How to grow more food with fewer resources?

Global agriculture is facing a dual challenge: ensuring food security for a growing population while reducing the environmental costs associated with production. As a major agricultural country, China has long relied on a resource-intensive model for food production. While this approach has addressed the issue of food sufficiency, it has also led to increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, and water body eutrophication. Data shows that in 2019, nearly 70% of China's farmland was classified as low to medium productivity. Thus, achieving a green transformation while ensuring food security has become a critical issue in the agricultural sector.

Recently, Associate Professor Wushuang Zhang et al. from Southwest University, China Agricultural University, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences systematically reviewed the practices and achievements of green technology innovations in major food crops from 2000 to 2022. They aimed to answer the question: how can China’s agriculture achieve a balance between “high yield” and “high efficiency” amid increasing resource constraints? The related paper has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025633).

Over the past 20 years, China’s food production has delivered impressive “green results”. Statistics indicate that, by 2022, the total output of the three major staple crops (rice, wheat, and corn) had increased by 58% compared to 2000, with corn experiencing a remarkable 162% increase. During the same period, the planted area only expanded by 8.6%, with the increase in production primarily driven by improvements in yield per unit area. Specifically, the yield per unit area for wheat rose by 56.7%, corn by 40%, and rice by 12.9%. Even more noteworthy is the improvement in resource efficiency. Fertilizer application peaked in 2016 and decreased by 0.83 million tons by 2022, including a 9.4% reduction in nitrogen fertilizer use. Nitrogen utilization efficiency improved from 27.5% in 2000 to 41.3% in 2022, meaning that more food was produced with less fertilizer.

Behind these changes are a series of breakthroughs in green technologies. For instance, the “Integrated Soil-Crop System Management (ISSM)” technology optimizes variety selection, sowing time, and planting density to enhance both light energy utilization and nutrient supply efficiency. Research shows that after applying this technology in North China, corn yields increased by 91.2% compared to traditional planting methods, while also reducing active nitrogen loss by 30% and greenhouse gas emissions by 11%. Another example is the “Root Zone Nutrient Regulation Technology”, which precisely matches the nitrogen needs of crops at different growth stages, resulting in an 8% increase in corn yield while reducing nitrogen fertilizer use by 25%. The “Rhizosphere Nutrient Regulation Technology” focuses on the smaller-scale root zone environment, optimizing fertilizer application locations and microbial interactions, leading to a 20.2% increase in rice yield and a 20%–30% reduction in nitrogen fertilizer use.

However, challenges remain significant. With population growth and the development of animal husbandry, China’s demand for food, especially corn, is expected to continue rising, with total corn demand projected to increase by 30% by 2050. At the same time, issues of nitrogen and phosphorus surplus in farmland are prominent, and the utilization rate of organic resources remains low, with much potential yet to be unlocked.

To address these challenges, the researchers proposed four major strategies: (1) precision management of organic resources; (2) promotion of enhanced-efficiency fertilizers; (3) promotion and adoption rhizosphere nutrient regulation technology; and (4) new technologies such as intelligent nutrient management.

The researchers also predicts that if “Integrated Soil-Crop System Management” is fully implemented, China’s total output of rice, wheat, and corn could increase by 45.8 million tons, 115 million tons, and 360 million tons, respectively, by 2050, significantly reducing environmental costs while ensuring food security.