Assessing agricultural greenhouse gas emission mitigation by scaling up farm size: An empirical analysis based on rural household survey data

Jiangqiang Chen; Saige Wang; Honglin Zhong; Bin Chen; Dan Fang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173077

Assessing agricultural greenhouse gas emission mitigation by scaling up farm size: An empirical analysis based on rural household survey data

Sci Total Environ. 2024 May 10:933:173077. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173077. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jiangqiang Chen¹, Saige Wang², Honglin Zhong³, Bin Chen⁴, Dan Fang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangdong 510220, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: wsgbnu@163.com.
³ Institute of Blue and Green Development, Weihai Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China; Academy of Plateau Science and Sustainability, Qinghai Normal University, Xining 810016, China.
⁴ School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangdong 510220, China; State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: chenb@bnu.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.

PMID: 38735310
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173077

Abstract

Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Farm size affects agricultural production inputs and thus has impacts on agricultural GHG emissions. However, the effects and mechanisms behind this are still unclear. In this paper, we identified the effects and mechanisms of farm size on agricultural GHG emissions, based on survey data about over 20,000 rural households in China from 2009 to 2016. Firstly, we calculated the agricultural CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O emissions using the life-cycle analysis (LCA). Secondly, the impacts of farm size on GHG emissions intensity were explored with a fixed effect model, based on the long-term rural household survey data. Finally, the mechanisms were tested by the mediation effect model. The results showed that a 1 % increase in farm size, on average, could reduce the GHG emissions intensity of rural households by 0.245 % from 2009 to 2016. The mechanism analysis showed that the larger farm size reduced GHG emissions intensity mainly by reducing the non-fixed input intensity and raising fixed input investment. By identifying the impacts and mechanisms of farm size on agricultural GHG emissions, this paper aims to provide insights for policymakers to achieve China's goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.

Keywords: Farm size; Greenhouse gas emissions; Meditation effect; Rural household.