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Difference in carbon footprint between single- and double-cropping rice production in China, 2003–2016

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 27308–27317 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions account for 14% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities, and the carbon footprint (CF) of agricultural production, which can help to propose positive measures to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is a general method for assessing the impact of agricultural practices on the external environment. This article calculated the carbon footprint (CF) of rice production and compared the differences between the double-and single-cropping rice regions, which is rarely mentioned in previous literature. Some interesting information was shown. For example, the internal structure of rice production carbon footprint (CF) is prominent. (a) In terms of time evolution, CF of agricultural materials showed an increasing trend year by year, while CF of rice planting remained basically stable. (b) In terms of regional differences, whether single-cropping rice regions or double-cropping rice regions, CF of agricultural materials did not show the previous increasing trend after 2011, especially after 2015. This may be greatly affected by the policy such as the abolishing of the China agricultural tax in 2006. These studies can help us to reveal how agricultural policies and different rice cropping patterns affect each region.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

Abbreviations

GHG:

greenhouse gas

CF:

carbon footprint

UCF:

unit carbon footprint

AM:

agricultural materials

RP:

rice planting

SCF:

carbon footprint in single-cropping rice regions

DCF:

carbon footprint in double-cropping rice regions

SUCF:

unit carbon footprint in single-cropping rice regions

DUCF:

unit carbon footprint in double-cropping rice regions

IRS:

increasing returns to scale

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Timothy Kyng and Professor Fei Guo at Macquarie University for their thoughtful guidance.

Funding

This paper is the stage research result of the National Social Science Fund of China (NO: 20BJY057).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Economy of Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China

    Lu Zhang

  2. School of Economics, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China

    Xiaocang Xu

Authors
  1. Lu Zhang
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  2. Xiaocang Xu
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Contributions

Conceptualization, X.X.; methodology, L.Z; software, X.X.; formal analysis, L.Z.; investigation, L.Z.; data curation, L.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, L.Z; writing—review and editing, X.X.; visualization, X.X.; project administration, X.X. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaocang Xu.

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Zhang, L., Xu, X. Difference in carbon footprint between single- and double-cropping rice production in China, 2003–2016. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 27308–27317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12543-3

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Keywords

  • Rice production
  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
  • Carbon footprint (CF)
  • Single-cropping rice
  • Double-cropping rice
  • Agricultural materials