An increasing number of countries develop bio-economy strategies to promote a stronger reliance on the efficient use of renewable biological resources in order to meet multiple sustainability challenges. At the global scale, however, bio-economies are diverse, with sectors such as agriculture, forestry, energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, as well as science and education. In this study, we developed a typology of bio-economies based on country-specific characteristics, and describe five different bio-economy types with varying degrees of importance in the primary and the high-tech sector. We also matched the bio-economy types against the foci of their bio-economy strategies and evaluated their sustainability performance. Overall, high-tech bio-economies seem to be more diversified in terms of their policy strategies while the policies of those relying on the primary sector are focused on bioenergy and high-tech industries. In terms of sustainability performance, indicators suggest that diversified high-tech economies have experienced a slight sustainability improvement, especially in terms of resource consumption. Footprints remain, however, at the highest levels compared to all other bio-economy types with large amounts of resources and raw materials being imported from other countries. These results highlight the necessity of developed high-tech bio-economies to further decrease their environmental footprint domestically and internationally, and the importance of biotechnology innovation transfer after critical and comprehensive sustainability assessments.

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Rice, wheat, maize, millet, and barley are the five major staple cereal crops in Nepal. However, their yields are low, and imports are needed to meet domestic demand. In this study, we quantify the gap between current and potentially attainable yields in Nepal, estimate how much additional fertilizer and irrigation are required to close the gap, and assess if self-sufficiency can thus be achieved. For this, we first test the ability of the crop model EPIC to reproduce reported yields in 1999–2014 accurately. On average, simulated and reported yields at the national level were in the same range, but at the district level, the error was large, as the resolutions of the available climate and soil input data were not high enough to depict the heterogenic conditions in Nepal adequately. In the main study, we show that average yield gaps in Nepal amount to 3.0 t/ha (wheat), 2.7 t/ha (rice), 2.9 t/ha (maize), 0.4 t/ha (barley), and 0.5 t/ha (millet). With additional irrigation and fertilization, yields can be increased by 0.1/2.3 t/ha (wheat), 0.4/1.3 t/ha (rice), 1.6/1.9 t/ha (maize), 0.1/0.3 t/ha (barley), and 0.1/0.4 t/ha (millet), respectively. The results show that providing reliable and affordable access to fertilizer should be a priority for closing yield gaps in Nepal.

<p>Rice, wheat, and maize are the most important staple food crops in Nepal. Due to the complex topography and climate of the country, and a lack of agricultural inputs, the productivity of the crops has remained low over the last decades, with only moderate increases in recent years. National production cannot meet the national demand for the three crops, and food imports are necessary to close the gap. Climate and demographic change will most likely exacerbate the problem. It is therefore an objective of the Nepalese government to develop strategies to increase the productivity of the crops permanently and sustainably. A first step in this endeavour is to analyse the existing yield gap and how it may be closed, for which we use the biogeophysical crop model EPIC. We divided Nepal into 3430 homogeneous simulation units (based on climate, altitude, soil, and slope class, overlaid by district boundaries) and simulated current management practices on all units for the years 2000-2014. We then compared the resulting yields to crop production data from the Nepalese Ministry of Agricultural Development and calibrated the model until a good fit was achieved. Subsequently, we estimated maximum potential yields by simulating crop growth without nutrient or water stress, and lastly determined the yield gaps by subtracting the yields under current management practices from the maximum potential yields. We found considerable yield gaps for all three crops 2 t/ha for rice, 4 t/ha for wheat, and 4 t/ha for maize. If we compared the yield gaps between current yields and yields simulated without nutrient stress, but under rainfed conditions, the gaps were smaller, indicating that increasing fertilizer application rates should be the first step in closing the yield gap. However, due to the complicated topography of Nepal, yields and yield gaps of the crops vary considerably between regions, and measures to close the gaps will have to be customized to local conditions. This includes expanding the irrigated area in the lowland Terai regions and valleys in hilly areas where precipitation patterns change and temperature increase under climate change. The findings of this study may support policy-makers in their goal to increase grain production and ensure food security in Nepal.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><em>yield gap, water management, climate change adaptation</em></p><div> </div><div> </div>