The economiceenvironmental trade-off of growing apple trees in the drylands of China: A conceptual framework for sustainable intensification

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. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Agricultural intensification in the Loess Plateau of China has significantly increased farmer's income and reduced rural poverty, but has also resulted in various environmental trade-offs such as soil desiccation, erosion, and nitrate pollution. A proposed framework aims to address these issues through collaboration among scientists, policymakers, social enterprises, and farmers.