Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2024, 70(3):112-124 | DOI: 10.17221/307/2023-AGRICECON

Farm size and greenhouse gas emission: Do large farms in China produce more emissions?Original Paper

Zhe Zhao1, Fan Zhang2, Yiqiong Du3, Xin Xuan4, Ying Cai5, Gui Jin6
1 School of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang, P. R. China
2 Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China
3 Institute of Loess Plateau, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, P. R. China
4 School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, P. R. China
5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P. R. China
6 School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, P. R. China

Farms are key to agricultural advancement and carbon emission reduction. Understanding the influence of farm size on emissions is vital for eco-friendly farming. Our study used an econometric model with instrumental variable adjustments to examine the effect of farm size on greenhouse gas emissions, revealing an inverted U-shaped relationship. The findings revealed that emissions increased with farm size until a peak and then decreased. We identified an optimal farm size range (0.45 km² to 0.58 km²) for lower emissions, where the farm size maintaining the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per unit area was 0.58 km², while the lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita occured at a farm size of 0.69 km². Reducing emissions intensity per unit area is easier than reducing GHG emissions per person. Policymakers should prioritise promoting the expansion to moderately sized farms as a means of achieving emission reduction targets rather than solely increasing the number of farms. Overall, these insights offer policymakers novel approaches for ecological farm planning and the transition toward a low-carbon agriculture sector.

Keywords: econometric model; agricultural area; greenhouse emission; optimum scale

Received: September 14, 2023; Revised: February 1, 2024; Accepted: March 4, 2024; Prepublished online: March 20, 2024; Published: March 26, 2024  Show citation

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Zhao Z, Zhang F, Du Y, Xuan X, Cai Y, Jin G. Farm size and greenhouse gas emission: Do large farms in China produce more emissions? Agric. Econ. - Czech. 2024;70(3):112-124. doi: 10.17221/307/2023-AGRICECON.
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