The Impact of China's Economic Growth on Tea Growing in Zhejiang Province

China and Its Green Growth Initiatives: Comparative Literature Review
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Comparative Literature Review
Research Question: Has China's economic growth caused adverse environmental effects on tea growing in Zhejiang Province?
Economic Growth and Climate change
Over the past few years, China's economic development has resulted in significant environmental damage (Han et al., 2017). Arguably, agricultural production, particularly tea growing, has been significantly impacted through economic growth and massive industrialization (Ahmed et al. 2014). Over the past few decades, China's energy consumption has tripled, increasing the rate of pollution by almost three-fold (Yang et al., 2018). Thus, as China grows economically and its population hits almost 1.4 billion, its natural resources are destroyed simultaneously (Wang, Finlayson, and Barnett, 2008). Even with initiatives to protect the environment being introduced, it has become clear that environmental pollution and ecological imbalances are unavoidable, largely due to the ever-increasing economic growth in China (Liang and Yang, 2019). Zhejiang Province is one of the famous producers of green tea in China, and in 2018, Zhejiang's total tea output was estimated at 186 thousand tonnes, with exports accounting for about 52.38% of all of China's exports (Yan et al. 2021; Xu and Wen-shou Wei, 2004). Recent studies indicate that climate change is having a massive impact on tea production in Zhejiang Province and across the world (Stern and Donglan Zha, 2016). Accordingly, an analysis of the impact of climate change on tea production in the mountain region between 1985 to 2018 indicates that the effects of drought and high temperature on tea production have increased significantly (Zhang 2007).
More so, climate change has triggered massive changes, such as an early growth of tea buds and early plucking (Jayasinghe, Sadeeka Layomi, and Lalit Kumar, 2020). Climate change has led to high temperatures and drought, which remain the key factors impacting tea production in both summer and autumn in Zhejiang Province. Notably, the economic output of tea has been declining every decade (Ahmed et al., 2018). The plucking period significantly shortened largely due to the summer heat and autumn droughts (Peng and Qun Bao, 2006; Jin, Wei, Zheng, He, Zhou, and Zhou, 2005). More so, the monsoon dynamics in China affected the harvesting period and reduced overall tea productivity by ∼0.5% (Jin et al., 2015). In southern and east China, the quality of tea deteriorated over the past few years due to rising temperatures (temperatures, and Li, 2006). Over the last few years, heat extremes where daily maximum reached up to 35 °C have increased and become more frequent in China, and have potentially quality and quantity of tea (Yan et al., 2021). Even with the focus on high temperatures on tea production, long cold periods have also increased, causing excessive tea stress (Lou, Yuming, Deng, and Zhou, 2021). Cold periods decrease tea yield, and because they during the early growing seasons, they have reduced tea production (Han, Wen-Yan, Li, and Ahammed, 2018). Long cold periods cause both structural and physiological damages to ...