Carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of different rice-based cropping systems using LCA

authored by: Mohammad Mofizur Rahman Jahangir, Eduardo Aguilera, Jannatul Ferdous, Farah Mahjabin, Abdullah Al Asif, Moutakin Hossan, Hassan Ahmad, Maximilian Bauer, Alberto Sanz Cobeña, Christoph Müller, Mohammad Zaman
Abstract: There are many cropping systems on floodplain soils, but greenhouse gas (GHG) emission balances of these agricultural systems are rarely reported. Carbon (C) footprints of agricultural products were assessed using a co-designed life cycle assessment tool in major cropping systems in Bangladesh: rice-rice-rice (R-R-R/boro-aus-aman), rice-fallow-rice (R-F-R/boro-fallow-aman), maize-fallow-rice (M-F-R), wheat-mungbean-rice (W-Mu-R), and potato-rice-fallow (P-R-F) along with the field measurement of some of the systems. The rice system with dryland crops had higher nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions (3.8 in maize, 4.5 in potato and 0.92 kg N₂O–N ha⁻¹ in mungbean) than sole rice (0.73 in boro, 0.57 in aus and 1.94 kg N₂O–N ha⁻¹ in aman) systems but methane (CH₄) emissions exhibited the opposite. Methane dominated, accounting for 50–80% of total emissions in rice systems. The boro rice-based systems (R-R-R and R-F-R) had the highest C footprint (ca. 25.8 and 19.2 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹) while the P-F-R (12.3 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹) and M-F-R (12.6 Mg CO₂e ha⁻¹) had the lowest C footprint. Boro and aus were more suitable to reduce C footprint. Measured CH₄ and N₂O data agreed well with the IPCC Tier 1 estimates but further study on GHG measurements in other agroecosystems and cropping systems are required to validate the estimation for adopting suitable GHG mitigation strategies.
Organisation(s): Institute of Organic Chemistry
External Organisation(s): Bangladesh Agricultural University
Justus Liebig University Giessen
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food & Agriculture
University College Dublin
Type: Article
Journal: Scientific reports
Volume: 15
No. of pages: 14
ISSN: 2045-2322
Publication date: 25.03.2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 - Climate Action
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90157-2 (Access: Open)