Abstract
“Introducing grass into fields”, the major approach to modern grassland agriculture, is the crucial direction of agricultural structure adjustment in the farming-pastoral zone of Northern China. However, there have been few studies on the environmental impacts of agricultural production in this pattern. We used the life cycle assessment (LCA) method for the first time from the perspective of the entire industry chain from agricultural material production to livestock marketing, which involves the combination of planting and breeding. A comparative analysis of the environmental impact processes of beef and pork, the main products of the two existing agricultural systems in Eastern Gansu, was conducted. The findings showed that based on the production capacity of the 1 ha land system, the comprehensive environmental impact benefit of the grassland agricultural system (GAS) in the farming-pastoral zone was 21.82%, higher than that of the cultivated land agricultural system (CLAS). On Primary energy demand (PED) and environmental acidification potential (AP), the GAS needs improvement because those values were 38.66% and 22.01% higher than those of the CLAS, respectively; on global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), and water use (WU), the GAS performed more environment-friendlily because those values were 25.00%, 68.37%, and 11.88% lower than those of the CLAS, respectively. This indicates that a change in land use will lead to a change in environmental impacts. Therefore, PED and AP should be focused on the progress of grassland agriculture modernization by “introducing grass into fields” and new agricultural technologies.
Highlights
Modern grassland agriculture, a sort of eco-agriculture, is developed from the combination of conventional Chinese intensive and meticulous farming and Western “livestock agriculture” [1]
In Northern China, the farming-pastoral zone has increasingly become a vulnerable ecotone [8], where the grassland agricultural system (GAS) and the cultivated land agricultural system (CLAS) are the two main agricultural systems, and the land use change is a major concern for the management of the local fragile ecosystem [9]
The comprehensive environmental impact values for 1 kg of beef and 1 kg of pork produced by the grassland agricultural system (GAS) and the cultivated land agricultural system (CLAS) in Eastern Gansu were 2.69 × 10−11 and 1.18 × 10−11, respectively
Summary
A sort of eco-agriculture, is developed from the combination of conventional Chinese intensive and meticulous farming and Western “livestock agriculture” [1]. With the advancement of the “grain-to-feed” policy from China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (the 13th five-year national economic and social development scheme promoted by the Chinese government), forage was strongly encouraged to be planted, and the ratio of grain, cash crop, and forage planting areas was proposed to be adjusted to about 4:3:3 in Northern China’s farming-pastoral zone in 2016 [7]. This has guaranteed enough space for the development of modern grassland agriculture in the entire industrial chain. The environmental impacts of land use change from cultivated land agriculture to grassland agriculture and must be emphasized and analyzed because land use conversion in agricultural systems could have significant impacts on the environment, including biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function [13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
