Agricultural modernization and intensification have been regarded as a significant way to support agricultural development and improve farm income in China. Agricultural cooperatives have played an important role in promoting the modernization and intensification of Chinese agricultural sector. Given the increasing concerns about environmental harm, however, it still remains unclear whether and the extent to which agricultural cooperatives contributes to reducing environmental impacts of agricultural production. Hence, this study performed an environmental evaluation using life cycle assessment for three different organization forms of grape production in Changli County, Hebei Province, China: smallholder farmers, farmer-owned cooperatives and investor-owned firm-led cooperatives. Then the results of life cycle assessment were monetarized and cost benefit analysis was used to evaluate the economic performance of these three organization forms of grape production. The results demonstrate that investor-owned firm-led cooperatives present an overall improvement in environmental and economic performance with the lowest weighted environmental index (integrating all impact categories into a single score), the highest net profit and the highest total net benefit. The results also show a difference in potential improvement in environmental impacts and economic returns between cooperatives and smallholder farmers. Additionally, the production and application of organic and chemical fertilizer and pesticide have been identified as major contributors to total environmental damage.

Short response time for order processing is important for modern warehouses, which can be potentially achieved by adopting appropriate processing policy. The parallel processing policy have advantages in improving performance of many autonomous storage and retrieval systems. However, researchers tend to assume a sequential processing policy managing the movement of independent resources in shuttle-based compact storage systems. This paper models and analyses a single-tier of specialized shuttle-based compact storage systems under parallel processing policy. The system is modeled as a semi-open queueing network with class switching and the parallel movement of shuttles and the transfer car is modeled using a fork-join queueing network. The analytical model is validated against simulations and the results show our model can accurately estimate the system performance. Numerical experiments and a real case are carried out to compare the performance of parallel and sequential processing policies. The results suggest a critical transaction arrival rate and depth/width ratio, below which the sequential processing policy outperforms the parallel processing policy. However, the advantage of sequential processing policy is decreasing with the increasing of shuttle number, transaction arrival rate and depth/width ratio. The results also suggest an optimal depth/width ratio with a value of 1.75 for minimizing the expected throughput time in the real system. Given the current system configurations, the parallel processing policy should be considered when the number of shuttles is larger than 2 or the transaction arrival rate is larger than 24 per hour.

The sustainable development of agriculture hinges on effective fertilizer management, and China’s experience with chemical fertilizer overuse highlights the challenges and opportunities in this domain. This study examines the impact of agricultural subsidy policy on chemical fertilizer use across 2319 counties from 2012 to 2022. By treating the “Action Plan for Organic-Substitute-Chemical-Fertilizer (OSCF) for Fruits, Vegetables and Tea” as a quasi-natural experiment, this study uses a Double Machine Learning model to analyze its effects on fertilizer use and the underlying mechanisms, considering technical and scale efficiency as mediating variables. The findings reveal that the OSCF policy has a significant negative effect on chemical fertilizer use, primarily by enhancing both technical and scale efficiency. This study further reveals regional heterogeneity in the policy’s effectiveness. The results imply that while the impact of the OSCF policy is generally beneficial, it is shaped by regional economic development, agricultural production structure and initial level of fertilizer use. This highlights the importance of tailored policy instruments to address regional disparities in agricultural practices and targeted strategies to maximize the OSCF policy’s impact on sustainable agricultural development. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and farm managers to enhance the sustainability of agricultural practices.

Short response time for order processing is important for modern warehouses, which can be potentially achieved by adopting appropriate storage policy. This paper models and analyses shuttle-based compact storage systems under random and class-based storage policies using a probability and queueing based approach. The ABC curve and the basic Economic Order Quantity model are used to determine the assignment of storage locations under class-based storage policy. The performance measures are obtained by using an iterative approach based on parametric-decomposition. The analytical model is validated against simulations and the results show our model can accurately estimate the system performance. Numerical experiments based on a real case are carried out. The results show that the best performance is likely to be provided by a class-based storage policy with a steep ABC curve and a skewed demand rate distribution. Multiple system configurations in terms of number of tiers, depth/width ratio, size of storage positions and velocity of system resources are also analyzed. The results suggest benefits of class-based storage policy regardless of the number of tiers. Moreover, the class-based storage policy outperforms the random storage policy in the system with a small depth/with ratio. However, the random storage policy is recommended for the system with deep storage lanes.

Organic fertilizers offer agronomic and ecological advantages over chemical fertilizers, making them critical for curbing chemical fertilizer overuse without threatening food security. While subsidies are commonly used to encourage organic-chemical substitution, less is known about how farmers respond to different subsidy levels and how such responses reshape economic and environmental trade-offs. Using survey data from 983 vegetable farmers in China, this study applies a farm-level positive mathematical programming model to simulate short-run input allocation under alternative organic fertilizer subsidy scenarios. The results show that higher subsidies increase organic fertilizer use and reduce chemical fertilizer use, but do not generate uniformly positive outcomes across policy dimensions. Subsidy-induced substitution is associated with lower operating profit excluding subsidy transfers, although the magnitude of this effect varies across crops. Environmental performance improves as substitution intensifies, but the marginal return to additional subsidy weakens at higher subsidy levels. The findings reveal trade-offs across target attainment, production-side profitability, and environmental improvement. Under the present short-run scenario design with fixed land endowments, a moderate subsidy range around 250–300 CNY/ton appears most policy-relevant, because it achieves or nearly achieves the stated substitution targets while avoiding the sharper economic deterioration observed at higher subsidy levels. The results suggest that effective policy design should calibrate subsidy intensity to policy objectives, crop heterogeneity, and complementary support measures.