Spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of agricultural eco-efficiency in Jilin agricultural production zone from a low carbon perspective

Mapping China's reserved arable lands and its sustainable cropping layout

BACKGROUND

Reserved arable lands in China is of great significance for rationally allocating crop planting structures, alleviating the pressure of grain imports, and protecting food security. Owing to data acquisition limitations, obtaining the spatial distribution of reserved arable lands at large spatial scales is relatively rare, and there is little information on predicting the suitability, production capacity, and ecological effects of crop cultivation in reserved arable lands. This study obtained the distribution of reserved arable lands in China by applying restrictive factors, and used the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) suitability index for eight crops to obtain a spatial distribution map of suitable crops, proposed a cropland ecological efficiency index (CEEI) to analyse the ecological impact of crop cultivation in reserved arable lands.

RESULTS

China possesses approximately 3.93 million hectares of viable reserved arable lands comprising primarily grasslands (67.68%), sandy land (8.11%), saline-alkali land (20.68%), and bare land (3.53%). The average CEEI for the eight crops under irrigation conditions ranges from 0.844 to 0.865, and that under rain-fed conditions (excluding rice) ranges from 0.609 to 0.779.

CONCLUSION

We proposed the development of rain-fed agriculture with sorghum as the primary crop in the central part of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, while promoting the cultivation of rapeseed and soybeans in the eastern parts of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Inner Mongolia. Overall, the development of irrigation agriculture focusing on wheat and barley should be pursued only when water resources are guaranteed, particularly in north-western regions such as Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

The effect of environmental regulation and green subsidies on agricultural low-carbon production behavior: A survey of new agricultural management entities in Guangdong Province

Agricultural low-carbon production emerges as a pivotal function for achieving sustainable green development. However, there remains insufficient empirical evidence regarding the effect of environmental regulations and green subsidies upon the low-carbon production behavior of new agricultural entities. In this study, a questionnaire survey was administered to 268 respondents representing new agricultural entities in Guangdong Province, P.R.C. Subsequently, a structural equation model had been employed for validation analysis. This study's findings demonstrate that in general, environmental regulations positively and significantly affect the behavior of agricultural low-carbon production. Conversely, the influence of green subsidies is not statistically significant. In addition, differences are observed across different sectors, with environmental regulations significantly affecting low-carbon production behavior in the plantation sector, but not in the livestock sector. Conversely, green subsidies significantly impact low-carbon production behavior in the livestock sector, but not in the plantation sector. These findings highlight the promotional role of government-enforced environmental regulations and green subsidies in fostering low-carbon agricultural practices. Therefore, new agricultural entities should strive to augment green production technology capacities to realize sustainable green development.

The role of climate-adaptive technological innovation in promoting agriculture carbon efficiency: impact and heterogeneity in economic development

Achieving global climate change mitigation targets requires low-carbon production in agriculture. In such an endeavor, a new classification of climate-adaptive technology is defined to affect agriculture towards the low-carbon direction, but such an impact has seldom been empirically tested in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the impact of climate-adaptive technological innovation on agricultural carbon efficiency, a proxy for low-carbon agriculture. We use a stochastic directional distance function framework and a cross-country dataset covering 38 OECD countries. Additionally, we test the heterogeneous impact, considering that regional economic development is a crucial condition for deploying advanced technologies. The findings show that climate-adaptive technological innovation can promote carbon efficiency in agriculture, and this aggregate effect hides significant heterogeneity at different levels of economic development. The higher the economic development level is, the better climate-adaptive technological innovation contributes to improving agricultural carbon efficiency. Then, related policy implications are set forth.

Study on eco-efficiency of cultivated land utilization based on the improvement of ecosystem services and emergy analysis

Cultivated land is the result of the cooperation between humans and nature. The utilization of cultivated land hopes to realize a "win-win" situation of food production and ecological protection to promote sustainable development. Previous studies on the eco-efficiency of agro-ecosystem mainly considered material input, agricultural product output and environmental pollution, and did not systematically include the natural input and ecological product output, which had limitations on the study of sustainable development of cultivated land utilization. Therefore, this study initially used emergy analysis and ecosystem service assessment methods to include the natural input and ecosystem service output of cultivated land into the assessment framework of eco-efficiency of cultivated land utilization (ECLU) and used the Super-SBM model to calculate the ECLU in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in China. In addition, we also discussed the influencing factors of ECLU by the OLS model. Here we show that the ECLU was lower in cities with higher agricultural intensive utilization in the YRD. And in cities with better ecological conditions, the ECLU value obtained based on our adjusted ECLU assessment framework was higher than the traditional agricultural eco-efficiency assessment, indicating that the assessment method in this study paid more attention to ecological protection in the application. In addition, we found that crop diversity, paddy/dry land ratio, cultivated land fragmentation and terrain are the factors affecting the ECLU. This study helps provide a scientific basis for decision-makers to improve the ecological function of cultivated land based on ensuring food security and furthermore promote regional sustainable development.

Spatial Correlation Network and Driving Factors of Urban Energy Eco-Efficiency from the Perspective of Human Well-Being: A Case Study of Shaanxi Province, China

It is very important to seek a sustainable improvement in human well-being under a limited resource supply and to promote the scientific and coordinated development of urban economic development, ecological environment protection, and human well-being. This paper constructs a human well-being index that includes economic well-being, culture and education well-being, and social development well-being as factors, and it incorporates the human well-being index into the evaluation system for urban well-being energy eco-efficiency (WEE). It uses the super-slack-based measure (SBM) model, which considers undesirable output, to measure the WEE of 10 prefecture-level cities in Shaanxi Province, China, from 2005 to 2019. The social network analysis (SNA) is used to describe the characteristics of the spatial correlation network of WEE and its spatiotemporal evolutionary trend, and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) analysis method is used to identify the driving factors that affect the spatial correlation network. The results show that, first, the WEE in Shaanxi is relatively low as a whole and varies greatly among regions, with the highest level in northern Shaanxi, followed by Guanzhong; the lowest level is in southern Shaanxi. Second, in Shaanxi, WEE has transcended geographical proximity into a complex, multi-threaded spatial correlation network, and Yulin is at the center of the network. Third, the network shows four sectors: the net overflow, main benefit, two-way overflow, and broker. Members in each sector have not fully exploited their advantages, and the whole network can be improved. Fourth, the differences in the economic development level, openness, industrial structure, and population are the main driving factors influencing the formation of the spatial correlation network.

Spatio-Temporal Difference in Agricultural Eco-Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors Based on the SBM-Tobit Models in the Yangtze River Delta, China

In the Yangtze River Delta region, where the agricultural economy is well developed and agricultural pollution and carbon emissions are significant, a regional study of AEE (Agricultural Eco-Efficiency) is crucial to reducing agricultural environmental pollution, improving the rationalization of agricultural production layout, and promoting the realization of low-carbon goals. The SBM-Tobit model and GIS were employed to analyze AEE based on the carbon emission evaluation system in the spatial and temporal characteristics, as well as the influencing factors and the migration path of the center of gravity in the "low carbon" context. A rational plan of agricultural production was proposed according to the results. The following results were obtained: (1) The level of AEE in the Yangtze River Delta region was high, and the region exhibited a U-shaped curve change from 2000 to 2020, with a fluctuating decrease from 2000 to 2003 and a fluctuating increase from 2004 to 2020. The regional spatial development balance was enhanced, while there was a spatial incongruity in the development process of AEE enhancement, high in the southwest and low in the northeast; (2) AEE generally had a high regionalized agglomeration of low-low in the southwest and high-high in the northeast. Nonetheless, temporal heterogeneity was observed in spatial correlation, and the correlation weakened with time variation; (3) Urbanization level, agricultural production structure, crop cultivation structure, and fertilizer application intensity were the main factors influencing AEE in the Yangtze River Delta region; (4) The center of gravity of AEE in the Yangtze River Delta region shifted to the southwest under the influence of "low-carbon" related policies. Therefore, the improvement of AEE in the Yangtze River Delta region should focus on inter-regional coordination and linkages, rational planning of production factors, and the formulation of measures under relevant carbon policies.

Coupling coordination analysis and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the agricultural eco-economic system in the main grain-producing areas of Jilin Province

Jilin is a major agricultural province and an important grain-producing area in China. Under the requirements of ensuring national grain security and green development for regional agriculture, the coordinated development of agricultural ecology and the economy in grain-producing areas is a crucial issue. Sixteen major grain-producing counties in Jilin Province were selected and a comprehensive evaluation index of the agricultural eco-economic system was established to analyze the relationship between the two subsystems in the main grain-producing areas from 2004 to 2018. The study aimed to determine the relationship between agricultural ecology and the economy in the grain-producing areas of Jilin and how to promote high-quality development of the agricultural system according to the local conditions. The results showed that (1) the coupling coordination degree (CCD) in the main grain-producing areas was steadily improved during the study period and was closely related to the impact of agricultural policies; (2) the CCD of the central area was less than that of the west, mainly because the agricultural ecological development lagged far behind the economy; (3) agricultural modernization, environmental protection, and increasing grain added value were important ways to promote CCD development in the grain-producing areas. This study emphasized the importance of the coordinated development of agricultural ecology and the economy and provides an important reference for formulating regionally differentiated development strategies and achieving sustainable agriculture in main grain-producing areas.

Evaluating the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Agricultural Eco-Efficiency Alongside China's Carbon Neutrality Targets

Agriculture has the dual effect of contributing to both carbon emissions and sequestration, and thus plays a critical role in mitigating global climate change and achieving carbon neutrality. Agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) is an important measurement through which we can assess the efforts toward reduced emissions and increased sequestration. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between China's target of carbon neutrality and AEE through an evaluative model, so as to improve AEE and ultimately achieve sustainable agricultural development. The Super-SBM model scientifically measures the AEE based on provincial panel data collected between 2000 and 2020. We selected kernel density function and spatial distribution to explore the spatial and temporal evolutionary trends, and used a Tobit model to identify the drivers of AEE. The research shows that (1) China's agricultural system functions as a net carbon sink, with all provinces' agricultural carbon sequestration levels recorded as higher than their carbon emissions from 2000 to 2020. (2) Despite sequestration levels, the level of AEE in China is not high enough, and the average efficiency level from 2000 to 2020 is 0.7726, showing an overall trend where AEE decreased at first and then increased. (3) The AEE of each province is clearly polarized; there are obvious core-periphery characteristics and spatial distribution of clustered contiguous areas. Central provinces generally have lower efficiency, eastern and northeastern provinces have higher efficiency, and northeastern provinces always remain in the high-efficiency group. (4) Influencing factors show that urbanization, upgrading of industrial structure, financial support for agriculture, and mechanization have a significant positive impact on AEE. These findings have important implications for the promotion of the low-carbon green development of Chinese agriculture.