title: Sustainability assessment of greenhouse vegetable farming practices from environmental, economic, and socio-institutional perspectives in China.
abstract: To provide growing population with sufficient food, greenhouse vegetable production has expanded rapidly in recent years in China and sustainability of its farming practices is a major concern. Therefore, this study assessed the sustainability of greenhouse vegetable farming practices from environmental, economic, and socio-institutional perspectives in China based on selected indicators. The empirical data were collected through a survey of 91 farm households from six typical greenhouse vegetable production bases and analysis of environmental material samples. The results showed that heavy fertilization in greenhouse vegetable bases of China resulted in an accumulation of N, P, Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soil, nutrient eutrophication in irrigation water, and high Cd in some leaf vegetables cultivated in acidic soil. Economic factors including decreased crop yield in conventional farming bases, limited and site-dependent farmers' income, and lack of complete implementation of subsidy policies contributed a lot to adoption of heavy fertilization by farmers. Also, socio-institutional factors such as lack of unified management of agricultural supplies in the bases operated in cooperative and small family business models and low agricultural extension service efficiency intensified the unreasonable fertilization. The selection of cultivated vegetables was mainly based on farmers' own experience rather than site-dependent soil conditions. Thus, for sustainable development of greenhouse vegetable production systems in China, there are two key aspects. First, it is imperative to reduce environmental pollution and subsequent health risks through integrated nutrient management and the planting strategy of selected low metal accumulation vegetable species especially in acidic soil. Second, a conversion of cooperative and small family business models of greenhouse vegetable bases to enterprises should be extensively advocated in future for the unified agricultural supplies management and improved agricultural extension service efficiency, which in turn can stabilize vegetable yields and increase farmers' benefits.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China.|School of the Environment, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lanqin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China. bhuang@issas.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Biao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Resources and Environment, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, 650201, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mingcui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lipeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niedermann
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wenyou
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D002681:China; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D014675:Vegetables / Q000737:chemistry / Q000191:economics
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants
keywords: Agricultural extension service efficiency; Farmers’ income; Heavy fertilization; Nutrients; Sustainable greenhouse vegetable farming practices; Trace metals