College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, Hainan, China.
Department of Agronomy, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 1;850:158030. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158030. Epub 2022 Aug 13.
The challenge of meeting the rising food demand and the need for achieving this through environment friendly and socio-economically acceptable strategies has posed an unprecedented pressure on the current intensive farming systems. Evidence for integrating the environmental burden and socio-economic profit is lacking. This study quantifies the yield performance, environmental burden (in terms of seven mid-point environmental impact categories, especially for the global warming potential (GWP) in terms of greenhouse gas emissions), and economic benefits among different intensive farming systems with varying agricultural resource input in maize (Zea mays) production. The results showed that seed yields increased with increasing resource inputs under intensive farming systems. Meanwhile, environmental burden in terms of GWP and integrated environmental impacts (IEI) based on per unit grain yield produced increased substantially with increasing resource inputs. The conventional planting accomplished the worst environmental performance (represented by the highest IEI), which was mainly attributed to higher agricultural resource input (such as fertilizer and diesel fuel consumption) per unit of grain yield produced, and thereby increased GWP, abiotic depletion-elements (Ade), ozone layer depletion (ODP), photochemical oxidation (PO), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP) by 22 %, 30 %, 36 %, 25 %, 32 % and 35 %, respectively. The relatively lower resource input under intensive farming coupled with water-saving technology could be highly recommended to local farmers; while extreme resource input planting patterns were not endorsed because of the yield penalty, low net revenue and high environmental burden. This study highlights the importance of an appropriate use of agricultural resources and innovative water-saving technology for mitigating environmental perils and ensuring global food supplies under intensive farming systems.
满足不断增长的粮食需求并通过环境友好和社会经济可接受的策略实现这一目标的挑战，给当前的集约化农业系统带来了前所未有的压力。缺乏整合环境负担和社会经济效益的证据。本研究量化了不同集约化农业系统在玉米（Zea mays）生产中不同农业资源投入下的产量表现、环境负担（以七种中点环境影响类别为指标，特别是温室气体排放的全球变暖潜势（GWP））和经济效益。结果表明，在集约化农业系统下，随着资源投入的增加，种子产量也随之增加。与此同时，以单位粮食产量为基础的 GWP 和综合环境影响（IEI）的环境负担也随着资源投入的增加而大幅增加。常规种植方式的环境表现最差（以最高的 IEI 为代表），这主要归因于每单位粮食产量的农业资源投入（如化肥和柴油燃料消耗）较高，从而增加了 GWP、非生物消耗元素（Ade）、臭氧消耗潜能（ODP）、光化学氧化潜能（PO）、酸化潜能（AP）和富营养化潜能（EP）分别增加了 22%、30%、36%、25%、32%和 35%。集约化农业中相对较低的资源投入加上节水技术，可以向当地农民大力推荐；而极端的资源投入种植模式则不被认可，因为它们会导致产量下降、净收益降低和环境负担增加。本研究强调了在集约化农业系统下，适当利用农业资源和创新节水技术对于减轻环境危害和确保全球粮食供应的重要性。
