Evaluation of GHG Mitigation Measures in Rice Cropping and Effects of Farmer’s Characteristics: Evidence from Hubei, China

Qingmeng Tong,Junbiao Zhang,Lu Zhang

doi:10.3390/su9061066

Qingmeng Tong, Junbiao Zhang + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9061066

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Abstract

Greenhouse Gas emissions from agricultural activities, such as rice cropping, have been proven to be an important cause of climate change, with constant barriers and constraints in the implementation and promotion of mitigation measures among farmers in China. However, there has been a lack of research focusing on specific mitigation measures and their characteristics. In this paper, we applied the expert assessment and best-worst scaling method to evaluate mitigation measures in rice cropping from the perspectives of effectiveness and applicability. The results showed that no mitigation measure in rice cropping was best from both an effectiveness and applicability viewpoint. However, the study found that “reducing the use of chemical fertilizers” was the most effective one, while “applying soil testing and formulated fertilization” was the most applicable one. Additionally, the older farmers spending more time on non-agricultural jobs and farming more plots of land were more likely to believe that mitigation measures related to the management of input elements would be more applicable compared to soil and water management or some types of new science and technology. Finally, we suggested that the agricultural extension agencies should popularize input elements management such as improvement of fertilizer or seeds among older farmers, and meanwhile promote soil cultivation management and new technologies for agriculture in areas where the land is more concentrated such as plains.

Highlights

As climate change has had a severe impact on society and economy worldwide, taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while maintaining a growing economy, has become a common goal for countries all around the world [1]
They concluded that applying soil testing and formulated fertilization (STFF) could reduce the GHG emissions by minimizing the total amount of fertilizers used and improving fertilizer efficiency [11,12]
The rankings of mitigation measures (MMs) based on the Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) Standard Score are shown

Summary

Introduction

As climate change has had a severe impact on society and economy worldwide, taking measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while maintaining a growing economy, has become a common goal for countries all around the world [1]. Many recent studies have shown that adopting appropriate mitigation measures (MMs) would remarkably contribute to the abatement of GHG emissions in rice cropping [8,9,10] They concluded that applying soil testing and formulated fertilization (STFF) could reduce the GHG emissions by minimizing the total amount of fertilizers used and improving fertilizer efficiency [11,12]. Appropriate water management would mitigate the methane emissions from rice paddies [8], while conservation tillage would help to retain the organic carbon in soil and strengthen the capability of carbon sequestration [9] All these studies suggested that it might be an achievable objective to reduce the carbon emissions from rice cropping

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Results

Conclusion