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Improving future agricultural sustainability by optimizing crop distributions in China

Guan, Qi ; Tang, Jing LU orcid ; Davis, Kyle Frankel ; Kong, Mengxiang ; Feng, Lian ; Shi, Kun and Schurgers, Guy (2025) In PNAS Nexus 4(1).
Abstract

Improving agricultural sustainability is a global challenge, particularly for China's high-input and low-efficiency cropping systems with environmental tradeoffs. Although national strategies have been implemented to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in agriculture, the potential contributions of crop switching as a promising solution under varying future climate change are still under-explored. Here, we optimize cropping patterns spatially with the targets of enhancing agriculture production, reducing environmental burdens, and achieving sustainable fertilization across different climate scenarios. Compared with current cropping patterns, the optimal crop distributions under different climate scenarios consistently suggest... (More)

Improving agricultural sustainability is a global challenge, particularly for China's high-input and low-efficiency cropping systems with environmental tradeoffs. Although national strategies have been implemented to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in agriculture, the potential contributions of crop switching as a promising solution under varying future climate change are still under-explored. Here, we optimize cropping patterns spatially with the targets of enhancing agriculture production, reducing environmental burdens, and achieving sustainable fertilization across different climate scenarios. Compared with current cropping patterns, the optimal crop distributions under different climate scenarios consistently suggest allocating the planting areas of maize and rapeseed to the other crops (rice, wheat, soybean, peanut, and potato). Such crop switching can consequently increase crop production by 14.1%, with accompanying reductions in environmental impacts (8.2% for leached nitrogen and 24.0% for irrigation water use) across three representative Shared Socio-economic Pathways from 2020 to 2100. The sustainable fertilization rates vary from 148–173 kg N ha−1 in 2030 to 213–253 kg N ha−1 in 2070, significantly smaller than the current rate (305 kg N ha−1). These outcomes highlight large potential benefits of crop switching and fertilizer management for improving China's future agricultural sustainability.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
agricultural sustainability, climate change, crop switching, fertilizer management, national scale
in
PNAS Nexus
volume
4
issue
1
article number
pgae562
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • pmid:39777291
  • scopus:85215081736
ISSN
2752-6542
DOI
10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae562
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.
id
d949ffd8-b7e1-4bb8-bf7f-ffa2e8e4b3cc
date added to LUP
2025-05-05 12:35:32
date last changed
2025-05-06 03:18:11
@article{d949ffd8-b7e1-4bb8-bf7f-ffa2e8e4b3cc,
  abstract     = {{<p>Improving agricultural sustainability is a global challenge, particularly for China's high-input and low-efficiency cropping systems with environmental tradeoffs. Although national strategies have been implemented to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in agriculture, the potential contributions of crop switching as a promising solution under varying future climate change are still under-explored. Here, we optimize cropping patterns spatially with the targets of enhancing agriculture production, reducing environmental burdens, and achieving sustainable fertilization across different climate scenarios. Compared with current cropping patterns, the optimal crop distributions under different climate scenarios consistently suggest allocating the planting areas of maize and rapeseed to the other crops (rice, wheat, soybean, peanut, and potato). Such crop switching can consequently increase crop production by 14.1%, with accompanying reductions in environmental impacts (8.2% for leached nitrogen and 24.0% for irrigation water use) across three representative Shared Socio-economic Pathways from 2020 to 2100. The sustainable fertilization rates vary from 148–173 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> in 2030 to 213–253 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> in 2070, significantly smaller than the current rate (305 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup>). These outcomes highlight large potential benefits of crop switching and fertilizer management for improving China's future agricultural sustainability.</p>}},
  author       = {{Guan, Qi and Tang, Jing and Davis, Kyle Frankel and Kong, Mengxiang and Feng, Lian and Shi, Kun and Schurgers, Guy}},
  issn         = {{2752-6542}},
  keywords     = {{agricultural sustainability; climate change; crop switching; fertilizer management; national scale}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{PNAS Nexus}},
  title        = {{Improving future agricultural sustainability by optimizing crop distributions in China}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae562}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae562}},
  volume       = {{4}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}