The Innovation Team of Agricultural Allocation and Regional Development of the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has made new progress in researching synergistic development of emission reduction and value enhancement in the livestock industry.

Their research landmark, titled "Decoupling livestock and poultry pollution emissions from industrial development: A step towards reducing environmental emissions", was published in the top-tier Journal of Environmental Management in the field of international environmental science (IF=8.0 for 2023-2024).

Since 2016, the Chinese government has established four batches of national agricultural green development pilot areas, with regions proactively responding and creating their own pilot areas. These pilot areas have played a significant role in promoting the green development of livestock and poultry breeding. According to the China Agricultural Green Development Report 2023, the equipped rate of manure treatment facilities in large-scale livestock farms in the first three batches of national agricultural green development pilot areas has remained stable at over 97%. However, the interrelationship and dynamic changes between industrial growth and emission reduction in agricultural green development pilot areas require further research.

This study applied decoupling theory to quantitatively investigate the synergistic development status and evolutionary process of emission reduction and value enhancement in the livestock and poultry breeding industry in Chinese agricultural green development pilot areas. The research found that from 2010 to 2019, the relationship between pollution emissions from livestock and poultry breeding and industrial growth in agricultural green development pilot areas underwent an evolutionary process of "weak decoupling → strong decoupling → weak negative decoupling → recessionary decoupling → strong decoupling", achieving synergistic development between emission reduction and industrial growth. Improved production efficiency played a key role in emission reduction, while changes in industrial structure shifted from supporting emission reduction to hindering it. The research results provide valuable references for optimizing the assessment methods of synergistic development of emission reduction and value enhancement and setting reasonable synergistic development goals.

Researcher Yang Yadong from the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is the co-first author of this paper, and Associate Researcher Li Guojing is the corresponding author. The research was jointly funded by the National Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Northern Arid and Semi-Arid Cropland, the National Potato Industry Technology System and the National Natural Science Foundation project.

Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119654