The relationship between greenhouse gas emission and rice production in Thailand

Abstract

Climate Change has been a global concern for decades. The phenomenon is mainly caused by human activities, including rice production. Although the agricultural activity can adversely emit greenhouse gas emission, it is also vital to Thai economy for a long time as well. This study has two objectives. The first objective is to examine the relationship between greenhouse gas emission and rice production in Thailand to evaluate the balance between economic and environmental aspects. The second objective is to study rice farming practices that can balance between greenhouse gas emission mitigation and rice farmers’ income. For the first objective, secondary, panel dataset from 2012 to 2017 at provincial level of Thailand is applied in Panel Data Regression Models, and Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) is also utilized to cope with potential two-way causality between rice production and emission. This study found that the variables are in N-shaped relationship, and only one-way casual effect from rice production to greenhouse gas emission is found. Additionally, while population density and final commercial energy consumption from oil are found to be positively related to greenhouse gas emission per capita, time trend shows a negative relationship with the emission. The N-shaped relationship suggests that a decrease greenhouse gas emission from rice production is only temporary as further growth will lead to higher emission. For the second objective, from systematic review, this study suggests no tillage, nitrogen fertilizers, and integrated rice-animal farming as alternative rice farming practices that can balance between economic and environmental aspects for rice production. Meanwhile, some practices such as slow-release fertilizer and biochar can generate even less greenhouse gas emission, but they are not economically profitable. Thus, the government should control their prices to make them profitable for farmers as they can generate positive externality to the environment.