Optimizing water and fertilizer management reduces carbon and water footprints for winter wheat production in China
2026
Jin Shi | Haihe Gao | Yuan Liu | Enke Liu | Joann K. Whalen | Xiaoguang Niu | Yan Yan | Haijun Zhang | Jiawen Yu | Xurong Mei
The grand challenge for sustainable farming systems is to maintain agricultural productivity in a changing climate with water resource constraints. Here, we present a spatiotemporal footprint framework to optimize agricultural activities in winter wheat systems, based on a 30-year integrated assessment from 1991 to 2020 in China. During this period, agricultural activities in China's winter wheat production system emitted 66.6 × 106 t CO2eq yr−1 and consumed 112 × 109 m3 yr−1 of water annually. The Huang-Huai-Hai Plain had high greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, yet maintained relatively low product-level footprints. From 2001 to 2020, synergistic reductions in carbon and water footprints were achieved by optimizing fertilizer practices for yield improvement. Scenario-based mitigation analysis revealed that substituting organic alternatives for chemical fertilizers reduced emissions by 12 %, while powering irrigation equipment with renewable energy lowered emissions by 7.0 %, and improving irrigation efficiency reduced water consumption by 3 %, relative to the baseline scenario. Together, precision fertilization and energy-efficient irrigation were highly impactful, reducing carbon emissions by up to 20 % and being a practical strategy to enhance food security and environmental sustainability.
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