scholarly journals The Status and Challenges of Sustainable Intensification of Rice-Potato Systems in Southern China

Author(s):  
Yao Lu ◽  
Philip Kear ◽  
Xiaoping Lu ◽  
Marcel Gatto

AbstractPotato is the world's largest non-cereal crop, occupying a position critical for global food security. In China, potato is the fourth largest crop adding to food security and incomes. The large population and unremitting reductions in arable land are the most critical root causes of China's food security problems. Hence, crop yield improvements and strategies to improve land use are at the forefront of solutions to increase China's food security. Maintenance of existing land resources while increasing crop yields, avoiding soil quality degradation and wastage of water are enduring problems that have long attracted widespread attention in many research fields. This article, analyzes and discusses the status and challenges to sustainable intensification of rice-potato rotation in southern China. Three significant findings were obtained in this paper, viz. availability of about 16 million hectares of suitable land for rice-potato intensification in southern China in 2016 are reported, several conservation agricultural practices with varying intensity and higher economic benefits in rice-potato rotation than rice-fallow, which may positively effects the environment. It was concluded that agricultural intensification with potato was an economically viable avenue along with good agricultural practices that minimize adverse environmental effects.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weksi Budiaji

This paper discusses the status of food security in Banten Province, Indonesia based on regional and city characteristics. Secondary data is used and is analyzed descriptively covering population dynamics, the population living in poverty, cereal production, disaster risk and soil types. Tangerang Region is found to have the largest population with the greatest number of people living in poverty among the regions and cities in Banten Province. Cereal production is dominated by the regions rather than the cities due to their vast area. Regarding arable land, flooding is the most threatening disaster in the major rice producing areas. In order to identify the distributions of regions and cities regarding food security, three indicator variables of food security dimensions are plotted, namely, cereal normative consumption, proportion of the population living in poverty, and proportion of malnourished babies. The three regions of Pandeglang Region, Lebak Region and Serang Region are grouped together in a less secure group.


Author(s):  
Gayatri Sahu ◽  
Pragyan Paramita Rout ◽  
Suchismita Mohapatra ◽  
Sai Parasar Das ◽  
Poonam Preeti Pradhan

World population is increasing day by day and at the same time agriculture is threatened due to natural resource degradation and climate change. A growing global population and changing diets are driving up the demand for food. The food security challenge will only become more difficult, as the world will need to produce about 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed an estimated 9 billion people. Production stability, agricultural productivity, income and food security is negatively affected by changing climate. Therefore, agriculture must change according to present situation for meeting the need of food security and also withstanding under changing climatic situation. Agriculture is a prominent source as well as a sink of greenhouse gases (GHGs). So, there is a need to modify agricultural practices in a sustainable way to overcome these problems. Developing climate smart agriculture is thus crucial to achieving future food security and climate change goals. It helps the agricultural system to resist damage and recover quickly by adaptation and mitigation strategies. Sustainable Intensification is an essential means of adapting to climate change, also resulting in lower emissions per unit of output. With its emphasis on improving risk management, information flows and local institutions to support adaptive capacity, CSA provides the foundations for incentivizing and enabling intensification. Since climate smart agriculture is defined along three pillars (productivity increases, building resilience and adapting, and GHG emission reduction), key concepts such as productivity, resilience, vulnerability and carbon sequestration provide indicators for future empirical measurements of the climate smart agriculture concept.


2011 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 1463-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Min Zhang ◽  
Lu Ming Jiang ◽  
Yong Peng Li ◽  
Chao Tian ◽  
Wen Jing Zhang ◽  
...  

Although agriculture has traditionally been primarily the concern of the world, it now plays an increasingly important role in how we meet challenges—international food security, environmental protection, climate change, energy supply, economic sustainability, and human health. With population growth and environmental deterioration, the attention about food security and sustainable agriculture is on the increase, and the status of ecological agriculture comes into prominence. Perennial grain crops would address many agricultural problems as well as substantial ecological and economic benefits, which can provide multiple ecosystem services essential for sustainable production more effectively than production systems based on annual crops, such as protecting against soil erosion, conserving water and nutrients, storing more carbon below ground, and building better pest tolerance. This paper presents some of advantages of perennial grain crops as a new option for the food security and ecoagriculture, as well as prospects the significant utilization of perennial crop on sustainability of agriculture and environment in the future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Gatto ◽  
Jean Balie ◽  
Guy Hareau

Agricultural production needs to increase to feed a rapidly growing population, arable land is shrinking due to urbanization and the adverse effects of climate change. This calls for an intensification of agricultural production which cannot be achieved in a sustainable way with conventional agricultural practices. Here, we are discussing the future of sustainable intensification of rice-potato agri-food systems in Asia. This document is part of a series of short papers on “The Future of X”, produced as part of foresight-related research supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 519
Author(s):  
Le Li ◽  
Zurui Ao ◽  
Yaolong Zhao ◽  
Xulong Liu

Changes in cropping intensity reflect not only changes in land use but also the transformation of land functions. Although both natural conditions and socioeconomic factors can influence the spatial distribution of the cropping intensity and its changes, socioeconomic developments related to human activities can exert great impacts on short term cropping intensity changes. The driving force of this change has a high level of uncertainty; and few researchers have implemented comprehensive studies on the underlying driving forces and mechanisms of these changes. This study produced cropping intensity maps in China from 2001 to 2016 using remote sensing data and analyzed the impacts of socioeconomic drivers on cropping intensity and its changes in nine major agricultural zones in China. We found that the average annual cropping intensity in all nine agricultural zones increased from 2001 to 2016 under rapid socioeconomic development, and the trends in the seven major agricultural zones were significantly increased (p < 0.05), based on a Mann–Kendall test, except for the Northeast China Plain (NE Plain) and Qinghai Tibet Plateau (QT Plateau). Based on the results from the Geo-Detector, a widely used geospatial analysis tool, the dominant factors that affected cropping intensity distribution were related to the arable land output in the plain regions and topography in the mountainous regions. The factors that affected cropping intensity changes were mainly related to the arable land area and crop yields in northern China, and regional economic developments, such as machinery power input and farmers’ income in southern China. These findings provide useful cropping intensity data and profound insights for policymaking on how to use cultivated land resources efficiently and sustainably.


2015 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550003 ◽  
Author(s):  
ONIL BANERJEE ◽  
MOOGDHO MAHZAB ◽  
SELIM RAIHAN ◽  
NABIUL ISLAM

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change (CC) with higher temperatures reducing crop yields and sea level rise decreasing arable land supply. The Government of Bangladesh aspires to offer its people a comparable standard of living to that of middle-income countries by 2021. Bangladesh's population will reach 247 million by 2050 and GDP is projected to grow annually by 7.9%. With increasing population density, greater demand for resources, and CC impacts, adaptation and mitigation strategies will be required for agricultural output to meet growing food demand. We develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium model linked with a food security module to explore CC impacts on agriculture and food security. Although CC impacts had a relatively small effect on GDP, reducing it by $29,925 million Taka (-0.11%) by 2030, agricultural sector impacts were felt more acutely, reducing output by -1.23%, increasing imports by 1.52%, and reducing total caloric consumption by 17%, with some households remaining underfed due to inequitable food distribution. Evidence generated here can guide policy to ensure economic growth contributes to meeting national development and food security targets.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Jin ◽  
Candi Ge ◽  
Hui Gao ◽  
Hongcheng Zhang ◽  
Xiaolong Sun

Traditional farming practice of rice field co-culture is a time-tested example of sustainable agriculture, which increases food productivity of arable land with few adverse environmental impacts. However, the small-scale farming practice needs to be adjusted for modern agricultural production. Screening of rice field co-culture farming models is important in deciding the suitable model for industry-wide promotion. In this study, we aim to find the optimal rice field co-culture farming models for large-scale application, based on the notion of food productivity. We used experimental data from the Jiangsu Province of China and applied food-equivalent unit and arable-land-equivalent unit methods to examine applicable protocols for large-scale promotion of rice field co-culture farming models. Results indicate that the rice-loach and rice-catfish models achieve the highest food productivity; the rice-duck model increases the rice yield, while the rice-turtle and rice-crayfish models generate extra economic profits. Simultaneously considering economic benefits, staple food security, and regional food output, we recommend the rice-duck, rice-crayfish, and rice-catfish models. Simulating provincial promotion of the above three models, we conclude that food output increases from all three recommended models, as well as the land production capacity. The rice-catfish co-culture model has the most substantial food productivity. None of the three models threatens staple food security, as they do not compete for land resources with rice cultivation.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (18) ◽  
pp. 5584
Author(s):  
Tara Allohverdi ◽  
Amar Kumar Mohanty ◽  
Poritosh Roy ◽  
Manjusri Misra

In a time when climate change increases desertification and drought globally, novel and effective solutions are required in order to continue food production for the world’s increasing population. Synthetic fertilizers have been long used to improve the productivity of agricultural soils, part of which leaches into the environment and emits greenhouse gasses (GHG). Some fundamental challenges within agricultural practices include the improvement of water retention and microbiota in soils, as well as boosting the efficiency of fertilizers. Biochar is a nutrient rich material produced from biomass, gaining attention for soil amendment purposes, improving crop yields as well as for carbon sequestration. This study summarizes the potential benefits of biochar applications, placing emphasis on its application in the agricultural sector. It seems biochar used for soil amendment improves nutrient density of soils, water holding capacity, reduces fertilizer requirements, enhances soil microbiota, and increases crop yields. Additionally, biochar usage has many environmental benefits, economic benefits, and a potential role to play in carbon credit systems. Biochar (also known as biocarbon) may hold the answer to these fundamental requirements.


Author(s):  
R. Horrell ◽  
A.K. Metherell ◽  
S. Ford ◽  
C. Doscher

Over two million tonnes of fertiliser are applied to New Zealand pastures and crops annually and there is an increasing desire by farmers to ensure that the best possible economic return is gained from this investment. Spreading distribution measurements undertaken by Lincoln Ventures Ltd (LVL) have identified large variations in the evenness of fertiliser application by spreading machines which could lead to a failure to achieve optimum potential in some crop yields and to significant associated economic losses. To quantify these losses, a study was undertaken to calculate the effect of uneven fertiliser application on crop yield. From LVL's spreader database, spread patterns from many machines were categorised by spread pattern type and by coefficient of variation (CV). These patterns were then used to calculate yield losses when they were combined with the response data from five representative cropping and pastoral situations. Nitrogen fertiliser on ryegrass seed crops shows significant production losses at a spread pattern CV between 30% and 40%. For P and S on pasture, the cumulative effect of uneven spreading accrues, until there is significant economic loss occurring by year 3 for both the Waikato dairy and Southland sheep and beef systems at CV values between 30% and 40%. For nitrogen on pasture, significant loss in a dairy system occurs at a CV of approximately 40% whereas for a sheep and beef system it is at a CV of 50%, where the financial return from nitrogen application has been calculated at the average gross revenue of the farming system. The conclusion of this study is that the current Spreadmark standards are a satisfactory basis for defining the evenness requirements of fertiliser applications in most circumstances. On the basis of Spreadmark testing to date, more than 50% of the national commercial spreading fleet fails to meet the standard for nitrogenous fertilisers and 40% fails to meet the standard for phosphatic fertilisers.Keywords: aerial spreading, crop response, economic loss, fertiliser, ground spreading, striping, uneven application, uneven spreading, yield loss


Soil protection in agrolandscapes is especially necessary in conditions of intensification of production and increasing anthropogenic pressure on them. This complex should fit into the landscape farming system. The more intensive the load on the land in the farm, the higher the level of soil protection against destruction. The article notes that raising soil fertility, increasing crop yields and ecological environmental improvement are possible only on the basis of agrolandscape farming system, which allows to establish the correct ratio of arable land, meadows and forests. The transition to such a system of agriculture requires: development of a project for agrolandscape land management with a set of anti-erosion measures for each farm; adjusting the structure of sown areas taking into account market conditions, that is, increasing the area of productive crops in demand (winter and spring wheat, perennial grasses), which in combination with occupied and green manure pairs determine the structure of biologized crop rotation; widespread use of legumes (peas, vetch) as factors in the biologization of agriculture. The efficiency of expanding the area of perennial grasses to 25 % of arable land in some areas of the Non-Chernozem region and the Belgorod region is shown. Here, techniques that increase the efficiency of arable land are based on strict adherence to crop rotation with legumes, the use of adaptive varieties, and the use of biologized fertilizer and plant protection systems. It is noted that the creation of a system of shelterbelts makes it possible to reduce the cost of planting and growing them in comparison with single forest belts and what is very important for farmers is to sharply increase the return on their exploitation in the form of increased increases in crop yields. The creation of forest-sized landscapes will improve the environmental conditions for the cultivation of crops.


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