The Sustainability of Agricultural Development in China: The Agriculture–Environment Nexus

The article aims to provide an overview of China’s agricultural development and itssustainability by focusing on the agriculture–environmental nexus. We first review literatureregarding trends in agricultural development and driving forces. China has made impressiveprogress at providing food for 22% of the world’s population. At the same time, severe environmentalimpacts have been incurred which not only affect future food security but also have impacts on othersocio-economic aspects. The agricultural policies that have been put into practice have direct orindirect impacts on such environmental outcomes. We review the impacts of agricultural policiesas well as conservation policies, their effectiveness, some unintended consequences and conflicts.The article concludes that technology and institutional innovation in China should emphasize moreintegrated sustainable development considering the agriculture–environment nexus, instead ofsetting incoherent and sometimes incompatible policy goals for each separate side