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Agricultural land degradation is posing a serious threat to global food security. Restoration of the degraded land has traditionally been viewed as an inherently sustainable practice; however, restoration processes render consequential environmental impacts which could potentially exceed the benefit of restoration itself. In the present study, an integrated life cycle assessment analysis was conducted to evaluate life cycle primary, secondary, and tertiary impacts associated with the restoration of the contaminated agricultural land. The results demonstrated the importance of including spatially differentiated impacts associated with managing the land and growing crops. Comparing four risk management scenarios at a contaminated field in Southern China, it was found that the primary and secondary impacts followed the order of no action > chemical stabilization > phytoextraction > alternative planting. However, when tertiary impacts were taken into account, alternative planting rendered much higher footprint in comparison with phytoextraction and chemical stabilization, which provides evidence against an emerging notion held by some policy makers. Furthermore, assuming that the loss of the rice paddy field in Southern China is compensated by the deforested land in the Amazon rainforest, the total global environmental impact would far exceed that of no action, resulting in 687 ton CO 2 -e ha −1 of climate change impact. Overall, the present study provides new research findings to support more holistic policy making and also sheds lights on the future development of various restoration technologies.

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Sub‐Saharan Africa saw crucial growth in agriculture in the 21st century. However, the current rate of development, largely based on land expansion, appears to be reaching the limit of growth, calling for more productive and sustainable practices. To address productivity, underlying factors are discussed and a path towards agriculture resilience is suggested. This study linked unproductive agriculture with poor resilience, which tends to be the cause of low and unstable crop yields. Potential measures from technical and social perspectives are explored for developing resilience in agriculture in this region. Inexpensive and easily accessible technologies are in urgent need to improve land resilience, while policies stressing risk mitigation and inequality reduction are key to develop farmers' resilience. A development framework towards agriculture resilience is elaborated, which is hopeful of leading to a more productive, sustainable, stable and equally beneficial agricultural system in Sub‐Saharan African countries.