Abstract
The environmental consequences of crop production are analyzed, including those manifested in the form of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sources such as chemical and organic fertilizers applied to arable land, soil cultivation processes, rice fields, plant residues, and burning of crop residues. The quantitative indicators of GHG emissions for 1992 and 2017 of six countries with developed agriculture and vast territories—Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia, and the United States—are compared. The results of calculations carried out using the database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO UN) show that all these countries have to a degree reduced GHG emissions per unit of production over 25 years. The largest reduction from 1992 to 2017 was achieved by Russia (49%), and the smallest, by Canada (8%). In 2017, in Australia, Brazil, Russia, and the United States, GHG emissions per unit of crop production amounted to 0.06–0.07 t of CO2 equivalent per Mcal, while in Canada and China, it was 0.09–0.10 t of CO2-equivalent per Mcal. The results of a comparative study show that Russia is able to implement a competitive advantage in the world agri-food markets, since it is currently a leading exporter of grain and oilseeds.
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Notes
Thus, we take into account emissions from burning stubble (crop residues), since this is related to the peculiarities of technologies and is practiced in all focus countries, albeit on different scales.
On the basis of the FAO database (the section on greenhouse gas emissions in the land use change sector), it is not possible to separate data on deforestation for forestry from deforestation for food purposes. Analysis of this part of the database showed a very significant scatter in the estimates of GHG emissions from croplands across the focus countries, which cast doubt on the correctness of such estimates. Therefore, for the purposes of this study, the author took into account the GHG emission only in crop production, since the published indicators are more comparable with the output in this agricultural sector and reflect the modern consequences of agriculture intensification. Since the Paris Agreement on Climate [2] implies an increase in countries’ commitments to reduce GHG emissions in all sectors of the economy, we hope that the quality of information in open databases, including the UN FAO, will also improve.
Unfortunately, source [12] does not allow differentiating the amount of calories spent in different countries to produce the same crop; therefore, we have to assume that this content is approximately the same everywhere.
This indicator was calculated by the author by multiplying the indicator of gross product yields, expressed in a ton of a particular crop harvested, by the corresponding Mcal coefficient [12]. The resulting energy equivalent of the crop harvested was divided by the corresponding harvested area for the selected crops.
Low grain yields in Australia and Russia are due in part to the peculiarities of the climate and the insignificant number of fertilizers used. In contrast to these countries, the United States is distinguished by the wide presence of high-yielding corn in the crop structure; it is due to it that the yield is so high here, 28 000 Mcal/ha, according to our method. If we studied only wheat, the picture would be different: in 2017, the wheat yield in Russia and the United States was at the level of 3 t/ha, or 10 000 Mcal/ha; that is, the indicators of Australia, Russia, and the United States for this crop are quite comparable.
The calculation results are only for the crops indicated in Table 2.
The main difference between the indicator calculated according to our method and the indicator of planted areas calculated by Rosstat is that we do not take into account the area of forage crops (perennial and annual grasses), which in 2017 amounted to almost 17 mln hectares (in 1992, 42 mln hectares). The plantings of these crops are not included in the analysis because there are no comparable FAO data for the focus countries.
A rather detailed analysis of the comparison of extensive and intensive factors affecting crop production from 1970 through 2005 in different countries was carried out in [13].
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This article was supported by a State Assignment the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration.
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Translated by B. Alekseev
Anton Sergeevich Strokov, Cand. Sci. (Econ.), is a Leading Researcher at the Center for Agricultural and Food Policy of the Institute of Applied Economic Research under the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration (IAER RANEPA).
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Strokov, A.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Crop Production. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 91, 197–203 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331621020088
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331621020088