese agriculture," IFPRI book chapters, in: An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?, chapter 2, pages 71-96, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Xie, Wei & Sheng, Pengfei & Guo, Xiaohui, 2015. "Coal, oil, or clean energy: Which contributes most to the low energy efficiency in China?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 67-71.
    6. Ghorbani, Reza & Mondani, Farzad & Amirmoradi, Shahram & Feizi, Hassan & Khorramdel, Surror & Teimouri, Mozhgan & Sanjani, Sara & Anvarkhah, Sepideh & Aghel, Hassan, 2011. "A case study of energy use and economical analysis of irrigated and dryland wheat production systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 283-288, January.
    7. Elsoragaby, Suha & Yahya, Azmi & Mahadi, Muhammad Razif & Nawi, Nazmi Mat & Mairghany, Modather, 2019. "Energy utilization in major crop cultivation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1285-1303.
    8. Schneider, Uwe A. & Kumar, Pushpam, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation through Agriculture," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-5.
    9. Uwe A. Schneider & Pete Smith, 2008. "Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation and Emission Intensities in Agriculture," Working Papers FNU-164, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Jul 2008.
    10. Asif, M. & Muneer, T., 2007. "Energy supply, its demand and security issues for developed and emerging economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(7), pages 1388-1413, September.
    11. Pushpam Kumar & Uwe A. Schneider, 2008. "Greenhouse gas emission mitigation through agriculture," Working Papers FNU-155, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Feb 2008.
    12. 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.
    13. Xiao-Bo Luan & Pu-Te Wu & Shi-Kun Sun & Xiao-Lei Li & Yu-Bao Wang & Xue-Rui Gao, 2018. "Impact of Land Use Change on Hydrologic Processes in a Large Plain Irrigation District," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(9), pages 3203-3217, July.
    14. Liang, Long & Lal, Rattan & Ridoutt, Bradley G. & Zhao, Guishen & Du, Zhangliu & Li, Li & Feng, Dangyang & Wang, Liyuan & Peng, Peng & Hang, Sheng & Wu, Wenliang, 2018. "Multi-indicator assessment of a water-saving agricultural engineering project in North Beijing, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 34-46.
    15. Ajanovic, Amela, 2011. "Biofuels versus food production: Does biofuels production increase food prices?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2070-2076.
    16. Sofia, Daniele & Gioiella, Filomena & Lotrecchiano, Nicoletta & Giuliano, Aristide, 2020. "Cost-benefit analysis to support decarbonization scenario for 2030: A case study in Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    17. Peng Gong & Lu Liang & Qiang Zhang, 2011. "China must reduce fertilizer use too," Nature, Nature, vol. 473(7347), pages 284-285, May.
    18. Miao, Qingfeng & Rosa, Ricardo D. & Shi, Haibin & Paredes, Paula & Zhu, Li & Dai, Jiaxin & Gonçalves, José M. & Pereira, Luis S., 2016. "Modeling water use, transpiration and soil evaporation of spring wheat–maize and spring wheat–sunflower relay intercropping using the dual crop coefficient approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 211-229.
    19. Fang, Yan Ru & Wu, Yi & Xie, Guang Hui, 2019. "Crop residue utilizations and potential for bioethanol production in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    20. Alluvione, Francesco & Moretti, Barbara & Sacco, Dario & Grignani, Carlo, 2011. "EUE (energy use efficiency) of cropping systems for a sustainable agriculture," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 4468-4481.
    21. Šarauskis, Egidijus & Buragienė, Sidona & Masilionytė, Laura & Romaneckas, Kęstutis & Avižienytė, Dovile & Sakalauskas, Antanas, 2014. "Energy balance, costs and CO2 analysis of tillage technologies in maize cultivation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 227-235.
    22. Gómez-Limón, José A. & Sanchez-Fernandez, Gabriela, 2010. "Empirical evaluation of agricultural sustainability using composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1062-1075, March.
    23. Oudshoorn, Frank W. & Sørensen, Claus Aage G. & de Boer, Imke I.J.M., 2011. "Economic and environmental evaluation of three goal-vision based scenarios for organic dairy farming in Denmark," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 104(4), pages 315-325, April.
    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. Yonela Mndela & Naledzani Ndou & Adolph Nyamugama, 2023. "Irrigation Scheduling for Small-Scale Crops Based on Crop Water Content Patterns Derived from UAV Multispectral Imagery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-21, August.

    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. Sergio Juárez-Hernández & Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, 2020. "Assessing the potential of alternative farming practices for sustainable energy and water use and GHG mitigation in conventional maize systems," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 8029-8059, December.
    2. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Spatio-temporal patterns of energy consumption-related GHG emissions in China's crop production systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 274-284.
    3. Stanisław Bielski & Renata Marks-Bielska & Paweł Wiśniewski, 2022. "Investigation of Energy and Economic Balance and GHG Emissions in the Production of Different Cultivars of Buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum Moench): A Case Study in Northeastern Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Hari Wahyu Wijayanto & Kai-An Lo & Hery Toiba & Moh Shadiqur Rahman, 2022. "Does Agroforestry Adoption Affect Subjective Well-Being? Empirical Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in East Java, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-10, August.
    5. Huarui Gong & Jing Li & Zhen Liu & Yitao Zhang & Ruixing Hou & Zhu Ouyang, 2022. "Mitigated Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cropping Systems by Organic Fertilizer and Tillage Management," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.
    6. Oliver Lazarus & Sonali McDermid & Jennifer Jacquet, 2021. "The climate responsibilities of industrial meat and dairy producers," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-21, March.
    7. David Bryngelsson & Fredrik Hedenus & Daniel J. A. Johansson & Christian Azar & Stefan Wirsenius, 2017. "How Do Dietary Choices Influence the Energy-System Cost of Stabilizing the Climate?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, February.
    8. Soy-Massoni, Emma & Langemeyer, Johannes & Varga, Diego & Sáez, Marc & Pintó, Josep, 2016. "The importance of ecosystem services in coastal agricultural landscapes: Case study from the Costa Brava, Catalonia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 43-52.
    9. Telmo José Mendes & Diego Silva Siqueira & Eduardo Barretto Figueiredo & Ricardo de Oliveira Bordonal & Mara Regina Moitinho & José Marques Júnior & Newton La Scala Jr., 2021. "Soil carbon stock estimations: methods and a case study of the Maranhão State, Brazil," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(11), pages 16410-16427, November.
    10. Ancuta Isbasoiu & Pierre-Alain Jayet & Stéphane De Cara, 2021. "Increasing food production and mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union: impacts of carbon pricing and calorie production targeting," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 409-440, April.
    11. Amanda Silva‐Parra & Juan Manuel Trujillo‐González & Eric C. Brevik, 2021. "Greenhouse gas balance and mitigation potential of agricultural systems in Colombia: A systematic analysis," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(3), pages 554-572, June.
    12. Chen, Jiandong & Cheng, Shulei & Song, Malin, 2018. "Changes in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions of the agricultural sector in China from 2005 to 2013," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 748-761.
    13. Wang, Guangshuai & Liang, Yueping & Zhang, Qian & Jha, Shiva K. & Gao, Yang & Shen, Xiaojun & Sun, Jingsheng & Duan, Aiwang, 2016. "Mitigated CH4 and N2O emissions and improved irrigation water use efficiency in winter wheat field with surface drip irrigation in the North China Plain," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 403-407.
    14. Saw Min & Martin Rulík, 2020. "Comparison of Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Fluxes between Conventional and Conserved Irrigated Rice Paddy Fields in Myanmar," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Connor, Melanie & de Guia, Annalyn H. & Quilloy, Reianne & Van Nguyen, Hung & Gummert, Martin & Sander, Bjoern Ole, 2020. "When climate change is not psychologically distant – Factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable farming practices in the Mekong river Delta of Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    16. Franco-Luesma, Samuel & Álvaro-Fuentes, Jorge & Plaza-Bonilla, Daniel & Arrúe, José Luis & Cantero-Martínez, Carlos & Cavero, José, 2019. "Influence of irrigation time and frequency on greenhouse gas emissions in a solid-set sprinkler-irrigated maize under Mediterranean conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 303-311.
    17. Anna Kocira & Mariola Staniak & Marzena Tomaszewska & Rafał Kornas & Jacek Cymerman & Katarzyna Panasiewicz & Halina Lipińska, 2020. "Legume Cover Crops as One of the Elements of Strategic Weed Management and Soil Quality Improvement. A Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-41, September.
    18. Kerstin Jantke & Martina J. Hartmann & Livia Rasche & Benjamin Blanz & Uwe A. Schneider, 2020. "Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Knowledge and Positions of German Farmers," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-13, April.
    19. Song, Guobao & Song, Jie & Zhang, Shushen, 2016. "Modelling the policies of optimal straw use for maximum mitigation of climate change in China from a system perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 789-810.
    20. Kathrin Hasler & Hans-Werner Olfs & Onno Omta & Stefanie Bröring, 2016. "Drivers for the Adoption of Eco-Innovations in the German Fertilizer Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-18, July.

    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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:1:p:342-:d:473682. 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.