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Agricultural carbon emission reduction is an important issue in environmental protection and development in China and the world. The farmland spatial transition is an important path for agricultural modernization in developing countries such as China. How can farmland spatial transition promote agricultural carbon emission reduction? This paper aims to explore the mechanisms and spatial-temporal effects of farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emission density. To study the mechanisms and effects, we establish the random effect model, the threshold model, and the GTWR model with 2018 counties in China from 2000 to 2020. The research shows the farmland spatial transition mainly promotes agricultural carbon emission reduction through the interaction mechanism of large-scale production and specialized production, intermediary, and threshold mechanisms of agricultural technology. The result also shows that specialized farmland management is the main driving force of agricultural carbon emission reduction for farmland spatial transition. Moreover, the impact of farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emission reduction has significant spatial and temporal differences. The most significant regions are located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain, while the least are the north and southwest. Besides, the impact of the farmland spatial transition on agricultural carbon emissions reduction has a "V" shape over time, indicating China's agricultural carbon emission reduction is facing enormous economic and social development challenges. Our research reveals the various mechanisms and spatial-temporal effects of the transition of farmland spatial morphology on agricultural carbon emission with an evaluation framework, which is crucial to low-carbon agriculture with proper farmland use., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The objective of the study is to extend the existing literature by investigating the effects of foreign direct investment, gross domestic products and per capita and energy diversification on the nitrogen oxide emissions in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) by using annual data during the period 1992-2019. As per our knowledge, the present study is a first of its kind to examine the impact of a new energy diversification index, based on Herfindahl-Hirschman framework on pollution. This study has adopted a new quantile regression augmented method of moments, which is capable of producing the total impacts of the independent variables across the entire distribution of nitrogen oxides emissions. The findings suggest that an increase in foreign direct investment leads to a decrease in nitrogen oxides emissions at the aggregate level and in both manufacturing and service sectors. We observe that foreign direct investment leads to an increase in nitrogen oxides emissions in the agricultural sector in most of the quantiles. Diversification towards renewable energy causes a decrease in nitrogen oxides emissions in most quantiles at aggregate level, agricultural and manufacturing sectors, whilst diversification leads to an increase in nitrogen oxides emissions in the service sector. The findings also suggest that GDP per capita leads to an increase in NOx emissions in all the quantiles. The study suggests the policy to use and attract more clean energy through foreign direct investment for towards the achievement of sustainable development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper intends to look into the time-varying dynamic impact of US fuel ethanol, one of the renewable energy sources, on the prices of agricultural products (specifically corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat) in China based on monthly price data from January 2000 to January 2023. To achieve this, a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model is employed, which takes into account structural changes in emergencies through time-varying parameters. The empirical results show that the equal-interval impulse responses of price fluctuations in agricultural commodities are primarily positive to variations in fuel ethanol prices and production. And the intensity and direction of the effects vary at distinct time lags. Additionally, the magnitude of these responses is most pronounced in the short term for all agricultural commodities except for corn, and the duration of the impulse responses at different time points is generally longer for corn prices compared to other commodities. The study also reveals that the influence of US fuel ethanol on Chinese agricultural commodity prices is not substantial on the whole. Therefore, there is a necessity to advance the growth of biofuels and provide policy support and financial subsidies for agricultural products earmarked for food production. These actions could shed insights into the progression of Chinese renewable energy and food policies, ensuring the stability of the market in the long run., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Machinery is commonly used in the modernization of agricultural industries and is a pivotal way to eliminate poverty among farmers. However, there are still disputes regarding the effects of agricultural machinery on farmers' relative poverty. Neither the heterogeneity nor the thresholds in agricultural machinery-led poverty reduction efforts have been discussed in depth. To address those gaps, this study considers farmers' livelihood factors and resource (in)divisibility to investigate how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty as well as the heterogeneity of and thresholds in that influence. This study collected data from 1118 Chinese farming households. 2SLS-IVTobit regression results show that a 1% increase in the overall level of agricultural machinery leads to a 3.3% increase in farmers' income and a 0.523% decrease in their relative poverty. Furthermore, the three pathways of cost-saving, production efficiency, and labor allocation efficiency are identified as explaining 25.4%, 21.9%, and 21.3% of relative poverty reduction, respectively. The heterogeneity of these effects across different farming stages (i.e., plowing, sowing, and harvesting) is also examined, and the results show that plowing machinery has the largest effect. Then, a threshold analysis is conducted, which shows that farmers are influenced more when the scale of their farms surpasses the threshold of 1.12 hm 2 . Theoretically, this study establishes an integrated model that depicts how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty through production (in)divisibility. Practically, this study recommends additional investment in agricultural machinery (especially plowing machinery), farmland integration, and taking targeted measures to facilitate resource divisibility., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

One of the purposes of agri-environment schemes (AESs) is to persuade farmers to make good environmental contributions. Understanding the determinants of farmer behavior and the decisions they make regarding AESs is crucial because it helps policymakers create schemes with a broader reach and a higher likelihood of achieving environmental goals. This paper aims to explore the impacts of land transfer, farmers' subjective well-being, and participation in AESs in environmentally fragile areas of China by using data of 6840 sampled farmers obtained from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). A relatively novel approach of ordinary least square (OLS), the ordered probit model approach, and the mediation effect model is used to assess the association between the land transfer mechanism, subjective well-being, and participation in AESs. The model outcomes indicate that land transfer has a considerable influence on AES involvement and that it can boost farmers' subjective well-being. The findings of our study also indicate that the marginal effect of land transfer on the subjective well-being of nonpoor households is greater than that of poor households, and the impact degree of land transfer on the subjective well-being of farmers reveals a weakening trend from east to west regions. Local conditions should be taken as guidance to effectively coordinate the regional resource allocation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The high-quality development of agriculture requires not only sustainable growth of agricultural productivity but also green agricultural production. Internet technology has played an essential role in agricultural production and marketing in China over the past decades. This paper estimates provincial agricultural green growth in China from 1997 to 2019 and decomposes it into technological progress (TP) and efficiency changes (EC) based on the Luenberger productivity indicator method. Then an econometric model is employed to analyze the impact of the Internet on the growth of agricultural green productivity and each sub-component, and moderating role of farmer education in such effect. The empirical results indicated that annual average growth rate of agricultural green productivity in China is 1.33% from 1997 to 2019, and technological progress dominates its growth. The development of Internet technology has a significant positive impact on agricultural green productivity and its decomposition. Farmer education has strengthened the effect of Internet technology on agricultural green productivity and its decomposition TP and EC., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Antibiotics are one of the greatest inventions in human history and are used worldwide on an enormous scale. Besides its extensive usage in medical and veterinary arenas to treat and prevent the infection, its application is very prominent in other fields, including agriculture, aquaculture, and horticulture. In recent decades, the increased consumption of antibiotics in China saw a vast increase in its production and disposal in various environments. However, in this post-antibiotic era, the abuse and misuse of these valuable compounds could lead to the unreversible consequence of drug resistance. In China, antibiotics are given a broad discussion in various fields to reveal their impact on both human/animals health and the environment. To our knowledge, we are the first paper to look back at the development trend of antibiotic-related studies in China with qualitative and quantitative bibliometric analysis from the past decades. Our study identified and analyzed 5559 papers from its inception (1991) to December 6, 2021, from the Web of Science Core Collection database. However, with few authors and institutions focusing on long-term studies, we found the quality of contributions was uneven. Studies mainly focused on areas such as food science, clinical research, and environmental studies, including molecular biology, genetics and environmental, ecotoxicology, and nutrition, which indicate possible primary future trends. Our study reports on including potentially new keywords, studies' milestones, and their contribution to antibiotic research. We offer potential topics that may be important in upcoming years that could help guide future research., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Agricultural green transformation is crucial for addressing environmental issues like pollution and soil degradation. However, limited attention has been given to its determinants in the existing literature. This study extends the "Porter hypothesis" in agricultural economics and discusses the institutional factors influencing green transformation in Chinese agricultural enterprises from the perspective of environmental regulations. Using data from 2007 to 2020, we examine the impact of the green agriculture demonstration zone (GADZ) policy on green innovation in Chinese A-share listed agribusinesses. The results show that the policy significantly improves green innovation, leading to a 9.9% increase in patent applications. We also find that the GADZ promotes green innovation in agricultural businesses through two economic mechanisms, reducing financial risks and enhancing media attention. In addition, the policy's effect is influenced by property rights, information disclosure quality, and financial resources. Our findings offer valuable insights for promoting green innovation and high-quality agricultural development in emerging economies., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Farmland not only provides human being with food and industrial materials, but also has non-market value. However, few studies have explored the impact of livelihood capital configuration and their willingness to pay (WTP) for the farmland non-market value, from farmers' perspective. Based on the field survey data of 434 households in Jianghan Plain, China, this paper divided the research process into two stages to explore the impact of farmers' livelihood capital on their WTP by using binary logistics model and qualitative comparative analysis method of fuzzy sets (fsQCA). The results show that (1) The total livelihood capital of farmers was 2.667, with psychological capital 0.649, natural capital 0.621, social capital 0.127. 79.49% of the households were willing to pay for the farmland non-market value, and the most concentrated range of it is 50-200 yuan/hm 2 . (2) Both social capital and psychological capital had positive impacts on farmers' WTP for the non-market value of farmland protection. (3) There were two livelihood capital configurations that could improve the WTP of farmers. When lacking of human capital, physical capital and psychological capital, the improvement in farmers' financial capital and social capital will improve farmers' WTP. When the natural, financial, and psychological capital are poor, the rich human capital, physical capital and social capital will also increase farmers' WTP. In view of the results, policy implications on livelihood capital structure optimization and ecological compensation system differentiation were proposed., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The progress of agricultural green technology is an important means and fundamental way to achieve high-quality development of agriculture. The current study takes the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 1998 to 2018 and uses the Epsilon Based Measure-Global Malmquist-Luenberger (EBM-GML) model to measure China's agricultural green technological progress (AGTP) and discusses its dynamic evolution characteristics in the spatiotemporal dimensions. Finally, we analyze the spatial spillover effects of AGTP by the spatial Dubin model. The results show that China's AGTP showed a trend of first rising and then falling, and the average value is 1.0525. AGTP has obvious regional unbalanced development, and the regional differences are expanding. It shows that AGTP between adjacent areas is closely linked. The Moran's I index shows that AGTP has a significant positive spatial correlation. The local Moran's I index shows that AGTP is concentrated in Northwest, Northeast, and North China, and green technological is degraded in East and South China. From the spatial spillover effects of AGTP, the level of agricultural economic development, real GDP per capita, and urbanization have significantly promoted AGTP in the local and neighboring areas, while the agricultural internal structure and the level of labor inhibit AGTP in the local and neighboring areas. In addition, the administrative environmental policy (ENVP) and the economic environmental policy (ECOP) have negative impacts in neighboring areas, while the policy has negative spillover effects and positive spillover effects in the local area, respectively. Therefore, we should adhere to the concept of green development, pay attention to the regional exchange of green technology, concentrate policies on low-low concentration areas, and increase the follow-up tracking and supervision mechanism of the policy design and implementation process., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With the overall victory of poverty alleviation in China, the focus of rural work has been transformed into rural revitalization. Therefore, based on the panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China spanning 2011 to 2019, this research used the entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the weights of each index of the two rural revitalization and green finance systems. This research also constructs the spatial Dubin model to empirically analyze the direct effects and spatial spillover effects of green finance development on the level of rural revitalization. Additionally, this research calculates the weight of each indicator of rural revitalization and green finance using entropy-weighted TOPSIS. This research reveals that the current state of green finance is not conducive to increasing local rural revitalization and does not significantly affect all provinces. Further, the number of human resources can improve the local level of rural revitalization, not the entire province. These dynamics benefit the growth of local rural revitalization in the surrounding areas if employment and technology levels are developed domestically. Moreover, this research reveals that education level and air quality have a spatial crowding effect on rural revitalization. Thus, when developing rural revitalization and development policies, it is vital to prioritize the high-quality development of finance to be closely monitored by local governments at the respective levels. Furthermore, the stakeholders must pay critical attention to the connection between supply and demand and between financial institutions and agricultural enterprises in the provinces. Again, the policymakers must also increase policy preference, deepen regional economic cooperation, and improve the supply of essential rural elements to play a more significant role in green finance and support rural revitalization., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The mechanism of the non-agricultural transfer of rural labor to agricultural production efficiency and their interrelationships is a problem worthy of further discussion at this stage in China. The mediating effect model is constructed, the least square method is used for regression, and the instrumental variable method is used to solve the possible endogeneity problem. Through the investigation of farmers in Loess Plateau region, this paper analyzes the effects of factor substitution and planting structure adjustment after agricultural labors work outside and its impact on agricultural land output from the theoretical and empirical aspects, as well as the impact of off-farm employment on agricultural land output under different constraints. Results showed that the negative influence of labor non-agricultural transfer on farmland land output rate is - 7.264, and farmers' participation in returning farmland to forests can alleviate the negative impact of non-agricultural transfer on the agricultural land output. Labor substitution factor investment plays a part in the mediating effect, and part of the mediating effect is - 0.879. The adjustment of agricultural planting structure plays the whole mediating effect, that is to say, the larger the scale of labor non-agricultural transfer in Loess Plateau area, the more unfavorable for farmers to invest in labor substitution agricultural factors of production, and the more they are inclined to grow food crops. When the constraint conditions of factor substitution difficulty and planting structure adjustment space are considered, the higher the factor substitution difficulty is, the smaller the planting structure adjustment space; the negative effect of the non-agricultural transfer of labor on the agricultural land output rate is more obvious. It provides effective reference value to judge the development stage and trend of regional agriculture and puts forward relevant policy suggestions to guarantee the development of regional agriculture and farmers' life.

The open-air burning of the massive generated crop straw in rural areas has been a troubling problem in China in recent decades, and the utilization and valorization of crop straw have provided promising solutions to it. However, due to the limitations in straw resources, economic, social, and technological conditions, different regions vary greatly with each other in the technological pathways and performance of straw utilization. By taking ten counties and districts of Xinyang City in Henan Province of China as examples, it analyzed the spatial distribution of straw yields and the adoption of five pathways of crop straw utilization in Xinyang City, and summarized three typical combination modes. In addition, it also provided the integrated model of FBWM-TOPSIS-PROMETHEE to evaluate the performance of crop straw utilization in the ten counties and districts, to provide local decision-makers with the pathways for promoting the utilization and valorization of crop straw. The results indicated that: (1) The endowment of straw resources and the straw utilization pathways in the ten counties and districts of Xinyang City vary greatly with each other; (2) Returning crop straw to the fields as fertilizer after being crushed is the mainstream mode of resource utilization of crop straw, although five technological modes have been adopted in Xinyang City; (3) Among the 10 counties, Huaibin and Xixian have the best performance of resource utilization of crop straw, and Shangcheng is the worst performer., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

An in-depth analysis of the spatial distribution characteristics and overall pattern of industrial heritage sites in China provides not only a comprehensive understanding of the current status of industrial heritage but also a reference for its protection and ongoing utilization. A total of 170 industrial heritage sites that were included in the List of National Industrial Heritage of China were selected as the research objects. Their spatial structure characteristics were quantitatively analyzed based on a kernel density analysis of ArcGIS and imbalance and Gini coefficient index of function calculations. The results show that the distribution of industrial heritage sites in China presents a strong aggregation trend and a distribution pattern of four cores, six centers, and multiple scattered points. The distribution of industrial heritage sites in 34 administrative regions is extremely imbalanced. A total of 170 industrial heritage sites are distributed across 27 administrative regions; 52.35% are concentrated in the East and Southwest divisions. According to the index definitions, this research analyzed their influencing factors from perspectives of the natural and social environments. The results show that the industrial heritage sites in China are mainly distributed in traditional agricultural and commercial areas with rich natural or water transport resources. The current study of major historical events in modern China and the growth curve of industrial heritage concludes that China's industry has experienced five stages of development: Ancient, Beginning, Accelerated Development, Climax, and Slowdown. The geographical divisions and distribution of categories show colonial and socialist characteristics., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental problems associated with pig production have shown a growing trend in China. Subsequently, local governments have imposed bans and restrictions on pig production to control pollution, which has affected the supply of pork in the market. An emission trading system is an effective means to control the pollution of pig production. In this study, the emission trading system for controlling point source pollution is introduced into the control of pig farming nonpoint source pollution. Taking Zhejiang Province as the research area, we selected purposely four representative pig production cities in Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, and Quzhou as the survey sites and conducted a face-to-face random sampling survey of scale pig farmers from 2018 to 2019. A Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) was used to evaluate the willingness of scale pig farmers to invest in biogas facilities under the emission trading system, and then, a regression model was constructed to analyze the feasibility of the emission trading system for pig farming pollution control. The empirical study found that the emission trading system can encourage scale pig farmers to use biogas fermentation to treat pollution and make environmental investments in recycling waste resources. Because of the scale economy of pollution treatment, it is proved feasible to introduce the emission trading system into the control of pig farming pollution.

Improving fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) is an effective means to reduce fertilizer use and environmental contamination. Few studies have considered spatial effects of FUE and its determinants. This paper calculates the FUE of agricultural production by adopting panel data on 31 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017 using a stochastic frontier method and discusses the spatial distribution and characteristics. Furthermore, the geographical weighted regression (GWR) model is employed to examine the spatial impact of education level, non-agricultural employment ratio, disaster ratio, and farmers' income on FUE and reveal the spatial dispersion and agglomeration effect of different provinces in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017. The results show that the average FUE in China is 0.747 and has a significant decreasing trend, and FUE has a significant regional difference and spatial positive correlation in different provinces. Non-agricultural employment ratio is the most leading factor for increasing FUE for all provinces in studied years, and its influence degree shows a decreasing trend from southeastern to northwestern in each year. The different agricultural industry development modes, planting structure adjustment, and policy incentive systems for increasing non-agricultural employment ratio should be developed for different regions. Farmers' income has a significant negative impact on FUE, but the influence degree decreases annually, indicating that improving income to higher than turning point of the environmental Kuznets curve plays a critical role in improving FUE. The influence of education level on FUE is positive but relatively weak, and the influence degree declines from the western to eastern areas. It should strengthen the exploration of scientific and rational education and a training policy system to improve the educational level in different regions on the basis of local characteristics. Disaster ratio has a positive impact on FUE but is unstable. For the neighboring provinces, coordinated weather and possible disaster forecasting and release mechanism should be carried out based on the extent of the disaster.

Although numerous studies have explored various impacts of Internet use, few have investigated the linkage between Internet use and chemical fertilizer use in developing economies. This study examines the influences of Internet use and related promotion policy on chemical fertilizer use based on a nationwide dataset including China's 7766 rural households. The baseline regression results show that Internet use reduced chemical fertilizer use significantly. The mechanism analysis unveils the mediation role of human capital; Internet use increased farmers' human capital and then reduced chemical fertilizer use. In addition, the difference-in-difference method is employed to examine the effects of Internet promotion policy and the findings reveal that the promotion policy could help reduce farmers' use of chemical fertilizer. Finally, both propensity score matching-DID model and a two-stage instrumental variable model are used to address potential endogeneity issues associated with Internet use, and results indicate that the empirical results are robust. Our findings suggest that improving the availability of broadband access in a rural area, promoting Internet-related training and education, and more government's investment in rural ICTs infrastructure can contribute to the reduction of chemical fertilizer use.

Sustainable agriculture ensures food security and prevents starvation. However, the need to meet the increasing food demands of the growing population has led to poor and unsustainable agricultural practices, which promote environmental degradation. Given the contributions of agricultural ecosystems to environmental pollution, we investigated the impact of the agricultural ecosystem on environmental pollution in China using time series data from 1960 to 2014. We employed several methods for econometric analysis including the unit root test, Johansen test of cointegration, Granger causality test, and vector error correction model. Evidence based on the long-run elasticity indicates that a 1% increase in the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) equivalent to nitrous oxide from synthetic fertilizers will increase the emissions of CO 2 by 1.52% in the long run. Similarly, a 1% increase in the area of harvested rice paddy, cereal production, biomass of burned crop residues, and agricultural GDP will increase the carbon dioxide emissions by 0.85, 0.63, 0.37, and 0.22%, respectively. The estimated results indicate that there are long-term equilibrium relationships among the selected variables considered for the agricultural ecosystem and carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, we identified bidirectional causal associations between CO 2 emissions, biomass of burned crop residues, and cereal production. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

Exploring the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between digital village construction (DVC) and agricultural carbon emissions (ACE) is crucial for promoting village revitalization and sustainable agricultural development. Analyzing data from 30 provinces in China in 2011-2020, this paper employs the CCD model, the Dagum Gini coefficient, and the geographic detector for in-depth analysis. The results show that the overall level of CCD gradually increases over time, but the national CCD still remains in a state of "low coordination," and there are apparent spatial differences in the CCD among provinces. In addition, the overall difference in CCD shows a decreasing trend, and the contribution of inter-regional differences has gradually become the most critical source of CCD's regional difference. Finally, the spatial differences of CCD are the result of two-factor interaction, among which the innovation level is the most core driving factor. The above findings provide important implications for China and other developing countries to fully leverage the interaction between village digitalization and agricultural decarbonization to promote sustainable agricultural development., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The widespread use of ultra-thin mulch films has been considered the root cause of China's difficulties in recycling waste mulch films and their severe residue and pollution. Therefore, environmental regulation to guide farmers to use and recycle high-standard mulch has become a key measure to prevent and control mulch pollution at the source. In this paper, we review environmental regulation measures for mulch pollution and their implementation characteristics in the northwest dry farming restoration region as a case study, and explore their impact on the use and recycling of high-standard mulch. ​The results show that China's environmental regulations on mulch use and recycling can be classified into three types: guidance, incentives, and restrictions. However, the measures implemented so far primarily consist of guidance, while the restrictive and incentive regulations are inadequate. The percentage of farmers using and recycling high-standard mulch under environmental regulations is relatively high (88.18% and 79.83%, respectively), but there is still room for improvement. The study also reveals that while environmental regulations promote the use of high-standard plastic film and its recycling, not all measures are equally effective. Specifically, the implementation of measures such as benefits publicity, price subsidies, technical training, behavior supervision, and punishment mechanisms can be effective in improving farmers' adoption of high-standard plastic mulch; publicizing the hazards of mulch residue, training on recycling techniques, establishing recycling sites, regulating recycling practices, and penalizing violations can effectively help increase the recycling rate of used mulch film. Finally, this study provides a valuable reference for improving regulatory policies for mulch pollution control., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Farmland size and green technology have a significant impact on agricultural carbon emissions. However, more research needs to consider the impact of their interaction on agricultural carbon neutralization. In this paper, the impact of farmland size on the net carbon effect and its underlying mechanisms from the perspective of green agricultural technology adoption were empirically examined using a tracking survey of 2600 farming households. The results show that farmland size expansion at both household and plot levels can increase the net carbon effect of the planting industry, which is more pronounced for grain crops than cash crops. Specifically, a 1% increase in the total area of household farmland or the largest contracted plot area can increase the net carbon effect by more than 3%. Green technology also plays a mediation effect in their relationship. Increasing farmland size can generate sufficient economic incentives to encourage green technology adoption, contributing to carbon sequestration and emissions reduction and increasing the crop's net carbon effect. Furthermore, we find that farmland expansion can significantly encourage the adoption of efficiency-enhancing technologies but not environmentally friendly technologies. Our findings suggest that promoting farmland expansion and green technology extension is effective for the low-carbon transformation of Chinese agriculture. The government should make distinct promotion policies for various green agricultural technologies and differentiating incentives and support policies for different-sized farmers. Our study provides insights into the path to Chinese-style agricultural modernization in the context of a smallholder economy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Controlling agricultural carbon emissions contributes to achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. However, as a conservation management practice of farmland, the impact of No-tillage management (NTM) on agricultural carbon emissions needs to be further discussed. The main purpose of this paper is to assess the direct effect and spatial spillover effect of NTM on agricultural carbon emissions, revealing the regulating mechanism of NTM on agricultural carbon emissions and the combined application of NTM. Results indicate that NTM reduces agricultural carbon emissions, which is significant in the central and western regions, along with the primary grain, corn, and rice production areas, as well as the northern regions of the Huai River. Furthermore, the spatial spillover analysis reveals that the implementation of NTM increases agricultural carbon emissions in neighboring regions, but financial support and cross-regional services can negatively regulate the relationship between NTM and space agricultural carbon emissions. This paper also finds that combining straw-returning technology and NTM reduces agricultural carbon emissions. Building a cross-regional coordination mechanism, an incentive mechanism, and innovating the conservation tillage model is essential for promoting the NTM and achieving agricultural carbon reduction., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Improving fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) is an effective way to reduce the fertilizer use and non-point source pollution in agriculture production in China. Existing research related to fertilizer use efficiency ignores the impact of famers' social networks, which can significantly affect the fertilizer use and its efficiency. This paper analyzed the impact of social networks on fertilizer use efficiency and the mediator effect of green fertilization technology adoption, based on the calculation of fertilizer use efficiency of 569 kiwifruit farmers in Shaanxi province of China surveyed in 2021 by using stochastic frontier method. The results show that the FUE of kiwifruit production ranged within 0.1027-0.9945, with an average value of 0.333, which showed great variability, and fertilizer input had an average 66.7% reduction potential without reducing output. Social networks and its four dimensions all had a significant positive impact on FUE, in which network trust and network learning had a greater impact on FUE. Farmers' adoption of green fertilization technology played a positive mediator effect in the process of social networks influencing their fertilizer use efficiency, which was mainly promoted by network trust and learning. Farmers' experience in agricultural production, joining the cooperative, the quantity of village agricultural supply points had a significant positive impact on fertilizer use efficiency, while age and gentle of the head of household had a significant negative impact of fertilizer use efficiency. Planting scale had a U-shape impact on FUE. Policies aimed at improving FUE and reducing non-point source pollution should, therefore, focus on improving the social networks of farmers, especially young farmers, strengthening network trust, promoting network learning, network reciprocity and network interaction, strengthening the research and development and extension of green fertilization technology, encouraging farmers to join agricultural cooperative, improving village production conditions, guiding sustainable agricultural production., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The spatial effects of agricultural market integration on industrial agglomeration are an important field of regional economic. This paper collected the data of agricultural market integration and industrial agglomeration in 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019, analyzed the spatial effects of the two by constructing a dynamic spatial Dubin model, and explored its long-term and short-term effects of the spatial effects. The results show the following: (1) the primary terms of agricultural market integration were negative and the secondary terms were positive. The impact of agricultural market integration on local industrial agglomeration had a "U-shaped" characteristic. Whether in the short-term or long-term, there was a significant direct effect of "suppression to promotion." (2) The agricultural market integration had a spatial spillover effect on industrial agglomeration in the neighboring areas. This effect had an "inverted U-shaped" characteristic. Whether in the short-term or long-term, there was a prominent spatial spillover effect of "promotion to suppression." (3) For direct effects, the short-term direct effects of agricultural market integration on industrial agglomeration were - 0.0452 and 0.0077, and the long-term direct effects were - 0.2430 and 0.0419. For spatial spillover effects, the short-term spatial spillover effects were 0.0983 and - 0.0179, and the long-term spatial spillover effects were 0.4554 and - 0.0827. The long-term effects were greater than the short-term effects. This paper provides empirical evidence for the effects of agricultural market integration on industrial agglomeration in different regions, and exploring the development of agricultural agglomeration in the long-term., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Taking the data of 30 provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions and Tibet) at the provincial level from 2010 to 2019 as the research object, this paper analyzes the current situation and characteristics of China's agricultural modernization and response to carbon emissions. Agricultural modernization is decomposed into production modernization, management modernization, and ecological modernization. This study uses the spatial Dobbin model to demonstrate the impact of agricultural modernization on carbon emissions and analyzes the impact of agricultural modernization on carbon emissions in the East. The direct effect and spatial spillover effect of the three western regions are to different degrees. The results show that agricultural carbon emissions are spatially dependent. The development of agricultural modernization and transportation of neighboring provinces and cities will have an impact on agricultural carbon emissions in this region. Therefore, under the background of rural revitalization and low-carbon agriculture, this paper further analyzes the impact of agricultural modernization on the spatial distribution of carbon emissions in the eastern, central, and western regions. Recommendations are proposed with a view to giving better play to the process of agricultural modernization., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

A useful spatial pattern of cultivated land utilization in mountainous areas is a basic prerequisite for promoting efficient utilization of cultivated land and has a practical use for ensuring regional food security and rural revitalization. In this paper, we use Enshi and Lichuan cities as case studies and the PLUS model to analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics of cultivated land from 2000 to 2020. In addition, we simulated the spatial pattern of cultivated land in 2030 concerning the ecological priority scenario (scenario I) and the ecological and economic coordination scenario (scenario II). The results show that (1) the degree of cultivated land fragmentation from 2000 to 2020 is characterized as "high in the east and low in the west," and the spatial aggregation of cultivated land decreases slightly over time and that there is a risk of increasing fragmentation of cultivated land in the future. (2) The complexity of cultivated land shape shows a fluctuating decrease between 2000 and 2030, and an overall trend of landscape homogenization. (3) The spatial distribution of cultivated land is concentrated in the peak cluster depressions and river valleys. The imbalance in the distribution of cultivated land has increased in the past two decades which should be curbed in the future. (4) In 2030, concerning the ecological priority development scenario, cultivated land use tends to evolve in the direction of balanced distribution and a relatively complex shape. (5) Concerning the coordinated ecological and economic development scenario, the spatial aggregation of cultivated land is higher and the patches of cultivated land are more regular, but the distribution imbalance is more serious. The results can provide scientific references for sustainable and effective use of cultivated land in mountainous areas., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Major changes have taken place in the agricultural factor input structure in China, which will inevitably affect fertilizer input in agriculture. However, there is no consistent conclusion about the impact of capital and labor input on chemical fertilizer input. This paper employed directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) to clarify the influence of capital-labor input structure on the use of chemical fertilizer. Using inter-provincial panel data, the dynamic panel system GMM method was adopted to examine the mechanism of factor substitution elasticity in determining the impact of agricultural capital-labor input on chemical fertilizer input. The results showed that agricultural labor and capital input are positively correlated with chemical fertilizer input. In the process of capital and labor input affecting fertilizer input, the elasticity of factor substitution plays a negative moderating role. From 1996 to 2018, the trend of capital replacing labor was evident, and the increase ratio of capital input was greater than the decrease ratio of labor input. Therefore, an increase in capital input and its substitution for labor is the main driver of the increase in fertilizer input. At the same time, the elasticity of fertilizer-capital substitution declined during the period 1996-2018, thereby reinforcing the increase in fertilizer input caused by the increase in capital input. In order to reduce agricultural pollution caused by the increase in chemical fertilizer input, it is crucial to reverse the declining trend in the elasticity of fertilizer capital substitution., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is an important means for evaluating resources and environment, and sensitivity analysis can enhance understand the robustness of evaluation results. Spatial visualization has been used in sensitivity analysis of MCDM, but the sensitivity results are still generally summarized by presenting traditional statistical measurements that omit the spatial information. To address this issue, this paper proposed a novel spatially measurement approach of sensitivity analysis by introducing the spatial barycenter model (SBM), which overcame the limitations of existing statistical methods and provided the spatial directivity of uncertainty for the MCDM results. According to our proposed method and its application in farmland quality evaluation (FQE) in an arid area of China, the mean of the absolute average change rate (MACR) and the SBM were applied to test the sensitivity of farmland quality to different evaluation factors from both numerical and spatial perspectives. From the numerical perspective, the soil organic matter and irrigation capacity were the most sensitive factors determined by the MACR. From the spatial perspective, the ≥10 °C accumulated temperature (AT) and precipitation were the most sensitive factors measured by the SBM. Based on the SBM, the spatial configuration of farmland quality index was most sensitive to increase of AT in a northwesterly direction. Calculating the SBM is computationally inexpensive and provides a straightforward indication of spatial direction for the changes of FQE results with changes of parameters. This means it can provide improved understandings and new insights into the comprehensive measurement of sensitivity analysis and agricultural production layout., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental problems caused by energy consumption in the rapid popularization of China's agricultural mechanization (AM) have caused increasing concern. Using the panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2001 to 2019, this article adopts a stochastic frontier analysis method with output-oriented distance function to measure agricultural environment efficiency (AEE) based on net carbon sinks and empirically analyzes the impact of AM on AEE. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the AEE of the nation and all provinces shows an upward trend over time and has significant spatial positive autocorrelation characteristics. Secondly, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between AM and AEE. Meanwhile, AM has spatial spillover effect and time cumulative effect on AEE. These basic conclusions are still robust after using instrumental variables, spatial autoregressive model, sub-sample regression, changing spatial weight matrix, and independent variable. Thirdly, the effect of AM on AEE depends on the input effect and output effect caused by AM. The mechanism is mainly reflected in agricultural technology progress, expansion of the scale of farming operation, optimization of resource allocation, and spatial spillover. Given these findings, the paper adds considerable value to the empirical literature and provides various policy and practical implications., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As one of the main food crops in the world, the yield of maize directly affects the food security of the world. The optimization of irrigation and fertilizer schedules is also one of the hot issues in the world. However, the traditional optimization methods are mainly based on field experiment or crop model. The research on combining crop model with optimization algorithm to optimize irrigation and fertilizer schedule is rare. In this paper, the genetic algorithm (GA) and DSSAT crop model were combined to provide theoretical basis for the optimization of irrigation and fertilizer schedules of maize in China. On the basis of field experimental data in previous references, the model was calibrated and verified, and get a well simulation result with RMSE ranged from 0.262 to 0.580 Mg/ha. After that, GA and DSSAT were run to obtain the optimized irrigation and fertilizer schedules. Compared with the results of previous references, the new optimization schedules can improve the yield (1.9 ~ 2.6%) and economic benefits (7.3 ~ 8.9%). It is proved that this method has a good optimization effect, and the method also has a wide range of research prospects., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) are conducive to increasing agricultural productivity and income while reducing resource and environmental stress. However, due to credit constraints in traditional financial markets, the adoption rate of SAPs remains low among smallholder farmers in rural China. Recently, the emergence of digital finance provides small farmers with a new way to obtain credit and alleviate their credit constraints, which may exert an impact on the adoption of SAPs. To verify this conjecture, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of digital finance use on SAPs adoption among smallholder farmers in China based on survey data collected from 903 apple growers. Empirical results showed that digital finance use significantly increases the number of SAPs adopted by smallholder farmers. Alleviating credit constraints, promoting information acquisition, and facilitating social interactions are the pathways through which digital finance use influences small farmers' SAPs adoption. Heterogeneity analysis showed that farmers with higher education level, smaller farming size, and who have received extension services adopt more SAPs with the use of digital finance. Therefore, it is suggested that the government should strengthen the construction of rural network infrastructure and provide training to promote smallholder farmers' access to digital financial services in a cost-effective and secure manner., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The high-quality development of agriculture is closely related to technological innovation, but the evolutionary characteristics of the relationship between agricultural transformation and technological innovation have received little study. This study takes 13 main grain-producing areas of China as the research object. Data collection was from 2004 to 2019. Based on the coupling coordination and responsiveness models, we analyze the spatio-temporal agriculture comprehensive level and the associated response degree of agricultural transformation to technological innovation. The results showed that (1) the comprehensive development of technological innovation showed a growth trend, while the agricultural transformation showed a U-shaped growth trend; (2) the coordinated development of these two systems has been significantly improved, but there are differences in the development speed of each province; (3) the coordinated gravity center moved southward in the spatial pattern, eventually presenting the characteristics of "higher level in the east and lower level in the west, while the higher level in the south and lower level in the north"; (4) the influence of technological innovation on agricultural transformation gradually changed from inhibition to positive promotion. In the end, this paper puts forward suggestions on the high-quality development of agriculture from the relationship of technological innovation and agricultural transformation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The rapid economic development and climate change have accelerated the changes in China's food production and have a potential impact on food security. In this paper, the grain sown area from 2001 to 2019 was selected to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution and driving factors of China's grain production through spatial autocorrelation analysis and geographically weighted regression. Our findings were as follows: (1) From the perspective of time characteristics, China's grain production from 2001 to 2019 experienced four stages, rapid decline, rapid growth, steady growth, and slow decline, although with an overall upward trend. (2) From the perspective of spatial characteristics, the overall spatial pattern had a significant positive correlation. The high values were mainly concentrated in Shandong, Anhui, and Jilin and moved to the northeast China as time went on. (3) In terms of influencing factors, the positive impact of agricultural labor force on the grain production gradually decreased, showing a decreasing trend from southwest to northeast. The promotion of agricultural mechanization on the grain production increased year by year, with the spatial distribution characteristics of high in the northeast and low in the southwest. Besides, the coefficient of water resources endowment was negative, showing a spatial distribution pattern of high north and low south., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aims to promote the high-quality development of regional agriculture. This study proposes a data-driven method for regional agricultural analysis and evaluation. Based on the data collection and processing related to regional agricultural development, the location entropy index was used to analyze the industrial agglomeration level, and the shift-share model was constructed to evaluate the industrial structure and competitiveness. Based on the above analysis and evaluation, high-quality development policy suggestions for regional agriculture were provided. Taking the agricultural development of the Yangtze River Delta from 2010 to 2019 as an example, this study shows the implementation process of the method. From the perspective of high-quality agricultural development in the Anhui Province, this paper proposes policy suggestions on industrial structure adjustment and promoting competitiveness. This study provides theoretical and methodological support for the development of high-quality regional agriculture., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The vegetation in the farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China is influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors and has undergone drastic changes in the past decades. The farming-pastoral ecotone is the transition zone from agriculture to animal husbandry. The ecological environment of this ecotone is complex and fragile. Most researches have primarily focused on the entire farming-pastoral ecotone, seldomly considering the differences between different ecological zones characterized by soil, climate, and biome conditions. Based on the long time series of leaf area index (LAI) data, meteorological data, and land-use dataset, this study analyzed LAI variation trends, the correlations between LAI and climate factors, and the impact of land-use type change on vegetation in the farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China. Moreover, this paper makes a full study of the changes of the whole study area from the perspective of the differences between different ecological zones. The results showed that over 36 years, areas with vegetation improvements were considerably larger than those with degradations. However, there were still 49.56% of the total area showing no significant vegetation change. There are differences in vegetation change and response to climate between the forest ecological zones and the grassland ecological zones. The vegetation improvement trends of the forest ecological zones were larger and more sensitive to temperature, while the vegetation improvements of the grassland ecological zones were relatively small, and were more sensitive to precipitation. Human activities promote LAI changes in areas close to the forest ecological zones. The change of land use indicates that the decrease of the overall natural vegetation area has not resulted in decreasing LAI. And there is a growing trend of woodland area in the grassland ecological zones. The study provides a theoretical basis for the management of the environment and vegetation in the farming-pastoral ecotone in northern China.

Based on the comprehensive evaluation system of agricultural green development index (AGDI), this paper uses entropy weight method and linear weighted sum method to measure the agricultural green development level of 31 provinces in China from 2013 to 2018. We then incorporate spatial correlation into the traditional convergence test model, study the spatial convergence of AGDI, and explore the reasons for regional differences in AGDI. The results show that the level of AGDI in China showed an overall growth trend during the sample survey period, but there were significant differences in the rate of AGDI among different regions, mainly manifested as "eastern > western > central." The AGDI shows a significant positive spatial correlation on the whole, and its overall spatial distribution is characterized by high-high agglomeration and low-low agglomeration. The provinces with higher and lower level of AGDI still maintain the original relatively concentrated distribution in geographical space. On this basis, the study examines the regional differences of AGDI and its evolution by Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition and spatial convergence. The results showed that the overall difference of AGDI showed a fluctuating downward trend. The intra-regional difference of AGDI in the western region was the largest, and that in the eastern region was the smallest. The contribution rate of intensity of transvariation among regions was the main source of the relative difference of AGDI. Meanwhile, the AGDI of the overall, eastern, central, and western regions present significant σ convergence and conditional β convergence. Except for the central region, the overall, eastern, and western regions present significant absolute β convergence. The low-level areas of AGDI have significant "catch-up effect" on the areas with high-level AGDI. Based on the above results, this paper also puts forward some policy suggestions from the perspective of cross-regional collaborative governance to improve China's agricultural green development mode and narrow the regional differences of China's agricultural green development.

Eutrophication has been a critical environmental issue due to soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loss in runoff from agricultural lands. Plant hedgerow is an important measure to prevent soil erosion and reduce agricultural non-point source pollution (NPSP). In the present study, we searched 3683 research papers on plant hedgerows published from 1980 to March 2020. After screening, we used 53 effective papers on plant hedgerows for the meta-analysis by using Stata 15.1. The results showed that plant hedgerows significantly increased soil organic matter (SOM) (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 1.46; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.12-1.80 > 0), total N (TN) (SMD = 1.33; 95% CI 0.98-1.68 > 0), total P (SMD = 0.73; 95% CI 0.26-1.20 > 0), alkali N (SMD = 0.86; 95% CI 0.52-1.21 > 0), available P (SMD = 1.28; 95% CI 0.75-1.81 > 0) and readily available potassium (K) (SMD = 1.20; 95% CI 0.75-1.65 > 0) concentrations but exhibited no significant effects on soil total K concentration (SMD = 0.17; 95% CI - 0.13-0.47 < 0). Plant hedgerows showed a greater effect on SOM increase than soil N, P, and K, and soil TN increase than the available state, but the opposite trend was observed for P and K. This meta-analysis can clarify the influence of plant hedgerows on soil nutrients and provide ideas for the prevention and control of agricultural NPSP.

Sustainable agricultural technologies are of great significance in fully utilizing agricultural resources and promoting agricultural production. However, the adoption rates of these technologies are often characterized as low in rural areas in China. To figure out the potential salient determinants of rice farmers' willingness to adopt sustainable agricultural technologies, this paper, by employing the multivariate probit model and ordered probit model, particularly and firstly explores the roles of observational learning and experience-based learning through communication from parents within the household on rice farmers' willingness to adopt these technologies. Results show that there are strong complementarities and substitutabilities between sustainable agricultural technologies that rice farmers are willing to adopt, and that observational learning and experience-based learning through communication within the household do have pronounced effects on rice farmers' willingness to adopt some sustainable agricultural technologies and on their intensive use intentions. Therefore, while formulating policies to improve the adoption rates and adoption intensity of these technologies, relevant government agencies should take the complementarities and substitutabilities between sustainable agricultural technologies as well as observational learning and experience-based learning through communication from parents into consideration.

With limited resources, growing environment constraints and downward pressure on the economy, increasing agricultural environmental total factor productivity (AETFP) and its contribution to agricultural growth is significant for transforming agricultural development to make it more resource efficient and environment-friendly. This paper considered technological heterogeneity in different regions of China and measured AETFP in 30 provinces from 1997 to 2015 using the Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger (MML) productivity index. Multi-dimensional analysis was made on temporal and spatial characteristics, evolution patterns, and influencing factors of AETFP in China. The results showed that: (1) AETFP increased in the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Five-Year Plan periods, with average annual growth rates of 0.76%, 0.88%, 1.17%, and 0.87%, respectively. (2) The average annual growth rate of AETFP in the eastern, central, and western regions decreased successively. The eastern region generally had played a leading role. The central region had a catch-up effect on environmental production technologies from the eastern region, while the western region lacked the catch-up effect. (3) The dynamic evolution of AETFP had prominent features. For the whole nation, the kernel density curve of AETFP continuously moved to the right. The main peak value continuously decreased and the width of the main peak continuously increased. The internal differences of AETFP in the eastern and western regions exhibited an increasing trend, while the internal differences of AETFP in the central region showed little change. (4) There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between agricultural economic growth and AETFP. Both the disaster rate and planting structure had a negative impact on AETFP with varying degrees of significance. Income gaps between urban and rural areas can partially offset the role of urbanization in promoting the growth of AETFP. The greater the income differences between urban and rural areas, the weaker the role of urbanization in promoting the growth of AETFP. These findings can help the government determine policies to change the agricultural development mode and formulate effective measures to improve AETFP.

Environmental sustainability has become the focus of agricultural sustainability. This study is aimed at evaluating the environmental sustainability of farmers' land use decisions on saline-alkaline soil in China. Based on empirical and theoretical approaches, the decisions mainly include planting, crop distribution, irrigation, drainage, and fertilization. By surveying 22 administrative villages in typical ecologically fragile saline-alkaline areas of five regions (Shandong, Jiangsu, Jilin, Ningxia, and Xinjiang), the paper builds the evaluation criteria at village level, and obtains a comprehensive index. From the results, irrigation concerns are absent from decision-making. For other decisions, farmers in most villages can appropriately deal with planting, drainage, and fertilization according to the regional natural and social geography conditions. But the comprehensive index of crop distribution in the coastal areas is much stronger than in the northeast and northwest. It is found that the similarities of unsustainability lie in the planting of water-consuming crops, the arbitrary distribution of crops, lack of drainage planning, obsolete water conservancy facilities, excessive use of chemical fertilizers, etc. According to the research, on the one hand, it can guide farmers to rationally make use of saline-alkaline land; on the other hand, it can also provide the basis for government to make differentiated policies in different areas and enhance pertinence in the course of technological extension and application.

Integrated food security covers three aspects: food quantity security, food quality security, and sustainable food security. Because sustainable food security requires that food security must be compatible with sustainable development, the risk assessment of sustainable food security is becoming one of the most important issues. This paper mainly focuses on the characteristics of sustainable food security problems in the major grain-producing areas in China. We establish an index system based on land resources and eco-environmental conditions and apply a dynamic assessment method based on status assessments and trend analysis models to overcome the shortcomings of the static evaluation method. Using fuzzy mathematics, the risks are categorized into four grades: negligible risk, low risk, medium risk, and high risk. A case study was conducted in one of China's major grain-producing areas: Dongting Lake area. The results predict that the status of the sustainable food security in the Dongting Lake area is unsatisfactory for the foreseeable future. The number of districts at the medium-risk range will increase from six to ten by 2015 due to increasing population pressure, a decrease in the cultivated area, and a decrease in the effective irrigation area. Therefore, appropriate policies and measures should be put forward to improve it. The results could also provide direct support for an early warning system-which could be used to monitor food security trends or nutritional status so to inform policy makers of impending food shortages-to prevent sustainable food security risk based on some classical systematic methods. This is the first research of sustainable food security in terms of risk assessment, from the perspective of resources and the environment, at the regional scale.

Changing the landscape has serious environmental impacts affecting the ecosystem services, particularly in the tropics. In this paper, we report changes in ecosystem services in relation to land use and land cover over an 18-year period (1988--2006) in the Menglun Township, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. We used Landsat TM/ETM and Quickbird data sets to estimate changes in ten land use and land cover categories, and generalized value coefficients to estimate changes in the ecosystem services provided by each land category. The results showed that over the 18-year period, the land use and land cover in the study area experienced significant changes. Rubber plantations increased from 12.10% of total land cover to 45.63%, while forested area and swidden field decreased from 48.73 and 13.14 to 27.57 and 0.46%, respectively. During this period, the estimated value of ecosystem services dropped by US $11.427 million (approximately 27.73%). Further analysis showed that there were significant changes in ecological functions such as nutrient cycling, erosion control, climate regulation and water treatment as well as recreation; the obvious increase in the ecological function is provision of raw material (natural rubber). Our findings conclude that an abrupt shift in land use from ecologically important tropical forests and traditionally managed swidden fields to large-scale rubber plantations result in a great loss of ecosystem services in this area. Further, the study suggests that provision of alternative economic opportunities would help in maintaining ecosystem services and for an appropriate compensation mechanisms need to be established based on rigorous valuation.

Land use/land cover (LULC) has a profound impact on economy, society and environment, especially in rapid developing areas. Rapid and prompt monitoring and predicting of LULC's change are crucial and significant. Currently, integration of Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) methods is one of the most important methods for detecting LULC's change, which includes image processing (such as geometrical-rectifying, supervised-classification, etc.), change detection (post-classification), GIS-based spatial analysis, Markov chain and a Cellular Automata (CA) models, etc. The core corridor of Pearl River Delta was selected for studying LULC's change in this paper by using the above methods for the reason that the area contributed 78.31% (1998)-81.4% (2003) of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the whole Pearl River Delta (PRD). The temporal and spatial LULC's changes from 1998 to 2003 were detected by RS data. At the same time, urban expansion levels in the next 5 and 10 years were predicted temporally and spatially by using Markov chain and a simple Cellular Automata model respectively. Finally, urban expansion and farmland loss were discussed against the background of China's urban expansion and cropland loss during 1990-2000. The result showed: (1) the rate of urban expansion was up to 8.91% during 1998-2003 from 169,078.32 to 184,146.48 ha; (2) the rate of farmland loss was 5.94% from 312,069.06 to 293,539.95 ha; (3) a lot of farmland converted to urban or development area, and more forest and grass field converted to farmland accordingly; (4) the spatial predicting result of urban expansion showed that urban area was enlarged ulteriorly compared with the previous results, and the directions of expansion is along the existing urban area and transportation lines.

Shiyang River basin is located in Hexi Corridor, central-west Gansu province, northwest China. It is an area of typical arid to semiarid features. Based on the TM image of Liangzhou oasis and Minqin oasis in 1986 and 2000, this paper calculated and analyzed the changes of percentage and area of land use/cover types, and also have got the transformation matrix of the landscape mosaics. Dynamics of runoff and exploitation of groundwater, the most important factors influencing land use changes were also analyzed. The ratio of utilized water quantity in upper and middle reaches to that in lower reaches has increased largely from less than 2 before 1970 reached up to more than 8 since 1995; groundwater exploitation has developed progressively. As a result of overuse of groundwater, the groundwater table lowering obviously, the lowering rates reached up to 0.6-0.8 m/year in some place. In addition, the cropping patterns in study area were also distributed irrefficiently that if the planting percentage of water-wasting grain crops dropped to 50% in both oasis, it could save irrigating water by 1.2 x 10(8) m3 in Liangzhou oasis and 0.2 x 10(8) m3 in Minqin oasis one year.