Global Cropland Efficiency-Stress Divide: Typological Diagnosis and Reconciling Pathways

Abstract

Cropland underpins food security but faces mounting resource constraints and environmental pressures. Achieving sustainable agriculture hinges on advancing land use efficiency (LUE) and alleviating land ecological stress (LES). However, a typological framework characterizing LUE and LES remains lacking, hindering the distinction between technical efficiency and ecological sustainability in cropland use. Herein, we establish a coupled LUE-LES diagnostic framework by integrating the super-efficiency slack-based measure model with land ecological footprint accounting. This framework classifies regions into efficiency-stress typologies globally for 2011, 2015, 2019, and 2022, and identifies type-specific improvement priorities through slack and ecological footprint-biocapacity diagnostics. Results show that in 2022, LUE is below 1 in 62.5% of regions, while China and Brazil reach 1.90 and 1.81, respectively, but remain efficient-stressed due to high ecological deficits. Despite ecological deficits, Indonesia and Australia exhibit the highest outflow intensity of embodied cropland use, exporting 55.9% and 68.0% of regional production-based land ecological footprint (PLEF), respectively. Two-dimensional diagnostics identify irrigation water and energy as dominant sources of inefficiency and show that PLEF exceeds land biocapacity by approximately 5%–35% in deficit regions. Policy designs for reconciling LUE and LES should guide supply-side efficiency gains, complemented by demand- and trade-oriented measures for durable agricultural sustainability.