Research on the Eco-Efficiency of Rice Production and Its Improvement Path: A Case Study from China

Abstract

The eco-efficiency of rice production is an important indicator in the measurement of sustainable rice development. Scientific evaluation of the eco-efficiency of rice production facilitates accurate evaluation of the real level of rice ecosystems to realize efficient utilization of agricultural resources. This paper measured the eco-efficiency of farms growing rice using both the life cycle assessment (LCA) and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods based on survey data from 370 farms mainly growing rice conducted in 2020 in the Hubei Province, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China. Then, sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis were carried out on the comprehensive index of the rice environmental impact and eco-efficiency of rice production, respectively. The results indicate that the comprehensive index of the rice environmental impact was 2.0971. Water toxicity, soil toxicity and eutrophication were the main influencing factors. The mean value of the eco-efficiency reached 0.51. More specifically, the proportion of farms in the low-, middle- and high-efficiency groups was 87.03%, 1.89% and 11.08%, respectively, with mean values up to 0.42, 0.86 and 1.14, respectively. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the pesticide sensitivity was higher than the fertilizer sensitivity in terms of the environmental impact sensitivity of rice systems. When comprehensively considering environmental and economic benefits, the fertilizer sensitivity was higher than that of pesticides. Moreover, reducing the application of both fertilizers and pesticides by 50% could promote the eco-efficiency of rice production systems by 6%, and the value could reach 0.54. Thus, reducing the application of fertilizers and pesticides and improving the utilization efficiency are effective ways to improve green rice production.

Does Digital Agricultural Technology Extension Service Enhance Sustainable Food Production? Evidence from Maize Farmers in China

“…There is a significant difference in EE between DATES users and nonusers. The findings imply that there is still room for EE improvement for all maize farmers; the level is lower than the EE of wheat production in Japan [27], but it is higher than the EE of rice production in China [29]. The average EE of maize production in DATES users group is about 15.46% higher than that in DATES nonusers group.…”

“…Thus, DATES, as one of information and communication technologies (ICTs), has been a key driver for agricultural economics growth, food sustainable production, and the integration of agricultural digitalization and food production.Many scholars have studied EE from different perspectives. Some of them evaluated the EE of many agricultural products, i.e., wheat, cotton, soybeans, and rice[26][27][28][29], with the average EE of different agricultural products being quite different, ranging from 0.51 to 0.89; this represents different room for improvement in sustainable production of different crops, but only a few studies have explored the EE of maize production. Some studies measured EE from macro, meso, and micro perspectives[30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

Exogenous Hemin enhances the antioxidant defense system of rice by regulating the AsA-GSH cycle under NaCl stress

“…Rice ( Oryza sativa L), a gramineous crop, has a long history of cultivation and consumption in China. The consumer demand for rice in China is the highest in the world, and more than half of the population consumes rice as their major food source ( Huang et al, 2022 ; Zuo et al, 2022 ). However, salt stress has become one of the major abiotic stresses which limit rice production.…”

Assessing Eco-Efficiency with Emphasis on Carbon Emissions from Fertilizers and Plastic Film Inputs

“…From an input-output perspective, many studies assess rice eco-efficiency using data derived from micro-farmer research [16,17]. Input metrics emphasize the incorporation of production factors such as land, labor, machinery, water, fertilizers, pesticides, and other fundamental elements crucial to rice cultivation.…”