Sustainable management strategies for balancing crop yield, water use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions

To ensure food security in the face of climate change, it is crucial to use effective agricultural management practices that produce the triangular win-win for water, crops, and environments. This study aimed to explore the sustainable management measures for balancing crop yield, water use efficiency (WUE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China during 1981–2020. The study selected the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of China as the research area, where there were sharp contradictions among water shortage, food security and polluted environment. Four irrigation treatments and four fertilization treatments were set referring to the local cultivated experiences. The daily dynamic changes in crop yield, WUE and GHG emissions were simulated by optimized Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) model. The irrigations had positive impacts on crop yield and WUE in BTH region. The irrigation amount's rise caused a gradual augmentation in the total yield of winter wheat and summer maize from 1981 to 2020.The highest total yield was achieved under W4 irrigation treatment (320 mm water for winter wheat and 60 mm water for summer maize), with an annual mean of 24,579.2 kg·ha −1. The annual average WUE under the W3 irrigation treatment (240 mm water for winter wheat) was the highest, with an average of 13.9 kg·ha −1 ·mm −1. However, extensive fertilization exacerbated soil GHG emissions. The soil GHG emissions were found to be significant increase as the input amount of fertilization. The FI fertilization measure (no fertilization) was assessed to have the least impact on the environment, with an average GHG emissions of 0.4 Mg·CO 2-eq ·ha −1. The optimal goals of high yield, high WUE and low GHG emissions were achieved by choosing effective combination practices of water and nitrogen management. Overall, the W3 irrigation and F3 fertilization (180 kg/ha fertilizer for winter wheat and 120 kg/ha fertilizer for summer maize.) treatments had the maximum water-fertilizer production indexes in the BTH region. This study highlights the importance of agricultural management measures for guaranteeing food security and environmental sustainability at the same time under climate change.