Abstract
The research on agricultural eco-efficiency has become an important point to deeply understand the interaction between ecological and environmental conditions and socio-economic factors as well as realize the coordinated development of agricultural economic development and environmental protection. (1) Background: This paper attempts to provide scientific support for the healthy and stable development of the agricultural economy and the sustainable development of ecological agriculture. (2) Methods: From a comprehensive perspective, this paper systematically analyze the overall situation, development trend, key fields, and hot fields of agricultural eco-efficiency in the past two decades. It consists of two complementary parts, including systematic quantitative literature review (based on CiteSpace) and traditional literature review. (3) Results: Agricultural eco-efficiency has evolved significantly with the popularization of agricultural machinery and the wide application of science and technology in the field of agricultural ecology. Its future development relies on the advances in our knowledge on theories and hypothesis, evaluation methods, impact on “socio-economic ecological” system, and drivers and regulation of agricultural eco-efficiency. For each of these fields, we find that challenges still exist. At present, the quantitative methods and index selection are not unified. We should deeply analyze the internal and external driving force of the development and change of ecological efficiency by constructing a complete theoretical framework for the research of agricultural ecological efficiency. At the same time, new technologies and methods are needed to evaluate agricultural eco-efficiency, and a balanced consensus between the improvement of agricultural eco-efficiency and the improvement of the ecological environment should be formed through empirical research.
Highlights
Ecological efficiency is a measure index that is used to measure the impact on the ecological environment, while the production unit obtains output of economic activities [23]
agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) is an important index to evaluate the ability of agricultural sustainable development
Focusing on AEE, the purposes of this article are to investigate the progress of AEE research based on literature metrology software (CiteSpace) and literature systematic review, summarize the key areas and research hotspots of AEE
Summary
Agriculture’s long-term sustainability faces significant challenges; over-exploitation of agricultural resources, excessive use of agricultural inputs, over-exploitation of groundwater, and the superposition of internal and external sources of pollution in agriculture are all major sources of challenge. Agricultural ecosystem degradation is obvious; water and soil resources management, ecological compensation, and other institutional mechanisms are not sound; and water and soil resources constraints are increasingly tight, so it is very urgent to promote sustainable agricultural development [1,2,3]. How to balance food security with sustainable utilization of agricultural resources is an important challenge for the sustainable development of agriculture but is the embodiment of putting the construction of ecological civilization in a prominent position in the field of agricultural eco-efficiency [5,6]
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