Quantifying the sustainability of three types of agricultural production in China: An emergy analysis with the integration of environmental pollution

Agriculture is currently confronted with the great challenge of feeding a soaring population given finite resources while simultaneously curbing negative environmental impacts. Thus, the sustainability of different types of agricultural production must be quantified to identify the best way to meet the associated challenges. Taking the Tongxiang region as a case study, emergy and economic analyses were used to evaluate the overall performance of three agricultural production types, including traditional rice monoculture, integrated farming (i.e., rice-fish and rice-duck), and non-grain production (NGP) systems (i.e., nursery plantation, pond fish farming, vegetable production and duck rearing). The environmental pollution caused by different types of agricultural production, which is usually neglected in other studies, was included in the emergy accounting. The results show that intensive NGP systems, especially duck rearing and pond fish farming, were not sustainable, as indicated by high non-point source pollution discharge, high environmental pressure and low ecological sustainability. While rice monoculture and integrated farming systems were both under benign development, they could not provide economic profits competitive with those from NGP systems. With economic benefits increasing by 2.32-2.35 times and the agricultural non-point source pollution decreasing by 10.21%-59.01% in comparison with rice monoculture, integrated agricultural production proved to be a promising pattern for sustainable agriculture. Some policy incentives were proposed to increase the financial attractiveness of integrated agricultural production and promote a virtuous cycle for future cleaner production. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.