Cooperation between specialized livestock and crop farms can both reduce environmental footprints and increase net profits in livestock production
Presenter: Yifei Ma (College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University)

Abstract:
The number and size of specialized livestock farms have rapidly increased in China over the past three decades. This development has contributed to spatially decoupled crop and livestock production systems and increased environmental pollution. Recently, governmental policies have been implemented regionally to couple specialized crop and livestock farms and to reduce environmental pollution. However, there is a lack of information regarding the potential benefits of coupling crop and livestock farms through cooperation. This study investigated the environmental footprints and economic impacts of cooperation between crop and livestock farms in Northwest China using farm survey data, attributional life cycle assessment, and cost-benefit analysis. Two contrasting systems involving 87 ruminant farms were distinguished: cooperative crop-livestock systems (CCLS) and decoupled specialized livestock systems (DSLS). The results indicate that when expressed per kg animal production, compared to DSLS, CCLS had less net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (12% to 29%), less reactive nitrogen (Nr) emissions (21% to 40%), less phosphorus footprint (PF) (41% to 54%) and required 12% to 23% less land, depends on animal types. The main different sources of GHG emissions were enteric fermentation and resource production, differences in N and P footprints were primarily related to manure management. Net economic profits were 13% to 35% higher per unit of animal product in CCLS than in DSLS, and most profits originated from lower feed and animal purchase costs. There was a negative correlation between net profits and Nr and GHG emissions, suggesting an environmental and economic win-win situation for CCLS. There are still many obstacles to regional cooperation. The forerunners have already begun to explore the proper way, and various cooperation forms need to be explored in the future.

The adoption of formula fertilizer and farmer’s rice production: Evidence from large-scale rice farmers in South China
Presenter: Jing Li (College of Public Administration & College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University)

Abstract:
Promoting the use of formula fertilizer has been a policy priority in China to reduce fertilizer use. However, using formula fertilizer is associated with soil testing, formula designing, marketing, retailing, and other challenges along the supply chain. The goal of this paper is to assess how the adoption of formula fertilizer among large-scale rice farmers affects their yields and the nutrient-use-efficiency. We used a data set with a total of 605 large-scale rice farmers from Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces to conduct the empirical analysis. To address the potential endogeneity issue due to self-selection, we used the endogenous switching model and instrumental variable approach to control the selection bias. The empirical results show that large-scale farmers who have adopted the formula fertilizer show a significantly higher yield than non-adopters (about 100kg per hectare). However, regarding the nutrient use efficiency, we found the results are rather a nuance. We noticed a significant improvement in phosphorus and potassium use efficiency, but no improvement in nitrogen use efficiency.