A WAY TO SUSTAINABLE CROP PRODUCTION THROUGH SCIENTIST−FARMER ENGAGEMENT

Highlights

● Farmer–scientist collaboration for improved farming was achieved.

● Wheat and maize yields of STB farmers improved by 13%.

● NUE increased 20% for wheat and maize production.

● GHG emissions and EEF decreased by 23% and 52%, respectively.

Abstract

Feeding a large and growing population with scientifically sustainable food production is a major challenge globally, especially in smallholder-based agricultural production. Scientists have conducted a considerable theoretical research and technological innovation to synergistically achieve increased food production and reduced environmental impact. However, the potential and feasibility of synergistic smallholder-led agricultural production to achieve increased food production and environmental friendliness is not yet clear. Exploring the potential and feasibility of smallholders to synergistically achieve these two goals, this research collected survey data from 162 farmers implementing standard farming practices and 112 farmers engaged in Science and Technology Backyard (STB) in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, China. Grain yield, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and emergy ecological footprint (EEF) of the wheat-maize cropping system dominated by smallholders were analyzed. The results showed smallholders in the STB group improved wheat and maize yields by about 13% and NUE by 20%, respectively. Also, a reduction of 23% in GHG emissions and 52% in EEF were simultaneously achieved in the wheat-maize cropping system. Compared with standard farming practices, 75 kg·ha⁻¹ nitrogen-based fertilizer was saved in the STB farmers. In summary, this study shifts the main perspective of research from scientists to smallholder, and uses a combination of greenhouse gas emission calculations, EEF and material flow analyses to demonstrate from multiple perspectives that agricultural systems under the leadership of smallholders can synergistically achieve high crop yields and low resource use and environmental impacts. The results of this study also show that the smallholder-led scientist-farmer collaborative model established by STB can fully exploit the initiative and potential, and that this collaborative model can be a successful strategy for smallholders as operators to achieve food security at low environmental impacts. The results of this study can provide useful evidence for a sustainable shift toward more sustainable agricultural production systems.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

food security / scientists and farmers innovate together / greenhouse gas emissions / emergy ecological footprint / environment footprint

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFD0200200/0200206), National Natural Science Foundation of China (32172675, 41701614), Science and Technology Talents and Platform Program of Yunnan Province (2019IC026), China Scholarship Council (201913043)

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Yu Guo, Ran Li, Peng Ning, and Xiaoqiang Jiao declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2022. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)