The Sustainability of Agricultural Development in China: The Agriculture–Environment Nexus

Abstract

The article aims to provide an overview of China's agricultural development and its sustainability by focusing on the agriculture-environmental nexus. We first review literature regarding trends in agricultural development and driving forces. China has made impressive progress at providing food for 22% of the world's population. At the same time, severe environmental impacts have been incurred which not only affect future food security but also have impacts on other socioeconomic aspects. The agricultural policies that have been put into practice have direct or indirect impacts on such environmental outcomes. We review the impacts of agricultural policies as well as conservation policies, their effectiveness, some unintended consequences and conflicts. The article concludes that technology and institutional innovation in China should emphasize more integrated sustainable development considering the agriculture-environment nexus, instead of setting incoherent and sometimes incompatible policy goals for each separate side.

Agricultural Development and Land Use Change in India: A Scenario Analysis of Trade‐Offs Between UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

“…These results are supported by the findings of other studies, like the “Vision 2050” done by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR, ). Food provision in India will face problems similar to those in China, the other major player in Asia in that significant changes of agricultural policies and management practices are required to realize the necessary production increases in a more sustainable way (Yu & Wu, ). Our results also highlight that climate change affects Indian food supply in a negative manner and that higher future R&D investments in the agricultural sector can trigger food production increases that will offset these losses in productivity.…”

Policy options for Agriculture Green Development by farmers in China

“…Despite this diversity, the value of support by farm remains relatively low and can be considered decoupled from production decisions [9,14] . However, larger farms offer more potential for AGD through more cost-effective regulation and advice, and capability to undertake environmental protection measures [3] , and thus existing farm support at least partly inhibits land transfer, farm restructuring and pooling of farmland into farming cooperatives [16,17] . China is also largely missing the policy tiers in Fig.…”

“…Recent estimates of the total economic cost of environmental damage in the sector range from 7% to 10% of national agricultural gross domestic product [2] . Expansion of agricultural land has resulted in significant loss of wetlands and forests and their ecological services, while over-exploitation of ground water for intensified production is unsustainable in large areas, especially in northern China [3] . Agriculture is a major source of nutrient pollution of water, accounting for approximately one third of the nitrogen released into surface and ground waters; over 40% of rivers are severely polluted and 80% of lakes suffer from eutrophication [3] .…”

“…Expansion of agricultural land has resulted in significant loss of wetlands and forests and their ecological services, while over-exploitation of ground water for intensified production is unsustainable in large areas, especially in northern China [3] . Agriculture is a major source of nutrient pollution of water, accounting for approximately one third of the nitrogen released into surface and ground waters; over 40% of rivers are severely polluted and 80% of lakes suffer from eutrophication [3] . Approximately 20% of agricultural land, 10% of forest land and 10% of grassland have been contaminated by inorganic and organic pollutants [3] .…”

“…Agriculture is a major source of nutrient pollution of water, accounting for approximately one third of the nitrogen released into surface and ground waters; over 40% of rivers are severely polluted and 80% of lakes suffer from eutrophication [3] . Approximately 20% of agricultural land, 10% of forest land and 10% of grassland have been contaminated by inorganic and organic pollutants [3] .…”