Advancements in sustainable agriculture: Enhancing crop yield and environmental health in Henan Province

Sustainable agriculture in Henan Province must simultaneously raise crop yields, restore soil quality and reduce negative externalities for water, air and biodiversity. This article evaluates how integrated sustainable management practices perform in representative wheat–maize and rice-based systems of Henan Province. The assessment combines long-term field experiments, regional production statistics and plot-level measurements of soil properties, nutrient balances and pesticide use. Four management trajectories are compared: conventional intensive input use, conservation tillage with residue retention, diversified rotations with organic amendments and landscape-level ecological infrastructure that integrates hedgerows and field margins. Results show that bundles of sustainable practices increase grain yields, improve soil organic carbon and reduce nutrient surplus and pesticide intensity relative to conventional baselines. The article concludes that coordinated promotion of these practices, aligned with public investment and extension services, can create pathways that enhance both crop productivity and environmental health in a major grain-producing region of central China today.