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

Malan Huang, Linlin Zeng, Chujie Liu, Xiaoyun Li and Hongling Wang
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Malan Huang: School of Business, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Linlin Zeng: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Chujie Liu: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Xiaoyun Li: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Hongling Wang: School of Business, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 14, 1-20

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.

Keywords: rice; eco-efficiency; life cycle assessment (LCA); sensitivity analysis; green production; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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