Combined Application of a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm and Life Cycle Assessment for Evaluating Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices in Japanese Rice Farms

Kiyotaka Masuda ()
Additional contact information
Kiyotaka Masuda: Faculty of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, Hikone 522-8533, Japan

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-22

Abstract: When organic practices may have negative environmental effects, understanding the trade-offs between the economic and environmental outcomes of organic agriculture is essential in its promotion. This paper examines whether organic rice was planted in Japanese rice farms using the combined application of a multi-objective genetic algorithm and life cycle assessment. A modeled farm with 30 hectares (ha) of paddy fields is constructed using information from an agricultural management handbook. The planted crops considered are environmentally friendly rice with reduced use of chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, organic rice, conventional wheat, and conventional soybeans. A bio-economic farm model with both economic and environmental objectives is created. The Pareto-optimal solutions indicate that the planted area of organic rice is 2.3 ha, at best, in the modeled farm. The cultivation of organic rice is likely to be constrained compared with that of environmentally friendly rice, and even though it produces an increase in income, it does not necessarily exert positive effects on the environment. The findings suggest that when organic farming has negative impacts, countermeasures against problems that emerge through its practice should be included in the essential requirements for subsidization.

Keywords: bio-economic farm model; multi-objective optimization; organic rice; direct payment subsidy; manure application (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/10059/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/13/10059/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:13:p:10059-:d:1179043

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().