Zhenling
Cui¹, Hongyan Zhang¹, Xinping Chen¹, Chaochun
Zhang¹, Wenqi Ma², Chengdong Huang¹, Weifeng
Zhang¹,Guohua Mi¹, Yuxin Miao¹, Xiaolin Li¹,
Qiang Gao³, Jianchang Yang⁴, Zhaohui Wang⁵,
Youliang Ye⁶, Shiwei Guo⁷, Jianwei Lu⁸, Jianliang
Huang⁸, Shihua Lv⁹, Yixiang Sun¹⁰, Yuanying
Liu¹¹, Xianlong Peng¹¹, Jun Ren¹², Shiqing Li¹³,
Xiping Deng¹³,Xiaojun Shi¹⁴, Qiang Zhang¹⁵,
Zhiping Yang¹⁵, Li Tang¹⁶, Changzhou Wei¹⁷,
Liangliang Jia¹⁸, Jiwang Zhang¹⁹, Mingrong He¹⁹,Yanan
Tong⁵, Qiyuan Tang²⁰, Xuhua Zhong²¹, Zhaohui
Liu²², Ning Cao²³, Changlin Kou²⁴, Hao Ying¹,
Yulong Yin¹, Xiaoqiang Jiao¹,Qingsong Zhang¹,
Mingsheng Fan¹, Rongfeng Jiang¹, Fusuo Zhang¹& Zhengxia Dou²⁵

Nature

doi:10.1038/nature25785

Abstract

Sustainably
feeding a growing population is a grand challenge^1,2,3, and one that
is particularly difficult in regions that are dominated by smallholder farming.
Despite local successes^4,5,6,7,8, mobilizing vast smallholder
communities with science- and evidence-based management practices to
simultaneously address production and pollution problems has been infeasible.
Here we report the outcome of concerted efforts in engaging millions of Chinese
smallholder farmers to adopt enhanced management practices for greater yield
and environmental performance. First, we conducted field trials across China’s
major agroecological zones to develop locally applicable recommendations using
a comprehensive decision-support program. Engaging farmers to adopt those
recommendations involved the collaboration of a core network of 1,152
researchers with numerous extension agents and agribusiness personnel. From
2005 to 2015, about 20.9 million farmers in 452 counties adopted enhanced
management practices in fields with a total of 37.7 million cumulative hectares
over the years. Average yields (maize, rice and wheat) increased by 10.8–11.5%,
generating a net grain output of 33 million tonnes (Mt). At the same time,
application of nitrogen decreased by 14.7–18.1%, saving 1.2 Mt of nitrogen
fertilizers. The increased grain output and decreased nitrogen fertilizer use
were equivalent to US$12.2 billion. Estimated reactive nitrogen losses averaged
4.5–4.7 kg nitrogen per Megagram (Mg) with the intervention compared to
6.0–6.4 kg nitrogen per Mg without. Greenhouse gas emissions were 328 kg, 812
kg and 434 kg CO2 equivalent per Mg of maize, rice and wheat produced,
respectively, compared to 422 kg, 941 kg and 549 kg CO2 equivalent per Mg
without the intervention. On the basis of a large-scale survey (8.6 million
farmer participants) and scenario analyses, we further demonstrate the
potential impacts of implementing the enhanced management practices on China’s
food security and sustainability outlook.

附件：Pursuing sustainable productivity with millions of smallholder farmers