Abstract
Food security is an important issue globally and securing food supplies is the core mission of agricultural development in the world. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) has been proposed as the fourth major staple food crop, following rice, wheat and maize by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to further improve China's food security. Plastic film mulching (PM) can significantly increase potato yield and has been widely used in potato production. Although many researchers have studied the effects of PM on potato yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in China, there have been few studies on the effects of the PM on potato food energy supply improved from CK (without mulching), as well as the spatial distribution feasible for PM. In this study, we addressed these issues by process-based DNDC model and cost-benefit analysis. The results showed that PM could increase total potato food energy and WUE by 41.7% and 53.4% respectively across China, compared to CK. The results also suggested that the PM technology would be most beneficial to potato food energy in regions where the aridity index was between 0.15 and 0.45. The suitable areas of rain-fed potato with PM are mainly distributed in the northeast, northwest and southwest of China, where potato with PM could obtain high net economic benefits. However, PM is not suggested to be applied to rain-fed potato crops in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China because the tradeoff between the economic rewards and the environmental risks associated with plastic film was low. In the major producing areas for traditional staple food crops, potato reduce food energy per capita compared to conventional staple crops, however the results also showed that 64% and 40% of the regions that are suitable for potato cropping with PM significantly increased food energy per capita compared to wheat and maize. Therefore, the potato as a staple food supplement is feasible in PM suitable regions.
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