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ABSTRACT China has recently implemented a policy to promote potato as a national staple food and to close its large yield gaps with other countries. The carbon–land–water implications of

this policy are examined here by compiling and analysing detailed city-level life-cycle inventories of China’s staple crops. We find that in general potato, despite relatively low yields,

has lower greenhouse gas emissions and water demand than other staple crops (maize, wheat and rice) on a per-calorie basis, but substantial regional variation exists for each crop.

Integrating potato as a staple in China to meet increases in food demand and close the yield gap has the potential to reduce the total carbon–land–water impacts of staple crops by 17–25% by

2030. However, an unsuccessful integration runs the risk of global burden-shifting if the policy, for example, reduced domestic rice production and led to increased rice imports. Potential

synergies between food security and environmental sustainability in China can be created by the potato policy, but greater efforts are needed to promote potato across the entire food supply

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customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS INTEGRATING CROP REDISTRIBUTION AND IMPROVED MANAGEMENT TOWARDS MEETING CHINA’S FOOD DEMAND WITH LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS Article 01

December 2022 CONTRIBUTION OF DOUBLE-CROPPED MAIZE ETHANOL IN BRAZIL TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Article Open access 04 September 2024 CROP SWITCHING CAN ENHANCE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

AND FARMER INCOMES IN CHINA Article 16 March 2023 DATA AVAILABILITY All the data that support the life-cycle inventory and scenario analyses of this study are from public sources clearly

referenced in the manuscript and most of the data are provided in the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper. CODE AVAILABILITY The codes used for data

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Indicators_ (World Bank, 2015); https://databank.shihang.org/source/world-development-indicators Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research was funded in part by the National Natural

Science Foundation of China (71874078, B. Liu and 71921003, J.B.). We thank Dongyue Zhao for her effort into the early development of this study. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS

* State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, P. R. China Beibei Liu, Weiyi Gu, Bufan Lu, Bing Zhang & Jun Bi *

School of Government, Nanjing University, Nanjing, P. R. China Beibei Liu * The Johns Hopkins University–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, P. R. China

Beibei Liu * Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, P. R. China Yi Yang * Business School, Nanjing

University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, P. R. China Feng Wang * Development Institute of Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology,

Nanjing, P. R. China Feng Wang Authors * Beibei Liu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Weiyi Gu View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Yi Yang View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Bufan Lu View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Feng Wang View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Bing Zhang View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jun Bi View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS B. Liu, W.G. and Y.Y.

designed the research study. B. Liu, W.G. and F.W. developed early drafts. Y.Y., B. Liu and W.G. revised the paper. W.G. and B. Lu collected and analysed the data. B. Lu and W.G. produced

the figures. B.Z. and J.B. contributed discussion points and reviewed the paper. All authors critically reviewed and approved the final manuscript and are accountable for all aspects of the

work. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Yi Yang, Bing Zhang or Jun Bi. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PEER

REVIEW INFORMATION _Nature Food_ thanks Zhenling Cui and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains

neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Sections 1–4, Tables 1–25,

Figs. 1–15 and References. REPORTING SUMMARY SOURCE DATA SOURCE DATA FIG. 1 Statistical Source Data. SOURCE DATA FIG. 2 Statistical Source Data. SOURCE DATA FIG. 3 Statistical Source Data.

SOURCE DATA FIG. 4 Statistical Source Data. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Liu, B., Gu, W., Yang, Y. _et al._ Promoting potato as staple

food can reduce the carbon–land–water impacts of crops in China. _Nat Food_ 2, 570–577 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00337-2 Download citation * Received: 11 December 2020 *

Accepted: 07 July 2021 * Published: 12 August 2021 * Issue Date: August 2021 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00337-2 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with

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