Articles
AN ANALYSIS OF CARBON FOOTPRINT OF VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN JIANGSU, CHINA
Article number
958_24
Pages
203 – 210
Language
English
Abstract
The agricultural sector contributes significantly to global carbon emissions from diverse sources such as product and machinery manufacturing, transport of materials and direct and indirect soil greenhouse gas emissions.
In this article, we use farm survey data from the Jiangsu Province, China, combined with published estimates of emissions for individual farm operations in a whole life cycle analysis to quantify the relative contribution of a range of farming operations and determine the carbon footprint of different canopy vegetables (tomato, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, water spinach and amaranth). Over 30 vegetable farms of different vegetable crops at very different scale were randomly selected and surveyed by questionnaire visits to farmers who manage or operate the vegetable farms.
For carbon footprint calculations, emission factors from the literature were used as default values for the vegetable production except for the factor of N fertilizer, which causes, in particular, high emissions in its manufacturing.
Statistical analysis was done with ANOVA using software EXCEL 2003 and JMP. The results show that the estimated mean carbon footprint in kg CE ha-1 for different greenhouse vegetables is 1645.2±99.9 for tomato, 1287.0±582.5 for Chinese cabbage, 1272.9±642.6 for cucumber, 1058.3±835.5 for water spinach, and 1546.0±865.7 for amaranth respectively.
Following a similar trend, the estimated mean carbon footprint in kg CE per ton of product is 45.9±26.4 for tomato, 135.4±74.9 for Chinese cabbage, 43.4±37.3 for cucumber, 13.9±11.3 for water spinach and 105.2±68.1 for amaranth respectively.
Of the total carbon footprint, 78% on average resulted from fertilizer use (59% allocated to inorganic nitrogen fertilizer). Thus, proper management of nutrients and rational fertilization for vegetable production may offer great opportunity both for enhancing economical efficiency and for mitigating climate change in vegetable production.
In this article, we use farm survey data from the Jiangsu Province, China, combined with published estimates of emissions for individual farm operations in a whole life cycle analysis to quantify the relative contribution of a range of farming operations and determine the carbon footprint of different canopy vegetables (tomato, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, water spinach and amaranth). Over 30 vegetable farms of different vegetable crops at very different scale were randomly selected and surveyed by questionnaire visits to farmers who manage or operate the vegetable farms.
For carbon footprint calculations, emission factors from the literature were used as default values for the vegetable production except for the factor of N fertilizer, which causes, in particular, high emissions in its manufacturing.
Statistical analysis was done with ANOVA using software EXCEL 2003 and JMP. The results show that the estimated mean carbon footprint in kg CE ha-1 for different greenhouse vegetables is 1645.2±99.9 for tomato, 1287.0±582.5 for Chinese cabbage, 1272.9±642.6 for cucumber, 1058.3±835.5 for water spinach, and 1546.0±865.7 for amaranth respectively.
Following a similar trend, the estimated mean carbon footprint in kg CE per ton of product is 45.9±26.4 for tomato, 135.4±74.9 for Chinese cabbage, 43.4±37.3 for cucumber, 13.9±11.3 for water spinach and 105.2±68.1 for amaranth respectively.
Of the total carbon footprint, 78% on average resulted from fertilizer use (59% allocated to inorganic nitrogen fertilizer). Thus, proper management of nutrients and rational fertilization for vegetable production may offer great opportunity both for enhancing economical efficiency and for mitigating climate change in vegetable production.
Authors
M. Yan, G.X. Pan, L. Chen
Keywords
vegetable production, carbon footprint, greenhouse gas, mitigation, N-fertilizer
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