Carbon footprints of rice-wheat cultivation across farm size categories: Evidence from Punjab in India

Abstract

Carbon footprint (CF) can be a powerful tool to guide sustainable food production systems. The present study quantified the CF and analyzed the variability in CF across farm categories along with share of different contributing inputs for rice and wheat production in the Punjab state. The carbon footprint of rice was found to be much higher (6.34tons CO₂eqha^-1 and 0.91tons CO2eqton^-1) than wheat (1.41 tons CO₂eqha^-1 and 0.28 tonsCO2eqton^-1). Methane emissions contributed about 60 per cent to the emissions followed by free electricity for irrigation (17.9%), N₂O (10.8%), plant protection chemicals (7.5%), diesel (6.1%) and fertilizers (3%) for rice while for wheat the major share of emissions were from N₂O(41.3%) followed by diesel fuel (28.1%), fertilizers (11.8%), electricity (10.6%) and chemicals (5.1%). Across farm categories, the share of fertilizers (in terms of on-farm (11.2%) and off emissions (3.1)) remained the maximum for marginal farmers while large farmers contributed the most to the GHG emissions (18.5%) by using free electricity. The share of on-farm emissions was higher for rice (95.5%) than for wheat (80.1%) because of cultivation of rice under flooded conditions leading to methane emissions. The major contributors to the higher off-farm wheat emissions were fertilizers especially P₂O₅, followed by the use of diesel fuel and chemicals. The study stresses the need for sustainable management of agro-inputs which will not only offset the associated GHG emissions but also will improve the soil health. In addition, awareness of climate-smart agricultural practices and access to technologies like DSR, laser leveling, and Happy seeder are key factors in determining the utilization of farm and land management practices that may simultaneously decrease these emissions and increase the adaptive capacity of farmers, and thus improve food security.