An Emergy and Decomposition Assessment of China’s Crop Production: Sustainability and Driving Forces

Zuoxi Liu, Yongyang Wang, Shanshan Wang, Huijuan Dong, Yong Geng, Bing Xue, Jiaming Gu, Run Dong Li and Tianhua Yang
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Zuoxi Liu: Key Laboratory of Clean Energy of Liaoning, School of Energy and Environment, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
Yongyang Wang: Key Laboratory of Clean Energy of Liaoning, School of Energy and Environment, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
Shanshan Wang: Department of Quality Control, Liaoning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenyang 110005, China
Huijuan Dong: China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Yong Geng: China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Bing Xue: Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Jiaming Gu: Key Laboratory of Clean Energy of Liaoning, School of Energy and Environment, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
Run Dong Li: Key Laboratory of Clean Energy of Liaoning, School of Energy and Environment, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
Tianhua Yang: Key Laboratory of Clean Energy of Liaoning, School of Energy and Environment, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: With a growing demand for crop products in China, a great deal of local resources and industrial inputs are consumed including agricultural machineries, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and energies, which results in many environmental issues such as resource depletion, water pollution, soil erosion and contamination, and CO 2 emissions. Thus, this study evaluated the trend of sustainability of China’s crop production from 1997 to 2016 in terms of emergy and further explored the driving forces using decomposition analysis methods. The results showed that the total emergy used ( U ) increased by 50% from 7.82 × 10 23 in 1997 to 1.17 × 10 24 solar emergy Joule (sej) in 2016. Meanwhile, the values of the emergy sustainability index ( ESI ) were all smaller than one with a declining trend year by year, indicating that China’s crop production system is undergoing an unsustainable development pattern. From the results of the ESI decomposition, the renewable resource factor ( R / GDP ) and land use factor ( L / A ) are two key factors impeding the sustainable development of the crop production system. Therefore, the increased capacity of renewable resources and enough labor forces engaged in crop production will be the key strategies for its sustainable development.

Keywords: crop production; sustainability; emergy analysis; decomposition analysis; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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