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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2016, Vol. 15 Issue (10): 2426-2436    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(16)61375-8
Soil & Fertilization﹒Irrigation﹒Plant Nutrition﹒ Agro-Ecology & Environment Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Emergy analysis of paddy farming in Hunan Province, China: A new perspective on sustainable development of agriculture
YI Ting1, 2, XIANG Ping-an2, 3
1 Biological Science and Technology College, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, P.R.China
2 Key Laboratory of Rural Ecosystem Health in Dongting Lake Area of Hunan Province, Changsha 410128, P.R.China
3 Business College of Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, P.R.China
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Abstract      The multi-functionality of paddy farming has become a hot issue recently. Paddy farming provides numerous ecosystem services that are crucial to human well-being. However, evaluation of the contribution of paddy farming to human well-being usually focus on its economic value, while its non-market services are usually ignored. Only evaluating the market profits or market relative benefits cannot reflect comprehensively the contribution of paddy farming to people’s well-being. This will affect people’s choices for or against paddy farming activities and people’s opt for invest or not invest in it. A comprehensive evaluation of paddy farming can provide an important reference for the government and society to conserve the multi-functionality of paddy farming and achieve sustainable development. To this end, this paper reports a case evaluation of paddy farming in Hunan, the largest rice producing as well as rice yield province in China, and uses emergy theory to make a comprehensive evaluation for paddy farming. The emergy evaluation results of the paddy ecosystem in Hunan are as follows: in 2010, the input emergy of the paddy ecosystem in Hunan is 2.51E+22 sej and the output emergy is 6.31E+22 sej. For the input emergy, the part from natural resources is 1.96E+21 sej and the part from human society is 2.32E+22 sej; for the output emergy, the part from products is 2.22E+22 sej, the part from impositive externality is 4.16E+22 sej and the part from negative externality is –7.41E+20 sej. Taking the non-market outputs into consideration, the gains from the human economic society’s 1 $ input in paddy farming, emergy sustainability index (ESI) and emergy profit rate are respectively 2.73 $, 3.53 and 151.31%. If the evaluation leave out the non-market output, the three indexes are only 0.96 $, 1.24 and 30.67%. The research results show that non-market services of paddy farming contribute significantly to human well-being. Therefore, in order to protect the multi-functionality of paddy farming and achieve the sustainable management, the government should take reasonable measures and make incentive plans.
Keywords:  paddy farming        emergy analysis        ecosystem services        Hunan Province  
Received: 04 November 2015   Accepted:
Fund: 

The project is supported by the National Social Science Fundation of China (11BJY028).

Corresponding Authors:  XIANG Ping-an, Tel: +86-731- 84635091, E-mail: xiangpa@hunau.edu.cn   
About author:  YI Ting, E-mail: zydexingzou@sina.com

Cite this article: 

YI Ting, XIANG Ping-an. 2016. Emergy analysis of paddy farming in Hunan Province, China: A new perspective on sustainable development of agriculture. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 15(10): 2426-2436.

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