A Research Of Energy Efficiency And Influencing Factor Of Rice Production In Jianghan Plain

As it is valuable to identify the energy efficiency of rice production,and to explore its mechanism,at the household level,for better decision making for low carbon agriculture,this paper tries to give assessment on the energy efficiency of rice production in Jianghan Plain and to analyze the effect of impact factors on the energy efficiency.The content of this paper includes:(1)investigation and surveys were conducted to identify the energy consumption and its composition in the rice production in Jianghan Plain;(2)the energy efficiency was evaluated and analyzed for the surveyed households with the model being established on base of Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA);(3)the effect and mechanism of impact factors were analyzed and discussed,with the statistical models and methods.The suggestions were proposed for the policy making accordingly.The main results and conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)The average energy consumption per unit of rice production in Jianghan Plain is0.20kgce/kg,which is quite different among farmers,the lowest was 0.08kgce/kg,and the highest was 0.49kgce/kg.The energy consumption of rice production is mainly indirect energy consumption,accounting for 77.9%,especially the proportion of chemical fertilizer is the highest,with an average of 86.4%.The energy consumption of agricultural mechanical power and irrigation is about 22.1%.(2)The average energy efficiency of rice production in this area is about 0.64,indicating that energy consumption is redundant.The minimum energy demand is 1135.3kgce/hm~2and the redundancy is 742 kgce/hm~2.The redundancy of energy input is mainly related to technical efficiency and allocation efficiency.The technical efficiency is 0.73 on average,and the technical efficiency loss causes 503.5 kgce/hm~2 of energy redundancy.Due to the preferences of farmers,the energy allocation is 238.5 kgce/hm~2 redundant.(3)The difference of energy efficiency among farmers is obvious.The main reason for this difference is related to the quality of labor,farmers and market economy,as well as farmers'environmental awareness.The environmental awareness of farmers in Jianghan Plain is generally low,which leads to low technical efficiency and low energy efficiency,and the greater the age of the farmers,the more redundant the allocation of allocation can be produced,thus reducing energy efficiency.Other factors,including the ratio of agricultural income to total household income,the ratio of mechanical capital to total capital,and the ratio of pesticide capital to total capital have a significant impact on energy efficiency.(4)According to the zero growth requirement of chemical fertilizers and pesticides,the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for major crops will increase to zero by 2020,and the utilization ratio of chemical fertilizers will increase to over 40%.Therefore,the reduction of energy consumption per unit area is 164.2kgce/hm~2,and the average energy efficiency of farmers can be increased by 0.05.But there are differences in the ability of households to save energy.For farmers with higher efficiency,promoting new technologies such as energy-saving and emission-reduction to improve technical levels and fertilizer utilization.For farmers with low efficiency and redundant configurations,they should improve the allocation of agricultural inputs and guide configuration preferences to increase fertilizer utilization.