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Environmental Sustainability of Agricultural Systems: Concepts, Practices and Drawbacks

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2022) | Viewed by 12509

Special Issue Editors

Laboratory of Applied Ecology (LEA), Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences – CITAB, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: ecological modelling; agroecosystems; ecological indicators; plant-animal interactions; agroforestry systems; ornithology; entomology
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences – CITAB, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, UTAD, Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: crop production; cultural practices and influence in plant composition; plant composition and metabolomic analysis; plant composition and health effects; an agroecosystems
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural systems, although extremely necessary for the production of foods, fibers and biomass for an increasing human population, are responsible for several negative effects in the environment. In fact, the high demand has been tackled by increments in productivity and in the areas occupied by agriculture, including the use of soils with lower agriculture ability, the destruction of natural ecosystems, the excessive use of large spectrum chemicals to control pests and diseases and mineral fertilizers in intensive monocultures, the heavy machinery and high technological input, among others options. These trends led to the decline of biodiversity, loss of soil by erosion and decrease in its fertility by exhaustion, accumulation of chemical residues in the soils, reduction and contamination of aquifers but also a reduction in animal welfare and a bioaccumulation of toxins in food. However, the increasing awareness on these problems, interlinked with a demand for healthy and safer aliments without disrespecting the environment and ecosystems, forced the producers to adopt novel (or traditional) sustainable approaches. Nowadays, it is not enough to farm massively looking to the markets: producers should engage in quality standards, in all its dimensions, i.e. without compromising ecosystem and environmental natural processes while safeguarding high nutritional and functional products. Diverse studies concerning the impact of different production modes (conventional, integrated pest management, sustainable or organic farming, among many other denominations) on the food quality, agricultural ecosystems and people´s health have been published. Additionally, several ideas and solutions have been listed, but many questions still arise and many results, in some way, are inconsistent and contradictory or proved incipient. Therefore, with this "special issue", we intended to encourage the publication of recent works with updated information connecting the integrity of ecosystem, the sustainability of the environment, the safeguarding of farmers and consumers without disregarding high production standards, namely by identifying ongoing problems, proposing theoretic solutions and the results of practical implementation in order to contribute for future healthier agroecosystems.

Dr. Mario Santos
Dr. Alfredo Aires
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Environmental sustainability
  • Agricultural systems
  • Sustainable diets
  • Food quality
  • Biodiversity
  • Environmental quality

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2249 KiB  
Article
Measuring the Effects of Climate Change on Wheat Production: Evidence from Northern China
by Huaquan Zhang, Yashuang Tang, Abbas Ali Chandio, Ghulam Raza Sargani and Martinson Ankrah Twumasi
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(19), 12341; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912341 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2008
Abstract
The current study examines the long-run effects of climatic factors on wheat production in China’s top three wheat-producing provinces (Hebei, Henan, and Shandong). The data set consists of observations from 1992 to 2020 on which several techniques, namely, fully modified OLS (FMOLS), dynamic [...] Read more.
The current study examines the long-run effects of climatic factors on wheat production in China’s top three wheat-producing provinces (Hebei, Henan, and Shandong). The data set consists of observations from 1992 to 2020 on which several techniques, namely, fully modified OLS (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and canonical co-integrating regression (CCR) estimators, and Granger causality, are applied. The results reveal that climatic factors, such as temperature and rainfall, negatively influenced wheat production in Henan Province. This means that Henan Province is more vulnerable to climate change. In contrast, it is observed that climatic conditions (via temperature and rainfall) positively contributed to wheat production in Hebei Province. Moreover, temperature negatively influenced wheat production in Shandong Province, while rainfall contributed positively to wheat production. Further, the results of Granger causality reveal that climatic factors and other determinants significantly influenced wheat production in the selected provinces. Full article
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18 pages, 1626 KiB  
Article
Can Agricultural Productive Services Promote Agricultural Environmental Efficiency in China?
by Yingyu Zhu, Junmiao Deng, Menghan Wang, Yuanchang Tan, Wei Yao and Yan Zhang
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 9339; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159339 - 30 Jul 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1856
Abstract
Agricultural productive services are important paths to realize the development of green agriculture, while the effect of agricultural productive services on the agricultural environment and its influencing mechanism are not yet clear. With the panel data of agricultural production in China from 2004 [...] Read more.
Agricultural productive services are important paths to realize the development of green agriculture, while the effect of agricultural productive services on the agricultural environment and its influencing mechanism are not yet clear. With the panel data of agricultural production in China from 2004 to 2019, by using multi-output stochastic frontier analysis with an output-oriented distance function, this study investigates agricultural environmental efficiency based on net carbon sinks. Then, this study explores the effect of agricultural productive services on agricultural environmental efficiency and its mechanisms by adopting ordinary least squares regression with fixed-effect panel model, causal steps approach, and spatial econometric method. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, agricultural productive services enhance agricultural productivity and agricultural environment by optimizing inputs and increasing outputs, and thus improve agricultural environmental efficiency. This result holds steadily after using instrumental variables to deal with endogeneity, changing the measurement of the dependent and independent variables, and subdividing the sample. Secondly, the pathways of agricultural productive services affecting agricultural environmental efficiency are mainly reflected in technology progress, planting structure adjustment, factor allocation optimization, and spatial spillover. Thirdly, due to the law of diminishing marginal returns, the impact of agricultural productive services on agricultural environmental efficiency is more significant when the level of agricultural productive services is relatively low. To improve agricultural environmental efficiency, we suggest implementing different productive service strategies in different regions, strengthening information integration, and improving infrastructure. Full article
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24 pages, 1293 KiB  
Article
Can the Adjustment of China’s Grain Purchase and Storage Policy Improve Its Green Productivity?
by Jingdong Li and Qingning Lin
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(10), 6310; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19106310 - 23 May 2022
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 1617
Abstract
While the sustainability of grain production has been extensively studied, there have been few studies focusing on the impact of grain policy adjustment on its sustainable production, and the quantitative relationship between these two aspects and the internal mechanism is not completely clear. [...] Read more.
While the sustainability of grain production has been extensively studied, there have been few studies focusing on the impact of grain policy adjustment on its sustainable production, and the quantitative relationship between these two aspects and the internal mechanism is not completely clear. The main objective of this paper was to explore the impact of grain purchase and storage policy (GPSP) adjustment on its green productivity by expounding the evolution logic and influence mechanism of GPSP. Therefore, taking maize production as an example, this paper constructs the analysis framework of the evolution logic and influence mechanism, and the super-epsilon-based measure model (Super-EBM) is adopted to measure maize green productivity (MGP) in main producing areas from 1997 to 2019, then two groups of difference-in-differences (DID) models are constructed to study the influence of the temporary purchase and storage policy (TPSP) and the producer subsidy policy (PSP) on MGP. The main conclusions include: the implementation of TPSP reduces MGP in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia (experimental group), whereas the implementation of PSP improves MGP in these provinces is due to the difference in policy effects under the different regulatory objectives and measures; under the demonstration effect of two policies, the increase in effective irrigation and agricultural financial expenditure are important factors to improve MGP, but the backwardness of agricultural mechanization has been hindering the improvement of MGP; after the reform from TPSP to PSP, the continuous increase in production capacity hinders the improvement of MGP under the support effect, the impacts of farmers’ income and agricultural production price on MGP both shift from negative to positive under the wealth effect, and the influence of production agglomeration on MGP shifts from negative to positive under the siphon effect. The excessive implementation of GPSP has seriously affected the sustainability of grain production, thus, this study has certain practical significance and guiding value. The paper emphasizes that the effective way to achieve sustainable food production is to combine the adjustment of GPSP with improving the subsidy mechanism, enhancing the agricultural mechanization and maintaining the appropriate scale of operation. Full article
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Review

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18 pages, 2287 KiB  
Review
Toward a Socio-Political Approach to Promote the Development of Circular Agriculture: A Critical Review
by Chenyujing Yang, Yuanyuan Zhang, Yanjin Xue and Yongji Xue
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13117; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013117 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1622
Abstract
Under the dual pressure of ensuring global food security and coping with the effects of climate change, many countries have proposed projects of circular agriculture to mitigate the vulnerability of agricultural systems. However, due to the different utilizations of agricultural resources in different [...] Read more.
Under the dual pressure of ensuring global food security and coping with the effects of climate change, many countries have proposed projects of circular agriculture to mitigate the vulnerability of agricultural systems. However, due to the different utilizations of agricultural resources in different countries, there are still some important limitations and obstacles to the promotion of agricultural recycling technologies. This review discusses global circular agriculture projects from a social science perspective. We found that (1) current research on circular agriculture is concentrated in the field of natural sciences with a focus on technological upgrading, neglecting social, political and economic research; (2) top-down circular agriculture projects rely on infrastructure and technical inputs for management, which undermines the focus on public participation and is limited by the timing and intensity of state intervention; (3) the development model led by enterprises or associations relies on cooperation and benefit games with farmers, and its sustainability depends largely on changes in the regulation of the agricultural waste utilization system. Based on this, this review argues that circular agriculture projects are not only technical issues in the field of natural sciences, but also strongly influenced by social development. For future research, we strongly recommend cross-disciplinary cooperation, not limited to technology development. Full article
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Other

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26 pages, 1744 KiB  
Opinion
Contribution of Home Gardens to Sustainable Development: Perspectives from A Supported Opinion Essay
by Mário Santos, Helena Moreira, João Alexandre Cabral, Ronaldo Gabriel, Andreia Teixeira, Rita Bastos and Alfredo Aires
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13715; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013715 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4662
Abstract
Home gardening has a long history that started when humans became sedentary, being traditionally considered an accessible source of food and medicinal plants to treat common illnesses. With trends towards urbanization and industrialization, particularly in the post-World War II period, the importance of [...] Read more.
Home gardening has a long history that started when humans became sedentary, being traditionally considered an accessible source of food and medicinal plants to treat common illnesses. With trends towards urbanization and industrialization, particularly in the post-World War II period, the importance of home gardens as important spaces for growing food and medicinal plants reduced and they began to be increasingly seen as decorative and leisure spaces. However, the growing awareness of the negative impacts of agricultural intensification and urbanization for human health, food quality, ecosystem resilience, and biodiversity conservation motivated the emergence of new approaches concerning home gardens. Societies began to question the potential of nearby green infrastructures to human wellbeing, food provisioning, and the conservation of traditional varieties, as well as providers of important services, such as ecological corridors for wild species and carbon sinks. In this context. and to foster adaptive and resilient social–ecological systems, our supported viewpoint intends to be more than an exhaustive set of perceptions, but a reflection of ideas about the important contribution of home gardens to sustainable development. We envision these humble spaces strengthening social and ecological components, by providing a set of diversified and intermingled goods and services for an increasingly urban population. Full article
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