Abstract
Although hybrid maize seed production is one of the most important agriculture systems worldwide, its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potential mitigation measures have not been studied. In this study, we used life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the GHG emissions of 150 farmers run by 6 companies in an area of northwest China known for hybrid maize seed production. The results indicated that the average reactive nitrogen (Nr) losses and GHG emissions from hybrid maize seed production were 53 kg N ha−1 and 8077 kg CO2 eq ha−1, respectively. Furthermore, the average nitrogen and carbon footprints of the process were 12.2 kg N Mg−1 and 1495 kg CO2 eq Mg−1, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer and electricity consumption for irrigation were the main contributors to high GHG emissions, accounting for 60% and 30% of the total, respectively. The GHG emissions from seed production for different companies varied greatly with their resource input. There was also a large variation in environmental burdens among the 150 farmers. Based on an analysis of the yield group, we found that the carbon footprint of the first group (the one with the highest yield) was 27% lower than the overall average. Scenario analysis suggests that a combined reduction of N input rate, optimizing irrigation, and increasing yield can eventually mitigate the carbon footprint of hybrid maize seed production by 37%. An integrated systematic approach (e.g., ISSM: integrated soil-crop system management) can reduce the GHG emissions involved in producing hybrid maize seeds. This study provides quantitative evidence and a potential strategy for GHG emissions reduction of hybrid maize seed production.
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Funding
We thank the National Key R&D Program of China (NO. 2018YFD0200700), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2020C069), and the Ministry of Education, China, and the China Agriculture Research System (CARS-02–15). We also thank Chongqing Special Postdoctoral Science Foundation, for their financial support.
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DL: investigation, methodology, data analysis, writing original draft, and editing; WZ, XW, and YG: review and editing; XC: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition.
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Liu, D., Zhang, W., Wang, X. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential of hybrid maize seed production in northwestern China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 17787–17798 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16990-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16990-w