科创中国

International trade of food and feed has facilitated the specialization and agglomeration of agricultural production systems in many countries. Confined animals in specialized production systems are increasingly supplied with soybean and maize, imported from other countries. This has increased animal productivity but has also contributed to spatially decoupled crop and animal production systems. We analyzed the changes in the trade of soybean and maize at the global level in the period 1961–2011, and related these to the changes in livestock density and nutrient balances in the whole food system for 11 selected countries. Export of soybean and maize remained dominated by few countries (mainly USA, Argentina and Brazil) during the period 1961–2011, while the number of importing countries increased. Increases in the import of maize and soybean are positively related with changes in livestock density and N and P balances of national food systems. Imported soybean accounted for 12–36% of the calculated N balance at country level, and imported maize for 0–26%. There were large differences between importing countries; increases in the N surplus ranged from 75 to 306 kg N/ha and in the P surplus from 2 to 49 kg P/ha when the mean livestock density increased 1 LU/ha. This variation is related to differences in nutrient management regulations and to spatial variations in livestock density within countries. Our study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationships between the international trade of animal feed, livestock density and environmental impacts associated with N and P balances.

Wang Jingmeng    Liu Qian    Hou Yong    Wei Qin    Jan peter Lesschen    张福锁     Oene Oenema   

Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

2018

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical pattern of environmental cost due to grain production in China and to provide further implications of technologies and policies for the transformation of China's agricultural development toward sustainable intensification. Design/methodology/approach - The data sets about grain production, arable land and chemical fertilizer use in China were collected from FAO, NBSC, and IFA. Greenhouse gas emissions were estimated using life cycle assessments. The policies concerning grain production and the environment were collected from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the State Council of China. Findings - China has produced enough food to feed its growing population, but has neglected the resourceenvironmental costs of grain production since 1978. Consequently, China's grain production is always accompanied with a high cost of resource and environment sustainability. However, from 2006 to 2015, the growth rate of grain production has surpassed that of chemical fertilizer consumption, resulting in improvement in nutrient use efficiency and decreasing trends of environmental cost for grain production. This could be partially attributed to technology innovations, such as Soil-Testing and Fertilizer- Recommendations (STFR), soil quality and crop management improvement, and so on, and policy supports (policies of STFR, soil quality improvement, and high-yield construction). This indicated that China's grain production is starting to transform from high-input and high-output model to "less for more." Originality/value - This study is the first to determine the detailed, historical role of technological innovation and agri-environmental policy on the sustainability of grain production in China. The findings should have significant implications for technology and policy for the transformation of China's agriculture development to sustainable intensification.

Jiao Xiaoqiang    He Gang    Zhenling Cui    Jianbo Shen    张福锁    

China Agricultural Economic Review

2018

China's grain yield increased from 1 t hain 1961 to 6 t hain 2015, while successfully feeding not only its large population but also supplying agricultural products all over the world. These achievements were greatly supported by modern technology and distinct governmental policy. However, China's grain production has been causing a number of problems mainly related to declining natural resources and a lack of environmental protection. Due to the growing population and changing dietary requirements, increasing food production must be achieved by increasing resource use efficiency while minimizing environmental costs. We propose two novel development pathways that can potentially sustain agricultural crop production in the next few decades: (i) enhancing nutrient use efficiency with zero increase in chemical fertilizer input until 2020 and (ii) concurrently increasing grain yield and nutrient use efficiency for sustainable intensification with integrated nutrient management after 2020. This paper provides a perspective on further agricultural developments and challenges, and useful knowledge of our valuable experiences for other developing countries.

Jiao Xiaoqiang    Mongol Nyamdavaa    张福锁    

Journal of Integrative Agriculture

2018

The food supply is being increasingly challenged by climate change and water scarcity. However, incremental changes in traditional cropping systems have achieved only limited success in meeting these multiple challenges. In this study, we applied a systematic approach, using model simulation and data from two groups of field studies conducted in the North China Plain, to develop a new cropping system that improves yield and uses water in a sustainable manner. Due to significant warming, we identified a double-maize (M-M; Zea mays L.) cropping system that replaced the traditional winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-summer maize system. The M-M system improved yield by 14-31% compared with the conventionally managed wheat-maize system, and achieved similar yield compared with the incrementally adapted wheat-maize system with the optimized cultivars, planting dates, planting density and water management. More importantly, water usage was lower in the M-M system than in the wheat-maize system, and the rate of water usage was sustainable (net groundwater usage was ≤150 mm yr). Our study indicated that systematic assessment of adaptation and cropping system scale have great potential to address the multiple food supply challenges under changing climatic conditions.

Qingfeng Meng    Wang Hongfei    Yan Peng    Pan Junxiao    Lu Dianjun    Cui Zhenling    张福锁     Xinping Chen   

Scientific Reports

2017

Land use change driven by diet, globalization, and technology advancement have greatly influenced agricultural production and environment in the mollisols region of China, with a marked impact on the depletion of soil organic matter, a signature property of mollisols. Here we report findings on soil organic carbon (SOC) change in three different cropping systems (soybean, soybean/maize, corn) in Northeast China during a 10-year time span. The results indicated that the decline rate of SOC in recent ten years (0.27 g kg yr) has slowed down considerably compared to previous decades (1.12 g kg yr). Crop system conversion from soybean monocropping to corn monocropping or break system was the critical factor for SOC change, and the background SOC was the second influence factor. When approaching a SOC turning point, conversion from low carbon input crop system (soybeans monocropping) to high carbon input crop system helped slow down the SOC decline (break crop) or even improve SOC (corn monocropping) in mollisols regions. This result implied that imported soybean has brought benefit for Northeast China. But for sustainable goal in China's mollisols region, straw returning, optimized nitrogen fertilization and no tillage are all necessary whatever in continues maize or rotation system.

Tong Yuxin    Jianguo Liu    Li Xiaolin    Sun Jing    Herzberger Anna    Wei Dan    Weifeng Zhang    Zhengxia Dou    张福锁    

Scientific Reports

2017

Increasing grain zinc (Zn) concentration of cereals for minimizing Zn malnutrition in two billion people represents an important global humanitarian challenge. Grain Zn in field-grown wheat at the global scale ranges from 20.4 to 30.5 mg kg, showing a solid gap to the biofortification target for human health (40 mg kg). Through a group of field experiments, we found that the low grain Zn was not closely linked to historical replacements of varieties during the Green Revolution, but greatly aggravated by phosphorus (P) overuse or insufficient nitrogen (N) application. We also conducted a total of 320-pair plots field experiments and found an average increase of 10.5 mg kg by foliar Zn application. We conclude that an integrated strategy, including not only Zn-responsive genotypes, but of a similar importance, Zn application and field N and P management, are required to harvest more grain Zn and meanwhile ensure better yield in wheat-dominant areas.

Xinping Chen    Zhang Yueqiang    Yiping Tong    Xue Yan-Fang    Liu Dun-Yi    Wei Zhang    Deng Yan    Qingfeng Meng    Shanchao Yue    Peng Yan    Zhenling Cui    Xiaojun Shi    Shiwei Guo    Sun Yixiang    Youliang Ye    Zhaohui Wang    Liangliang Jia    Wenqi Ma    Mingrong He    张喜英    Kou    Li    Tan De-Shui    Ismail Çakmak    张福锁     Chunqin Zou   

Scientific Reports

2017

High extraction of phosphate reserves and low phosphorus utilization efficiency in the food chain in China result in large P losses and serious environmental pollution. The P fertilizer industry, soil P surplus, livestock manure P and wastewater P recycling have been identified as the priority sectors based on summarizing several systemic and in-depth reviews of P flows analysis. Mineral P fertilizer production has reached 7.4 Mt P in 2012, which is more than seven times the value in 1980. The large P surpluses in arable land resulted in soil P accumulation of up to 64 Mt during the period 1951–2010. Livestock numbers have increased dramatically (more than ten times) during the period 1949–2012 in China, especially pigs and poultry, and so has the quantity of manure that they produce. The average loading of manure P on arable land in China has increased significantly from 9.5 kg P ha in 1980 to 20.4 kg P ha in 2010. Up to 0.49 Mt of wastewater P discharged without treatment also exerted great pressure on the environment in 2012. Based on an understanding of P interactions in these key sectors, an integrated set of policy options and technical measures is proposed. Taking P flows in China in 2010 as an example, if all of the strategies recommended in this study are adopted in P management, about 4.3, 2.5, 1.6 and 0.3 Mt of P resources, respectively, will be saved in the P fertilizer industry, arable land production, livestock manure and wastewater sectors.

Li Guohua    Huang Gaoqiang    Haigang Li    Martin van    Leffelaar Peter A.    张福锁    

Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems

2016

A comprehensive synthesis of 32 long-term experiments in China is performed by comparing yields and SOM contents and their time by nutrient management responses (TNMR) to determine whether and to what extent combined application of organics amendments and fertilizers (organics + fertilizers) can increase productivity and soil organic matter (SOM) content and enhance the sustainability of diverse cropping systems. TNMR is defined as percentage changes over time in yields and SOM contents in external nutrient input treatments relative to initial and control plots and represents the net effects of nutrient management strategies on yields and SOM contents. Organics + fertilizers significantly increased yields over three crops (wheat, maize and rice) on average by 29% relative to sole organics and 8% to fertilizer only. Higher TNMR values in yields were found with organics + fertilizers in the sequence wheat (53%) > maize (40%) > rice (8%). Significant and positive time trends in TNMR of organics + fertilizers in wheat and maize yield may imply enhanced sustainability of cropping systems. Addition of organics (alone or combined with fertilizers) increased SOM contents and their TNMR over fertilizers applied alone. However, benefits varied between organics and organics + fertilizers by land use type. The latter led to higher SOM contents than (for dry land) and similar to the former (for dry-flooded and flooded systems). 2.3 and 1.4 times higher TNMR of organics + fertilizers in SOM content in dry land than dry-flooded and flooded systems implies that dry land was more responsive in SOM content increase upon adoption of organics + fertilizers than the latter. Overall, despite variation in the quantitative magnitude in crop or land use type, compared with application of organics or fertilizers only, a combination of both represents the most effective way to produce more food, build up SOM and enhance sustainability, especially in dry land cropping systems.

Wei Wenliang    Yan Yun    Cao Jian    Peter Christie    张福锁     Mingsheng Fan   

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment

2016

Over the past five decades, Chinese grain production has increased 4-fold, from 110 Mt in 1961 to 557 Mt in 2014, with less than 9% of the world's arable land feeding 22% of the world's population, indicating a substantial contribution to global food security. However, compared with developed economies, such as the USA and the European Union, more than half of the increased crop production in China can be attributed to a rapid increase in the consumption of chemicals, particularly fertilizers. Excessive fertilization has caused low nutrient use efficiency and high environmental costs in grain production. We analysed the key requirements underpinning increased sustainability of crop production in China, as follows: (i) enhance nutrient use efficiency and reduce nutrient losses by fertilizing roots not soil to maximize root/rhizosphere efficiency with innovative root zone nutrient management; (ii) improve crop productivity and resource use efficiency by matching the best agronomic management practices with crop improvement; and (iii) promote technology transfer of the root zone nutrient management to achieve the target of high yields and high efficiency with low environmental risks on a broad scale. Coordinating grain production and environmental protection by increasing the sustainability of nutrient use will be a key step in achieving sustainable crop production in Chinese agriculture.

Jiao Xiaoqiang    Lyu Yang    Wu Xiaobin    Haigang Li    Lingyun Cheng    Zhang Chaochun    Lixing Yuan    Rongfeng Jiang    Jiang Baiwen    Zed Rengel    张福锁     Bill Davies    Jianbo Shen   

Journal of Experimental Botany

2016

Background and aims: Increasing both yield and grain zinc (Zn) concentration (GZC) are the two important goals of maize production in China and elsewhere in the world. However, it is not clear whether soil application of Zn fertilizer could realize high yield and GZC. The current study aimed to examine how soil Zn application affects yield and GZC and what is the optimal DTPA-Zn for high yield and GZC requirement. Methods: A 3-year field experiment with Zn fertilizer application rates of 0, 10, 25, 50, 100, 150 kg ZnSO•7HO ha was conducted. Results: Soil Zn application significantly increased soil DTPA-Zn concentrations, maize yield, GZC and kernels number per spike; and decreased the length of barren ear tips. In each of these cases, the level of response was highly related to the quantity of Zn added to soil. The optimal soil DTPA-Zn concentration was 4.7 mg kg required to attain high yields and was 7.6 mg kg required to attain high GZC, respectively. Conclusion: Soil Zn fertilization can increase simultaneously both grain yield and GZC and achieved the biofortification of maize with Zn, and its realization depended on the available Zn concentrations in soil.

Liu Dun-Yi    Wei Zhang    Yan Peng    Xinping Chen    张福锁     Chunqin Zou   

Plant and Soil

2016