1. Interdisciplinary Research Center for Agriculture Green Development in Yangtze River Basin, College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China 2. Key Laboratory of Low-carbon Green Agriculture in Southwestern China (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Southwest University, Chongqing 400716, China 3. Rice Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China 4. Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biotechnology and Genetic Improvement (Guangxi), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Genetic Improvement, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Sugarcane Research Institute, Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning 530007, China 5. Center for Resources, Environment and Food Security, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
● Sugarcane and sugar beet yield and carbon footprint rose with time but profit declined
● Labor and nitrogen fertilizer were the largest contributors of carbon footprint.
● Optimized crops lowered carbon footprint and total cost by 32% and 24%, respectively.
Climate change mitigation is a major challenge of human society. Currently, to this end, many countries including China are committed to achieving carbon neutrality within a few decades. China is a major sugarcane and sugar beet producing country and has one of the largest carbon footprint for sugarcane and sugar beet production globally. A comprehensive study was conducted on sugarcane and sugar beet crops grown in China for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation potential, economic crop production from a sustainable sugar production perspective. Long-term trend analysis showed that yield and GHG emissions of sugarcane and sugar beet crops increased but the ratio of income to cost declined. Structural equation model analysis revealed nitrogen fertilizer and labor as the major drivers of GHG emissions for both sugarcane and sugar beet. For sugarcane and sugar beet, the path coefficient of N fertilizer were ‒0.964 and ‒0.835 and that of labor were 0.771 and 0.589, respectively. By transitioning the current cropping system to an improved model with optimized labor, N input and machinery use, the GHG emissions and total annual cost of sugarcane and sugar beet production can be reduced by 32% and 24%, respectively, by 2030, compared to a business-as-usual scenario. This is the first integrated and comparative study of environmental and economic sustainability of sugarcane and sugar beet production in China. These findings will enable all stakeholders of Chinese sugarcane and sugar beet industries to transform them into environmentally and economically sustainable sugar production.
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