水保所知识产出(1956---)知识库

Agricultural intensification has turned the drylands-dominated Loess Plateau (LOP) of China into the
world’s largest apple production area, which has greatly contributed to increasing farmer’s income and
reducing rural poverty in the past two decades. However, substantial environmental trade-offs are
evident, including (i) severe deep soil desiccation, which lowers resistance to extreme droughts; (ii) low
soil organic carbon sequestration, which undermines apple tree’s ability to mitigate climate change; (iii)
high soil erodibility, which increases the risks for orchards suffering serious erosion; and (iv) severe
residual nitrate pollution, which threatens drinking water and planetary health. We propose a concep-
tual framework for addressing those environmental externalities, which will incorporate a nexus of
scientists and technicians, policymakers, social enterprises, and smallholder farmers (SPES) to emphasize
good governance, green-production technologies (GPTs), and collaboration as the route toward sus-
tainable intensification and the realization of SDG 1 (alleviation of rural poverty), SDG 6 (reduction of soil
and water pollution), SDG 13 (provision of important carbon sinks), and SDG 15 (positive water cycling
and soil and water conservation). This framework may also offer insight into the sustainable develop-
ment of orchards in dryland areas with similar environmental issues.