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Decoupling relationship between greenhouse gas emissions from cropland utilization and crop yield in China: implications for green agricultural development

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Abstract

Developing low-carbon utilization of cropland is critical to coordinate agricultural production and environmental protection. Based on a theoretical analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and crop production, this study examined the GHG emissions from cropland utilization in China and the decoupling process from crop yields with consideration of different sources and then explored the driving factors in different regions. The results showed that the GHG emissions from cropland utilization in China rose first and then fell between 2003 and 2020, and the decoupling process has undergone three stages, namely “expansive coupling”, “weak decoupling”, and “strong decoupling”. And the eastern and southern provinces are relatively ahead of the western and northwestern provinces. Additionally, crop yields have been basically decoupled from GHG emissions caused by agricultural inputs, but they were still not decoupled from GHG emissions from cropland in Northeastern and Northern China. Among the influencing factors, utilization efficiency has promoted the decoupling progress, the input structure has played a promoting role in the early stage and hindered it later, and the input intensity and the scale have worked as hindering factors. Policy implications have been proposed to support the sustainable development of agriculture.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42071269), the Philosophical and Social Science Planning Project of Zhejiang (21WZQH12YB), and the National Social Science Foundation of China (19FGLB054).

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  1. Department of Land Management, School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Rd, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Fei Meng, Yongzhong Tan & Hang Chen

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  1. Fei Meng
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Contributions

Fei Meng: conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, and writing—original draft; Yongzhong Tan: conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing—and funding acquisition; Hang Chen: methodology, validation, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Yongzhong Tan.

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Meng, F., Tan, Y. & Chen, H. Decoupling relationship between greenhouse gas emissions from cropland utilization and crop yield in China: implications for green agricultural development. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 97160–97177 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29117-0

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