Pathways to Sustainable Agriculture in Arid Northwest China: Synergistic Solutions from Water and Land Optimization

Shichao Chen; Honghang Zhang; Mengyu Cai; Chuanbin Liang; Wenfeng Liu; David Parsons; Julianne Oliveira; Taisheng Du

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.024

Engineering ›› :202605024 DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.024

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Pathways to Sustainable Agriculture in Arid Northwest China: Synergistic Solutions from Water and Land Optimization

Shichao Chen ^a^,^b^,^c^,^*
, Honghang Zhang ^a^,^b^,^c
, Mengyu Cai ^a^,^b^,^c
, Chuanbin Liang ^a^,^b^,^c
, Wenfeng Liu ^a^,^b^,^c
, David Parsons ^d
, Julianne Oliveira ^d
, Taisheng Du ^a^,^b^,^c^,^*

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Abstract

Sustainable agricultural development requires strategies that balance productivity, resource efficiency, and environmental impact to ensure food and water security. In this study, we developed a combined simulation and evaluation framework for major crops (cotton, maize, and wheat) in arid northwest China and proposed a comprehensive agricultural sustainability index (SDG-Ag) to optimize irrigation and crop planting and improve agricultural sustainability. Based on simulations characterized by heterogeneous spatiotemporal variability in crop yield, water requirement, and global warming potential (GWP), our integrated strategy combining irrigation and crop planting structure could achieve a 30.5% irrigation water saving and a 19.4% reduction in GWP while increasing regional crop production by 2.1% until 2090s under two shared socioeconomic pathways. Thus, adaptation strategies must be resilient to multiple climate futures. Although irrigation and crop structure optimization synergistically improved the SDG-Ag score, the contribution from Ir-O remained dominant (Fig. 6). The SDG-Ag included the yield gap, IWR, IWP, GWP, and species richness, relating to SDG2, SDG6, SDG13, and SDG15, thereby moving beyond traditional agricultural evaluation dimensions. The distributed measures proposed in this study combining irrigation and crop structure optimization could be used for stabilizing wheat and expanding maize and for the development of water-efficient agriculture in northwest China. In actual implementation, factors such as land management, water use planning, and farmer acceptance must be considered for effective implementation.

Keywords

Global warming potential / Resource and environmental productivity / Sustainable development goals / Water conservation

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Shichao Chen, Honghang Zhang, Mengyu Cai, Chuanbin Liang, Wenfeng Liu, David Parsons, Julianne Oliveira, Taisheng Du. Pathways to Sustainable Agriculture in Arid Northwest China: Synergistic Solutions from Water and Land Optimization. Engineering 202605024 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2026.05.024

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