Impact of farm management diversity on the environmental and economic performance of the wheat–maize cropping system in the North China Plain

Abstract

To assess the attainable greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential from crop production in China's most important grain production region, the North China Plain (NCP), single farm environmental and economic performances of 65 winter wheat–summer maize (WW–SM) producing households were determined. The results revealed a huge heterogeneity among farms, with up to five times higher environmental impact of worst compared to best performing farms. Astonishingly no trade-off between productivity and sustainability could be identified in the region, with high-yield farms emitting no different amounts of GHGs per hectare compared to low-yield farms. Building on cluster analysis, with farms grouped according to their economic and environmental performance into ‘poor’, ‘fair' and ‘good’ producers, the regional GHG mitigation potential was estimated. Under the scenario assumption that all grain in the NCP is produced under ‘good’ production conditions, 21% and 7% of GHG could be mitigated in wheat and maize production, respectively. The study shows that in the NCP, exemplary for China's rapidly developing agricultural sector, the crop management skills of a substantial share of farmers could obviously not keep pace with the massive input intensification. Among others, farmer–farmer trainings are recommended to close the gap in crop production performance among producers.

Keywords:

• farm management diversity
• environmental impact
• economic performance
• statistical analysis
• North China Plain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

We want to thank the China Scholarship Council [Fund No.20073020], German Research Foundation [GRK1070] and the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China for their financial support.

Notes

1. The net GWP of the WW–SM cropping system in Gao (2012) includes N₂O emission from soil, embedded GHG emission from fertilizer, electricity, fuel and pesticides.