In recent decades, global agriculture has accelerated specialization and intensification in pursuit of economies of scale, and China is no exception. Driven by the reform and opening-up policies, agricultural production efficiency has improved, but it has also come at an environmental cost: excessive use of chemical fertilizers, low utilization rate of livestock and poultry manure, leading to water eutrophication, air pollution and other issues. Particularly on the North China Plain, a major grain-producing region in China, the wheat-maize double cropping system is prevalent. Chemical fertilizer consumption accounts for nearly one-third of the global total, while nitrogen use efficiency is less than 50%. Meanwhile, livestock and poultry farming has shifted toward large-scale operations, intensifying the decoupling of crop and livestock production. The rate of manure returning to fields is below 50%, resulting in broken nutrient cycles. Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems (ICLS) are recognized as effective in improving nutrient cycling efficiency and promoting sustainable agricultural development. However, how to design effective schemes tailored to regional realities remains a key challenge?
Professor Yong Hou from China Agricultural University, in collaboration with researchers from Wageningen University & Research (the Netherlands) and Nanjing Agricultural University, conducted a study in Quzhou County, Hebei Province—a typical agricultural county on the North China Plain. Through household surveys and spatial analysis, the team revealed the characteristics of current agricultural system types and their spatial distribution, providing new insights for formulating crop-livestock integration policies. The relevant research has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025640).
The study randomly selected 300 farm households from 30 villages across 10 townships in Quzhou County. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, six major farm types were identified: grain farm, cash crop farm, mixed farm, commercial farm, small mixed farm, and landless farm. Grain farms, dominated by wheat and maize cultivation, face prominent issues of excessive chemical fertilizer application. Landless farms and mixed farms rely heavily on imported feed, producing large quantities of manure with low field application rates. Spatial distribution analysis showed distinct regional agglomeration of different farm types: for example, landless farms are concentrated in the central region, while cash crop farms are distributed in the northern and southwestern areas, reflecting the spatial decoupling of crop and livestock production systems.
The research found that policy factors significantly influence the current agricultural system: farmland protection policies and grain subsidies have promoted the dominant position of grain farms; the Household Contract Responsibility System (HCRS) has led to land fragmentation, with most farms covering less than 1 hectare; and the outflow and aging of rural labor have limited technological transformation.
To address these challenges, the study proposes policy recommendations: first, guide grain farms to reduce chemical fertilizer use through free soil testing services and adjusted fertilizer subsidies; second, strengthen the construction of manure treatment facilities in livestock and poultry farms to promote manure-feed exchange between crop and livestock farmers; third, optimize regional layout to balance the crop-livestock ratio—for instance, moderately developing supporting breeding in major grain-producing areas or planning manure return channels in concentrated breeding regions.
This study provides a scientific basis for the green transition of agriculture on the North China Plain. Its methodology can be extended to other regions, contributing to the dual goals of “storing grain in land and technology” and ecological protection.
DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025640