Abstract
Agriculture is one of the largest consumers of water and energy. This paper evaluated the agricultural sustainability of the Chenmengquan irrigation district of China based on the water–energy–food nexus. One objective weighting method and one subjective weighting method were integrated, based on game theory, and a matter–element model was constructed to evaluate agricultural sustainability for the research region. The sensitivity of each index to the evaluation class was also analyzed. The results showed that agricultural sustainability was moderate in 2006–2012 and high in 2012–2015. The indexes, which represent water-use efficiency and yield per unit area of crops, had higher sensitivities in the context of the present case study. The results also indicated that agricultural sustainability had a comparatively positive trend between 2012 and 2015, and that pesticide utilization was the most important issue for agricultural sustainability. The approach of using the combination of a weighting method, based upon game theory, and the use of the matter–element model provides a guide for the evaluation of agricultural sustainability.
Highlights
The issue of agricultural sustainability has received considerable critical attention in the world with the changing environment and the growing population [1]
InTdoeaxsSsyesstsemagricultural sustainability, representative indexes are identified in Table 1 through a compTroehaesnsesisvseapgerircsupletcutriavlesbuassteadinoanbiWlityE,FrNep(rcei srepnrtaetsievnetsininddexeexsnaurme bideer,niti=fie1d, 2i,n. .T.a,b1l0e).1 through a comprehensive perspective based on water–energy–food nexus (WEFN)
The level of agricultural sustainability was promoted from class III to class IV in 2013 (Table 7), and the level was steady in class III before 2013
Summary
The issue of agricultural sustainability has received considerable critical attention in the world with the changing environment and the growing population [1]. In the case of limited arable land resources, in order to satisfy the expected demands for food, agriculture must be transformed, in order to feed a growing global population and provide the basis for economic growth and poverty reduction [2]. More than 80% of agricultural production growth by 2050 is expected to come from increased productivity on presently cultivated land [3]. Operationalizing the assessment of agricultural sustainability is an important premise in order to promote it. The assessment of agricultural sustainability aims to provide an efficient tool for decision-makers to determine which actions should be preferentially taken in an attempt to promote agricultural sustainability [5]
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