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Assessment of efficiency and potentiality of agricultural resources in Central Asia

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Abstract

This paper quantitatively analyzes the utilization efficiency of agricultural resources in Central Asia by calculating the consumption coefficient of the main resources, including arable land, water and fertilizers. The results of these investigations reveal the following: (1) The average consumption coefficients of cultivated land resources in Central Asia are much higher than the world average value of up to 7.74 m2/kg, which is 3.6 times that of China, suggesting that the cultivated land resource consumption coefficient of cultivated land resource utilization efficiency is low in the Central Asian region. (2) Up to 80% of available water Central Asia is about 9.43 m3/kg, or nearly 9.3 times the average value elsewhere in Asia, indicating that agricultural water use efficiency in this region is very low and water resources are wasted. (3) The fertilizer consumption coefficient in Central Asia is 0.035 kg/kg, which is close to the world average, but the utilization efficiency of fertilizer is relatively high. Therefore, in the future development of agriculture, Central Asia should pay more attention to the management of agricultural water resources in order to improve the utilization efficiency of these resources as well as that of arable land.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, CAS, Urumqi, 830011, China

    Jiaoyou Zhang, Yaning Chen & Zhi Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jiaoyou Zhang

Authors
  1. Jiaoyou Zhang
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  2. Yaning Chen
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  3. Zhi Li
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Correspondence to Jiaoyou Zhang.

Additional information

Foundation: The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.XDA19030204; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41630859

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Zhang, J., Chen, Y. & Li, Z. Assessment of efficiency and potentiality of agricultural resources in Central Asia. J. Geogr. Sci. 28, 1329–1340 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1528-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-018-1528-3

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