Coupling of crop and livestock production can reduce the agricultural GHG emission from smallholder farms

Xiangbo Xu; Yan Xu; Jing Li; Yonglong Lu; Alan Jenkins; Robert C Ferrier; Hong Li; Nils Chr Stenseth; Dag O Hessen; Linxiu Zhang; Chang Li; Baojing Gu; Shuqin Jin; Mingxing Sun; Zhu Ouyang; Erik Mathijs

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106798

Coupling of crop and livestock production can reduce the agricultural GHG emission from smallholder farms

iScience. 2023 May 4;26(6):106798. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106798. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.

Authors

Xiangbo Xu^{1

2}, Yan Xu^{1

3

4}, Jing Li¹, Yonglong Lu⁵, Alan Jenkins⁶, Robert C Ferrier⁷, Hong Li⁶, Nils Chr Stenseth⁸, Dag O Hessen⁹, Linxiu Zhang^{1

2}, Chang Li¹, Baojing Gu¹⁰, Shuqin Jin¹¹, Mingxing Sun¹, Zhu Ouyang³, Erik Mathijs¹²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² United Nations Environment Programme-International Ecosystem Management Partnership (UNEP-IEMP), Beijing 100101, China.
³ Yellow River Delta Modern Agricultural Engineering Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁴ Chinese Academy of Sciences University, Beijing 100049, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science and Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Fujian 361102, China.
⁶ UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, OX 10 8BB Oxon, UK.
⁷ James Hutton Institute, AB15 8QH Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
⁸ Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, 03160 Oslo 3, Norway.
⁹ Section for Aquatic Biology and Toxicology, Centre for Biogeochemistry in the Anthropocene, University of Oslo, 03160 Oslo 3, Norway.
¹⁰ College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
¹¹ Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100810, China.
¹² Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven 3001, Belgium.

Abstract

Ensuring global food security and environmental sustainability is dependent upon the contribution of the world's hundred million smallholder farms, but the contributions of smallholder farms to global agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been understudied. We developed a localized agricultural life cycle assessment (LCA) database to calculate GHG emissions and made the first extensive assessment of the smallholder farms' GHG emission reduction potentials by coupling crop and livestock production (CCLP), a redesign of current practices toward sustainable agriculture in China. CCLP can reduce the GHG emission intensity by 17.67%, with its own feed and manure returning to the field as an essential path. Scenario analysis verified that greater GHG emission reduction (28.09%-41.32%) will be achieved by restructuring CCLP. Therefore, this mixed farming is a mode with broader benefits to provide sustainable agricultural practices for reducing GHG emissions fairly.

Keywords: Agricultural science; Atmospheric science; Environmental science.