TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable intensification for a larger global rice bowl
AU - Yuan, Shen
AU - Linquist, Bruce A.
AU - Wilson, Lloyd T.
AU - Cassman, Kenneth G.
AU - Stuart, Alexander M.
AU - Pede, Valerien
AU - Miro, Berta
AU - Saito, Kazuki
AU - Agustiani, Nurwulan
AU - Aristya, Vina Eka
AU - Krisnadi, Leonardus Y.
AU - Zanon, Alencar Junior
AU - Heinemann, Alexandre Bryan
AU - Carracelas, Gonzalo
AU - Subash, Nataraja
AU - Brahmanand, Pothula S.
AU - Li, Tao
AU - Peng, Shaobing
AU - Grassini, Patricio
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dr. Russell Ford (former Head of Agronomic R&D at Sunrice) for providing data for rice in Australia and Dr. P.A.J. van Oort for performing the simulations of yield potential for African countries. We would also like to thank scientists and extension personnel for their help to collect the survey data from the 32 cropping systems included in this study. This work was supported by the Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project of NSFC (32061143038 to S.P.), the Earmarked Fund for the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-01-20 to S.P.), the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities in China (the 111 Project no. B14032 to S.P.), the China Scholarship Council (201706760015 to S.Y.), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682439 to S.Y.). We also acknowledge GRISP, RICE CRP, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Grant 681 no. 7F-08412.02 to A.M.S.) for their financial support to conduct the MISTIG, MISTIR, and CORIGAP surveys, respectively.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Future rice systems must produce more grain while minimizing the negative environmental impacts. A key question is how to orient agricultural research & development (R&D) programs at national to global scales to maximize the return on investment. Here we assess yield gap and resource-use efficiency (including water, pesticides, nitrogen, labor, energy, and associated global warming potential) across 32 rice cropping systems covering half of global rice harvested area. We show that achieving high yields and high resource-use efficiencies are not conflicting goals. Most cropping systems have room for increasing yield, resource-use efficiency, or both. In aggregate, current total rice production could be increased by 32%, and excess nitrogen almost eliminated, by focusing on a relatively small number of cropping systems with either large yield gaps or poor resource-use efficiencies. This study provides essential strategic insight on yield gap and resource-use efficiency for prioritizing national and global agricultural R&D investments to ensure adequate rice supply while minimizing negative environmental impact in coming decades.
AB - Future rice systems must produce more grain while minimizing the negative environmental impacts. A key question is how to orient agricultural research & development (R&D) programs at national to global scales to maximize the return on investment. Here we assess yield gap and resource-use efficiency (including water, pesticides, nitrogen, labor, energy, and associated global warming potential) across 32 rice cropping systems covering half of global rice harvested area. We show that achieving high yields and high resource-use efficiencies are not conflicting goals. Most cropping systems have room for increasing yield, resource-use efficiency, or both. In aggregate, current total rice production could be increased by 32%, and excess nitrogen almost eliminated, by focusing on a relatively small number of cropping systems with either large yield gaps or poor resource-use efficiencies. This study provides essential strategic insight on yield gap and resource-use efficiency for prioritizing national and global agricultural R&D investments to ensure adequate rice supply while minimizing negative environmental impact in coming decades.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-27424-z
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-27424-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 34887412
AN - SCOPUS:85120947745
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 7163
ER -