Integrating economic and environmental impact analysis: The case of rice-based farming in northern Thailand

Abstract

Crop production is associated with a range of potential environmental impacts, including field emissions of greenhouse gases, loss of nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients to water and toxicity effects on humans and natural ecosystems. Farmers can mitigate these environmental impacts by changing their farming systems; however these changes have implications for production and profitability. To address these trade-offs, a farm-level model was constructed to capture the elements of a rice-based production system in northern Thailand. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to generate environmental impacts, across a range of indicators, for all crops and associated production processes in the model. A baseline, profit maximising combination of crops and resource use was generated and compared with a greenhouse gas minimising scenario and an alternative inputs (fertilisers and insecticides) scenario. Greenhouse gas minimisation showed a reduction in global warming potential of 13%; other impact indicators also decreased. Associated profit foregone was 10% as measured by total gross margin. With the alternative farm inputs (ammonium sulphate, organic fertiliser and fipronil insecticide), results indicated that acidification, eutrophication, freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity impacts were reduced by 43, 37, 47 and 91% respectively with relatively small effects on profit.

Promoting the Adoption of Agricultural Green Production Technologies for Sustainable Farming: A Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis

“…Agricultural production activities have become a threat to the environment as they are seen as determinants of climate change. The growing increase in the usage of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer application, diesel-powered heavy-duty implements, and others has potentially adverse impacts on the environment [5,6]. As a result, stakeholders are concerned about environmental issues of agricultural production.…”

Assessing the Impact of Farming Method in Off-Season Period on the Productivity of Shallot (Allium cepa L.): The Case of Low-Organic Sandy-Clay Soil

“…The first is decreasing water availability for plants in the dry season. It is necessary to replace cultivated plant types to mitigate an environmental impact to ensure optimum profit (Ramsden et al, 2017). Secondly, the success probability of shallot production in the dry season is relatively much higher than when planting in the rainy season (DAR et al, 2020).…”