Sustainable Food Supply from the Perspective of Paddy Ecosystem Elasticity: Policies and Implications

Teng Yang, Yanhua Sun () and Xiaolin Li
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Teng Yang: College of Economics and Management, Hunan University of Arts and Science, Changde 415100, China
Yanhua Sun: College of Business, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410114, China
Xiaolin Li: Department of Business Analytics and Technology Management, College of Business and Economics, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Rice is the staple food for 2.5 billion people worldwide and most farmers depend solely on rice for their livelihood. This study estimates how paddy ecosystem elasticity and external human activity affect paddy ecosystem sustainable food supply. In particular, we analyzed how sustainable food supply is affected by three key domains of external factors—ecological factors, including the proportion of paddy Area (Are), per capita cultivated land area (Lan), and annual wastewater discharge per capita (Was); economic factors, including the agricultural economy level (Inv) and urbanization rate (Urb); and social factors, including the education of farmers (Edu) and rural medical level (Med). We use ANEV, or net paddy ecosystem services value per unit area, to assess the sustainable food supply, which not only represents the food supply quantity and quality, but also the sustainability of the food supply. Results from our panel and threshold regressions suggest that Lan and Urb have a threshold effect on paddy ANEV; Are, Was, Inv, and Edu have a linear negative correlation with ANEV; and Med has a positive linear correlation with ANEV. Based on our findings, we lay out a series of recommendations that may guide future formulation of policies on paddy ecosystem protection and sustainable food supply.

Keywords: sustainable food supply; policy; paddy ecosystem elasticity; threshold effect; ANEV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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