Abstract
China's sustained air quality improvement is hindered by unregulated ammonia (NH(3)) emissions from inefficient nitrogen management in smallholder farming. Although the Chinese government is promoting a policy shift to large-scale farming, the benefits of this, when integrated with nitrogen management, remain unclear. Here we fill this gap using an integrated assessment, by combining geostatistical analysis, high-resolution emission inventories, farm surveys and air quality modeling. Smallholder-dominated farming allows only 13%-31% NH(3) reduction, leading to limited PM(2.5) decreases nationally due to non-linear PM(2.5) chemistry. Conversely, large-scale farming would double nitrogen management adoption rates, increasing NH(3) reduction potential to 48%-58% and decreasing PM(2.5) by 9.4-14.0 μg·m(-3) in polluted regions. The estimated PM(2.5) reduction is conservative due to localized NH(3)-rich conditions under large-scale livestock farming. This strategy could prevent over 300 000 premature deaths and achieve a net benefit of US $68.4-86.8 billion annually, unlocking immense benefits for air quality and agricultural sustainability.