Farmers are the key agents who manage land and water. Agriculture Green Development（AGD）requires a transformation in farming from high resource consumption and environmental cost to sustainable intensification with high productivity, high resource use efficiency and low environmental risk. This paper analyzes the public policy challenge of AGD and makes the case for a location-sensitive policy mix made up of regulation,advice provision, voluntarism and targeted incentives. The public agricultural extension service in China is a key resource, but one that requires reorientation and reform with the aim of better balancing high farm productivity with environmental protection.

The aim of this study was to identify whether, how and at what cost agricultural GHG emissions in Scotland could be reduced by 35% by 2045. In 2017, Scottish agricultural GHG emissions were estimated to be 7.6 Mt CO2e making the 35% target 2.7 Mt CO2e. Building on previous work by SRUC and others, 37 different measures to reduce GHG emissions were evaluated, focusing on improvements in nitrogen fertiliser use, organic manure/slurry storage and use, mechanisation, soil management, cropping systems and management, livestock nutrition, health and breeding, as well as improved farming systems integrating multiple measures, represented by conservation agriculture, organic farming, pasture-fed livestock production and agroforestry. Land use changes, such as from agriculture to peatland or forestry, as well as non-agricultural activities (including input manufacturing, food processing, retailing and consumption) were outside the scope of the study, although consideration was given to food losses on farms arising from decisions in other sectors. Embodied GHG emissions in inputs and impacts of output changes on other countries were also not assessed. In theory, if taken up 100% and accounting for no interactions, the measures could reduce Scottish agricultural emissions by almost 100%. In practice, there are many reasons why measures might not be implemented in combination, or adopted, by all farmers. We estimated that the most promising measures could potentially deliver 2.9 Mt CO2e annually, or 38% of 2017 GHG emissions, and concluded that the 35% target is achievable by 2045. 75% of Scottish agricultural GHG emissions are related to livestock production. This is not surprising given the importance of grassland and rough grazing in Scottish agriculture, which together account for almost 80% of agricultural land. Given this context, measures focused on tillage crops are relatively unimportant with respect to their potential for GHG reduction. The measures with most potential (all specified on annual basis) that we identified were: a) Reduction in nitrogen fertiliser use. Measures to use nitrogen more efficiently, including better use of organic manures, could potentially generate reductions of nearly 350 kt CO2e, or 13% of the target, within the next 10 years, if adopted on most farms. b) More radical reductions in nitrogen fertiliser use, by encouraging the use of legumes in grassland to eliminate or substantially reduce the need for N fertiliser, could reduce emissions by nearly 300 kt CO2e, or 11% of the target, within the next 15 years, if adopted on 40% of grassland. c) The use of legumes combined with rotational grazing techniques in diverse-species grassland, which help build soil organic matter and sequester carbon, could increase the total benefit to 540 kt or 20% of the target. This could potentially be linked with a pasture-fed livestock approach. d) Reducing methane emissions associated with ruminants by using feed additives including 3NOP, nitrates, probiotics, high dietary fat sources and seaweed derivatives could make a significant contribution. In the case of 3NOP, emissions could be reduced by 265 kt or 10% of the target within 10 years, if adopted on most dairy and some other cattle farms. This would require approval of 3NOP as a feed additive so that it can be marketed, and that at an affordable price. e) Improved animal health and breeding, with increased fertility, growth rates and yields, and reduced morbidity/mortality could reduce total livestock numbers needed to deliver the same output, and deliver 366 kt emission reductions (14% of the target) with 40-50% uptake. f) Organic farming, with 40% uptake, could potentially deliver 730 kt CO2e reductions or 27% of the target. This is a result of combining no synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use with an overall 10% reduction in livestock numbers and the conversion of 20% of tillage land to rotational grassland. The financial impacts of these changes are reduced due to the premium markets for organic food. g) Agroforestry also offers potential for substantial reductions: 570 kt (21% of the target) with 30% uptake. This is assuming 10% of farmland is used for trees, with consequent output reductions for crops and livestock, although with some scope to mitigate this. Despite their emission reduction potential, organic farming and agroforestry both have the disadvantages of higher initial investment costs, greater complexity acting as a disincentive to adoption and longer lead-in times, as well as output reductions that, if demand remains unchanged, could lead to an increased requirement for imports and increased emissions elsewhere. However, the widespread adoption of these approaches would need to be considered in the context of changing human and animal diets, and the potential for reducing food losses and waste also highlighted in the report. The financial assessment of these measures indicates that many are likely to be associated with increased costs and, in the absence of other financial benefits, reduced incomes, which would need to be addressed by policy support in some form. In several cases, reductions in nitrate leaching, ammonia emissions and other impacts leading to improvements in water and air quality could provide further justifications for support. In some cases, the improved productivity, for example associated with improved animal health and breeding, could create a win-win situation, with emissions reduction combined with financial benefits. As most of the measures are unlikely to be driven by market forces, policy interventions are likely to be needed, including: • Farming system payments for innovative approaches (whole or part farm) • Input reduction and improved soil management, including support for advice and investments • Regulatory and fiscal options including input taxes and quotas or tradeable carbon quotas linked to input use and sequestration opportunties • Carbon, nitrogen and sustainability auditing • Training, advice and skills • Improved greenhouse gas monitoring and statistics • Targeted research, and • Dietary change and food waste reduction In almost all cases, the practices and systems that could be adopted are well developed and understood, but actions are needed to ensure that financial and knowledge barriers are addressed in order to facilitate their adoption so that the desired GHG mitigation targets can be achieved.

Diffuse Water Pollution from Agriculture (DWPA) and its governance has received increased attention as a policy concern across the globe. Mitigation of DWPA is a complex problem that requires a mix of policy instruments and a multi-agency, broad societal response. In this paper, opportunities and barriers for developing co-governance, defined as collaborative societal involvement in the functions of government, and its suitability for mitigation of DWPA are reviewed using seven case studies in Europe (Poland, Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands and UK), Australia (Murray-Darling Basin) and North America (State of Minnesota). An analytical framework for assessing opportunities and barriers of co-governance was developed and applied in this review. Results indicated that five key issues constitute both opportunities and barriers, and include: (i) pressure for change; (ii) connected governance structures and allocation of resources and funding; (iii) leadership and establishment of partnerships through capacity building; (iv) use and co-production of knowledge; and (v) time commitment to develop water co-governance.

Analyzing the public policy challenge of multifunctional land use, for which farmers are required to be food producers, water resource managers and environmental stewards, it is argued that a location-sensitive policy mix is required, consisting of appropriate regulation complemented by advice provision, voluntarism, and well-targeted incentive schemes. The case is further made for adaptive management, local deliberation and stakeholder participation, and hence for governance that is open, delegated, and collaborative. Assessment, planning, and decision making need to be delegated to the most appropriate governmental level and spatial scale to achieve desired outcomes, whilst effective mechanisms for vertical and horizontal coordination of the resulting multilevel and polycentric governance are essential. Hydrographic catchments have significant advantages as spatial units for analysis, planning, coordination, and policy delivery. However, catchment-based working creates further need for cross-level, sector, and scale communication and coordination. Mechanisms for this merit further attention.

This paper evaluates the existing policy frameworks for mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA) in England and China. With reference to a conceptual model of the process of policy transfer or international lesson drawing, and possible constraints to this, it assesses whether and how China can draw lessons to improve current policy from the supra-national and national provisions of the EU and a member state that by 2016 had comprehensively implemented EU agricultural and environmental policy. DWPA is first analysed as a public policy challenge to inform specification of a generic framework for its mitigation. The current policy frameworks for mitigation of DWPA in England and China are evaluated, and their potential for improvement is assessed. A number of barriers to lesson drawing for regulation, incentive payments schemes and advice provision are diagnosed. These barriers are potentially least in relation to advice provision and its use to promote voluntary action by farmers. Given its structure and capabilities the public agricultural extension system in China is also recognised as a key resource. A focus on three policy approaches to mitigate DWPA in China is recommended: i) targeted regulation to a 'reference level' of large intensive livestock, and ultimately other large commercial farms; ii) strategic use of incentive payment schemes to protect water resources from DWPA; and iii) re-orientation of the ethos and modalities of operation of the extension system, informed by international lesson drawing, with the aim of rebalancing farm productivity and environmental protection. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In order to improve the efficiency of nutrient use whilst also meeting projected changes in the demand for food within China, new nutrient management frameworks comprised of policy, practice and the means of delivering change are required. These frameworks should be underpinned by systemic analyses of the stocks and flows of nutrients within agricultural production. In this paper, a 30-year time series of the stocks and flows of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are reported for Huantai county, an exemplar area of intensive agricultural production in the North China Plain. Substance flow analyses were constructed for the major crop systems in the county across the period 1983-2014. On average across all production systems between 2010 and 2014, total annual nutrient inputs to agricultural land in Huantai county remained high at 18.1 kt N, 2.7 kt P and 7.8 kt K (696 kg N ha(-1); 104 kg P ha(-1); 300 kg K ha(-1)). Whilst the application of inorganic fertiliser dominated these inputs, crop residues, atmospheric deposition and livestock manure represented significant, yet largely unrecognised, sources of nutrients, depending on the individual production system and the period of time. Whilst nutrient use efficiency (NUE) increased for N and P between 1983 and 2014, future improvements in NUE will require better alignment of nutrient inputs and crop demand. This is particularly true for high-value fruit and vegetable production, in which appropriate recognition of nutrient supply from sources such as manure and from soil reserves will be required to enhance NUE. Aligned with the structural organisation of the public agricultural extension service at county-scale in China, our analyses highlight key areas for the development of future agricultural policy and farm advice in order to rebalance the management of natural resources from a focus on production and growth towards the aims of efficiency and sustainability. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) schemes are an underdeveloped component of the policy mix for catchment management in many countries. The importance of intermediaries to such schemes is acknowledged in the literature but few studies go beyond theory to evaluate practice. This paper analyses generic intermediary functions for PES. It then evaluates an innovative example from southwest England that provides illustrations, and some lessons regarding necessary capabilities and characteristics for intermediaries, and understanding of their form, functions and modalities. The ‘UpStream Thinking’ project was co-developed by a private water company and an environmental charity. The former translated effective demand from shareholders and water customers for improved raw water quality into finance, whilst the latter had capabilities for catchment-scale on-farm delivery and trusted acceptance as an intermediary. While any sector can potentially provide a PES intermediary, the value driven, not-for-profit and politically neutral voluntary sector proves to be a good fit. Such ‘boundary organisations’ are also well placed for horizontal coordination of catchment management authorities and actions.

In China intensification of agriculture has been achieved at a cost to the environment. The extension service is the leading public resource to address this but remains focused by a historic national ethos for food security, production and economic growth, whilst its administrative structure is hierarchical, slow to change and lacking in relevant functional integration. Investigation of three case study farming systems identifies how to rebalance productivity with stewardship of farm inputs and natural resources. Substance flow analyses for each case demonstrate that crop nutrient management can potentially be improved to reduce environmental risk without yield loss. Complementary stakeholder surveys and social network analyses identify barriers to change relating to the knowledge, attitudes, practices and operational constraints of farmers and extension agents, and to the structure and performance of agricultural knowledge and innovation systems. This combination of analyses offers an original synthesis of needs, planning priorities and strategies.

Water policy reforms introduced in Peninsular Malaysia have yielded relatively positive improvements in the operational and financial performance of water utilities. This article analyses contemporary water governance in the context of the historical origins of uneven water development in Malaysia and national heterogeneity in the political economy of water provision. The investigation builds on political ecology scholarship in urban water policy and reaffirms postcolonial critiques of neoliberal inspired water reforms in developing countries. Our study analyses the impact of the ‘asset light policy’ – a policy introduced in 2008 with the aim of commercialising public water utilities and centralising water sector investment and ownership. It is found that notwithstanding evidence of improved financial health and technical efficiency in certain states, the asset light policy has accentuated uneven water development across the country. Thus despite the policy's relatively narrow focus on technical and financial matters, it is shown to have a fundamentally political outcome. This in turn explains the current ‘policy impasse’ in five of the eleven states in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, the omission of environmental considerations within the policy framework is argued to undermine the overall ambition of the policy. It is recommended that water policy makers give greater consideration to the embedded social, political and economic inequalities that characterize many former European colonies.

Currently, the world is facing challenges of maintaining food production growth while improving agricultural ecological environ-mental quality. The prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, a key component of these challenges, is a systematic program which integrates many factors such as technology and its extension, relevant regulation and policies. In the project of UK-China Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network, we undertook a comprehensive analysis of the prevention and control technology, technology extension systems and related policy measures of agricultural non-point source pollution in UK. We then proposed the promotion of preven-tion and control of agricultural non-point source pollution in China. Considering the current agricultural resources and environment counter-measures of“one control”(control over the total quantity of the agricultural water and agricultural water environment pollution),“two re-duction”(reduction in quantities of fertilizers and pesticides), and “three basic countermeasures”(resource utilization, recycling, and disharm treatment of livestock and poultry wastes, agricultural plastic films and crop straws), we suggested that in the near future source control and process prevention should be technical priorities. Optimzation and reduction of chemical fertilizer, combined use of chemical and organic fertilizers, land utilization management, agricultural sector adjustment and integration of crop production with animal husbandry should be the key technologies. The role of non-governmental technical service should be promoted. Government subsidies, ecological com-pensations and other forms of economic means could be used to encourage famers actively participate in the prevention and control of nitro-gen and phosphorus losses and pollution in soil and water systems. Related technical documents and regulations should be more specific, clear, and practical. Collection, transmission and analysis of non-point source pollution data relying on modern information approaches should also be incorporated in the non-point source control projects. The prevention and control of non-point source pollution from agricul-true should be integrated into the overall national economic and social development planning, and be unified with the industry optimization and economic development indicators to improve the quality of ecological civilization construction, aiming at the sustainable economic and social development in China.

This paper assesses the value of using Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to account for the spatially and temporally diverse and diffuse potential impacts of hydropower development in South Asia’s Koshi basin. A policy and practice review and key stakeholder interviews identified opportunities for SEA to improve existing planning procedures, and also barriers to effective adoption. Whilst stakeholders are interested in employing SEA to evaluate cumulative impacts, institutional blockages and an economic development imperative for power generation leave little space for consideration of alternative scenarios as part of SEA. The analysis is conducted through the formulation and application of a conceptual framework (CFW) for SEA best practice which is then used to identify priority next-steps for a more dynamic application of SEA in the region.

Complex and inter-related factors explain the excessive use of fertilizer observed in many intensive farming systems in China, and hence act as barriers to development of a comprehensive policy and intervention framework for mitigation of diffuse water pollution from agriculture (DWPA). This review provides an original and contemporary synthesis of these factors that is broader, deeper and more interrelated than existing assessments. The analysis confirms that DWPA cannot be addressed by single regulatory or policy measures. There is a need to develop a mitigation framework that encompasses central policy directives, reform in governance at local level, an enabling regulatory environment, horizontal and vertical coordination in food supply chains, unbiased incentives for efficient fertilizer use and protection of water resources, enhanced agricultural, food safety and environmental education for farmers and consumers, and engagement of multiple actors beyond government. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

(1) Lancaster University, Lancaster Environment Centre, United Kingdom (j.bellarby@lancaster.ac.uk), (2) Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin 300191, China, (3) College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China, (4) College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China, (5) Principal Consultant – Plant Nutrition Consulting, Coventry, UK, (6) Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London WC1H 0XG, UK, (7) British Geological Survey, Environmental Science Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG125GG, UK

In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in assessing the sustainability of agriculture in terms of its social, environmental and economic impact and a number of indicators and tools are used. Measurements take place at the farm or product level and indicators can be outcome related e.g. number of butterfly species present, or management related e.g. percentage of fields with margins growing wildflowers to attract butterflies. Given its underlying ethos, the organic/ecological agriculture sector should aim to be at the forefront of sustainability. The development of assessment approaches and recent discussions within the movement have identified continuous improvement towards best practice in sustainability to be one of the important features of the new direction. Positive effects in such areas as ‘environment’ are seen as one of the most important reasons for the financial support given to the organic sector, and as one of the reasons for consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for organic food. This project aimed to provide practical recommendations on the suitability of the available sustainability assessment frameworks, themes, tools and indicators for the organic sector and to help consider and further develop sustainability assessment approaches. A review of tools, indicators, themes and sustainability assessment methods was carried out. The opinions of organisations and individuals from within the organic sector were obtained through an international workshop and an online survey. Synergies and trade-offs between indicators were investigated using the database of FiBL’s SMART sustainability assessment tool to investigate the relationships between themes. Results from the project have illustrated that choosing the most promising indicators for the organic sector needs to be driven by the importance of the sustainability theme as well as using a suitable method. Choosing indicators solely on the basis of desirable goals may lead to a subjective and non-transparent indicator selection which cannot be externally verified. On the other hand, assessing the quality of indicators alone appears to be too much driven by method and the choice of tools will also need to be influenced by data availability and/or cost of data collection. The inclusion of indicators that assess areas within social sustainability and good governance (e.g. corporate social responsibility) should be encouraged within existing tools. This development should build on recent frameworks provided by, for instance the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations FAO and OECD (e.g. SAFA, guidelines on social LCA, DFID Sustainable Livelihoods Framework). Indicator development should also consider stakeholder views and perspectives (perhaps using, for example, the European Innovation Partnership Programme to contact stakeholders) and decide on threshold values that indicate poor, acceptable and good performance. The assessment of synergies and trade-offs has illustrated that farms with good performance with regards to governance are likely to have positive performance on most environmental, social and economic aspects. This highlights the importance of good corporate management at the farm level. Further work on synergies and trade-offs using samples of farms is urgently required. In addition, trade-offs between the economic dimension on the one hand and the environmental and social dimensions on the other hand, may need to be accepted at farm level. There is scope, however, for these to be addressed by policy makers, to help the farmers set the right priorities. Substantial trade-offs also exist within the environmental dimension (for example between greenhouse gas emissions and animal welfare) which might be more difficult to resolve. Priorities need to be set depending on the specific context of the farm. Areas of sustainability that are perceived by those within the organic sector as being potential strengths were identified. These could be harnessed in terms of communicating the benefits of organic production. These key strengths include biodiversity, ecosystem diversity, soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Although such key strengths may seem obvious to those working within the sector and for several there is some good scientific evidence available, it is likely that the benefits are not widely-known or publicised and that further development of the evidence base is required.

• The stocks and flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) were quantified for five case studies, representing contrasting agricultural systems in China and the UK. The input of nutrients exceeded the output of nutrients in agricultural products for all five systems, although to varying degrees between individual case studies.Excessive input of nutrients for each system increases the risk of negative environmental impacts on soil, air and water quality. Soils accumulate nutrient stocks due to excessive nutrient inputs, representing an under-exploited nutrient reserve that could contribute to future agriculture production. Livestock and crop production are increasingly disconnected in China. Manure application was limited to high-value fruit and vegetable crops in the systems analysed, but often without adequate accounting for the nutrient content of the applied manure.Pathways to improve the efficiency of nutrient use are identified.

Over abstraction of water and its pollution, and thus the protection of water resources in terms of quantity and quality, are linked and sustained problems that require new solutions. They are dynamic challenges that evolve over time as both outcomes and society’s preferences are driven by economic development and by environmental and social change. An innovative and relatively underdeveloped policy mechanism to address these issues is provided by Payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) schemes. PES schemes are an example of a new and more direct conservation paradigm that explicitly recognises the need to align the interests of landowners and other groups in society that benefit from environmental public goods. PES schemes are based on voluntary transactions in which a defined environmental service (often a land use providing this service) is paid for by one or more service buyer(s) from one of more service provider(s), with commitment to continuous provision of that service. PES develops mechanisms to capture environmental externalities and bring them into the marketplace, based on the principles that the beneficiaries of environmental services pay for their provision and the providers are paid for this. This can provide a mechanism to parallel the regulatory “polluter pays” mechanism with a complementary and voluntary “provider is paid” mechanism. Arguably collective action is not an essential requirement for PES in so far as a PES arrangement could involve a one-to-one transaction between two independent actors; for example, an upstream landowner and a downstream water user such as a factory. A key premise that emerges from this case, however, is that the development and implementation of a PES scheme for water resource protection requires collective action in the form of networks, partnership working and creative knowledge exchange. Social capital and trust between the parties involved, and particularly on the part of an intermediary, can be expected to reduce transaction costs, help resolve conflicts and enhance sustainability.

Several attempts have been made to explain the formation of collaborative watershed partnerships—that is, multi-actor groups which work together to resolve environmental problems at a watershed scale. But to what extent do these explanations ‘travel’ from their original home – namely the USA – to other jurisdictions, where similar claims are being made about the rise of collaborative environmental governance? To that end, this article critically evaluates how well one leading theory, namely the political contracting framework (PCF), explains their emergence in the rather different institutional context of the United Kingdom. Drawing on a survey of collaborative watershed practices, it argues that they are functionally equivalent to partnerships. Furthermore, when suitably amended, the PCF explains many important aspects of their emergence. The same critical factors are associated with their development, but these should now be assessed across the entire ‘life-cycle’ of partnerships. The implications of these findings are identified and explored, the underlying aim being to inform a much more comparative theoretical approach to understanding what appear to be important changes in collaborative environmental governance practices.