Accepted Manuscript

Environmental life cycle assessment of long-term organic rice production in

subtropical China

Xueqing He, Yuhui Qiao, Long Liang, Marie Trydeman Knudsen, Friederike Martin

PII: S0959-6526(17)32975-X
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.045
Reference: JCLP 11440

To appear in: Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date: 5 March 2017

Revised Date: 15 November 2017
Accepted Date: 6 December 2017

Please cite this article as: He X, Qiao Y, Liang L, Knudsen MT, Martin F, Environmental life cycle
assessment of long-term organic rice production in subtropical China, Journal of Cleaner Production
(2018), doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.045.

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1 Resultant wordcount: 7066

2 Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of long-term organic rice production in

3 Subtropical China

4 Xueqing Hea, Yuhui Qiaoa,1 Long Lianga, Marie Trydeman Knudsenb, Friederike Martina

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a
5 Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and
6 Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.

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b
7 Dept. of Agroecology, Aarhus University, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark

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8 Abstract: Organic farming is considered as a promising solution for reducing the environmental
9 burden related to agricultural practices. China is one of the top-five countries with the largest
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organic area in the world and produces a major part of the world’s organic rice. Rice cultivation
causes a considerable environmental impact and changing from conventional to organic rice
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12 cultivation might therefore have a potentially great impact. Meanwhile, it takes time for the
13 organic farming systems to reach a new steady state after conversion to organic. Thus, the
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14 environmental profile of the organic products will change over time and it is therefore important
15 to examine whether the difference to conventional will be reduced (and disappear) or be increased
16 over time. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess the environmental impact of
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17 organic rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years since conversion and compare it
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18 to conventional rice (CR) in subtropical China. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used
19 to assess environmental impact of rice production systems with regard to nine environmental
20 impact categories: Non-renewable Energy Depletion (NED), Water Depletion (WD), Land
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21 Occupation (LO), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication
22 Potential (EP), Aquatic Toxicity Potential (ATP), Human Toxicity Potential (HTP) and Soil
23 Toxicity Potential (STP). Overall, the results show that the conventional rice production system
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24 had the highest comprehensive environmental impact indices (9.65), more than 10 times that of
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25 the organic ones. Interestingly, the results showed that the environmental impact indices in the
26 organic rice systems decreased over time from 0.80 (OR5), 0.72 (OR10) to 0.68 (OR15), and thus
27 increased the difference to conventional over the years. The conventional rice had higher impacts

1. Corresponding author. Beijing Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Organic Farming, College of Resources and
Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China. Tel.: + 86 10 62731166;

Email address: qiaoyh@cau.edu.cn

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28 from NED, WD, AP, EP, ATP, and HTP, while organic rice had higher LO, GWP and STP indices.
29 The largest environmental index was ATP for conventional and WD for organic rice. Based on this
30 study, organic rice systems have the potential of being recommended as sustainable agricultural
31 practices in comparison with conventional practices. Furthermore, the present study indicated that
32 the difference in the environmental profile of organic versus conventional agricultural products
33 might be underestimated when analyzing organic system that has not yet reached their steady
34 state.

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35 Keywords: Sustainability; Organic rice; Life Cycle Assessment; operation period; Potential

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36 environmental impact; Conventional rice

37 1. Introduction

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38 Agricultural activities cause considerable environmental impact (Campbell et al., 2017;
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Rockström et al., 2009). Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the second most cultivated staple crop
worldwide (SOSBAI, 2014), and 9-11% of agricultural GHG emissions come from paddy rice
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41 cultivation system, about 0.52 Gt CO2eq/yr mainly due to methane emissions (IPCC, 2013). In
42 addition, the extensive application of pesticides and herbicides results in biodiversity decrease and
43 risks for human health (Rockström et al., 2009; Capri and Karpouzas, 2007). In order to reduce the
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44 negative environmental impact, mitigation strategies must be applied.

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45 Organic farming is considered a promising solution for reducing the environmental burdens
46 related to agricultural production (European Commission, 2017; Nemecek et al., 2011). Manure
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47 and other farm waste are used to improve soil nutrients instead of synthetic fertilizers. Biological
48 control, rotation, intercropping and other practices are applied as a substitute for chemical
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49 pesticides (Luttikholt, 2007). Changing from conventional to organic farming might have fewer
50 negative environmental impacts because of the avoidance of synthetic fertilizer and chemical
51 pesticides (Batáry et al., 2012; Meng et al., 2017). However, organic farming usually has lower
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52 yields compared to conventional farming, from 5% to 34% depending on system and site
53 characteristics (de Ponti et al., 2012; Seufert et al., 2012a). It is hard to conclude that organic
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54 farming system is better than conventional farming system without a comprehensive evaluation
55 regarding productivity and environmental impact.

56 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is rapidly increasing in agricultural and industrial food products,
57 coupled with other approaches, could provide much more reliable and comprehensive information
58 to environmentally conscious policy makers, producers, and consumers in selecting sustainable
59 products and production processes (Roy et al., 2009). By using LCA, it is possible to analyze the
60 potential environmental impacts of products (processes or services) throughout their whole life
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61 cycle (ISO, 2006a). The LCA methodology has been used to assess the environmental
62 performance of organic versus conventional agricultural products (Nemecek et al., 2011; Knudsen
63 et al., 2014; Knudsen et al., 2011). Tuomisto et al. (2012) pointed out that organic farming
64 practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily
65 per product unit. Later on, Meier et al. (2015) found that the environmental impacts of organic and
66 conventional agricultural products are the same per mass unit, but lower per area unit with
67 variability in a review of LCA studies. Bacenetti et al. (2016) found out that the overall effect of

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68 yield variation on the environmental impacts is significant considering the mass-based selected
69 function unit in a rice LCA study. Furthermore, some environment categories of organic

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70 production system such as Global Warming Potential and Land Occupation might have higher
71 negative impact than conventional production systems (Seufert and Ramankutty, 2017). In

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72 addition, not all important impact categories, such as toxicity, have been included in previous
73 studies (Bacenetti et al., 2016).

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75
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Environmental profile of the organic rice depends on the production methods, the site conditions
(such as soil carbon, weeds, pests and other organisms) and the yields. The two latter in
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76 particularly may change over time as the organic cropping system adjusts towards a new steady
77 state, which might alter the environmental profile of the organic rice. Long-term application of
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78 different cultivation methods will gradually affect the agricultural systems and change, e.g., soil
79 properties (such as the level of P, K and soil organic carbon) and the level of biodiversity (such as
80 the level of natural enemies, weeds, pest, diseases and associated biodiversity) (Smith et al., 2011;
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81 Mäder et al., 2002). In this process, the yields might also change. However, it takes time for the
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82 organic farming system to reach a new steady state from the initiation of organic practices
83 (MacRae et al., 1990; Hokazono and Hayashi, 2012). Thus, the environmental profile of the
84 organic products may change over time and it is therefore important to evaluate the environmental
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85 impact of the organic systems over a period of time and compare this to a conventional production
86 system.
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87 Few LCA studies have been conducted on rice production, and those that exist have mainly
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88 focused on conventional rice (Harada et al., 2007; Maruyama et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2010). The
89 few LCA studies on organic rice have been conducted in Italy, Japan and Korea (Bacenetti et al.,
90 2016; Hokazono et al., 2009; Hokazono and Hayashi, 2012, 2015; Lim et al., 2010; Romani and
91 Beltarre, 2007). There has been no LCA study on organic rice in China, which had 0.18 million
92 hectares of organic rice in 2014 and comprised more than half of the organic rice area of the world
93 (CNCA, 2016; Willer and Lernoud, 2017). Furthermore, hotspots were not clearly identified with
94 all the various environmental categories of different production systems. Only the Italian study
95 included toxicity as an environmental impact category (Bacenetti et al., 2016). This is an
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96 important category since use of pesticides is one of the main differences between organic and
97 conventional systems. From the present studies, none has evaluated the systems over time to
98 determine whether the environmental impact of organic rice is reduced, remains constant or
99 increases over time, compared to conventional rice production. The aim of the present study was
100 therefore to assess the environmental impacts and identify the hotspots of organic rice production
101 for 5, 10 and 15 years and compare it to conventional rice in a subtropical area of south China
102 with LCA methodology.

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103 The following four rice production systems of different organic operation periods were selected

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104 for the study: conventional rice (CR); organic rice with 5 years of organic operation, converted in
105 year 2010 (OR5); organic rice with 10 years of organic operation, converted in year 2005 (OR10);

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106 and organic rice with 15 years of organic operation, converted in year 2000 (OR15). The study
107 objectives were (i) to evaluate the environmental impact of organic and conventional rice
108 production systems in a subtropical area of south China; (ii) to analyze the environmental impact
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110
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of organic rice production over a period of time; (iii) to identify the environmental hotspots of the
rice production.
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111 2. Materials and Methods
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112 2.1 Case study area

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113 Rice cultivation is mainly located in the tropical and subtropical area of southern China, such as in
114 the Jiangxi Province with 3.3 million hectares, accounting for 11% of the total rice production area
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115 in China (NBS, 2014). The case study was conducted in Wanzai County (28º 12' N, 114º 43' E)
116 Jiangxi Province. Organic agriculture was introduced in the year 2000 in Wanzai County and by
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117 2015, 5,933 ha of organic cultivated farmland was certified with rice, soybean, ginger, and 38
118 other of certified crops, accounting for more than 18% of the total farmland area of Wanzai
119 County (Dai, 2016). Wanzai County has a subtropical monsoon climate with an average annual
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120 precipitation of 1600-1800 mm, average temperature 17.3°C, frost-free period of 255 days and
121 1664 sunshine hours. The forest coverage rate is 65% in Wanzai County.
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122 2.2 The organic (OR5, OR10 and OR15) and conventional (CR) rice production systems

123 The organic rice production (OR5, OR10, and OR15) have been practiced for 5, 10 and 15 years
124 from the start of organic conversion in Wanzai County. The farmers need to comply with the
125 China Organic Agricultural Product Standard (GB/T 19630-2011) that does not allow agricultural
126 chemicals such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, with the exception of certain permitted
127 chemicals including bio-pesticides and lime sulfur. Bio-pesticides such as matrine and
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128 insect-trapping lamp were used for pest and disease control in the study area. For the weed control,
129 manual tending is widely practiced by organic rice farmers in Wanzai County. The conventional
130 production system (CR) relies on agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.
131 In all four farming systems, rice straw is plowed into fields after the harvest. The data of organic
132 and conventional rice management practices were collected by questionnaires interviewing 98
133 farmers in August 2015. Table 1 presents the input data and the yields of the four systems.

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134 2.3 Life cycle assessment methodology

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135 The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology at farm gate was used in the present study. The
136 principles of LCA are described in the ISO standards 14040 and 14044 (ISO, 2006a and b), which
137 define four phases: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and

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138 interpretation. The main decisions made during these four phases are briefly described in the
139 following sections.

140 2.3.1. Goal and scope definition U

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141 The framework of this study was designed in the goal and scope definition of the LCA,
142 encompassing the functional units and system boundaries. The study focused on the rice
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143 cultivation. The system boundaries of the LCA extended from mineral and fossil fuel extraction to
144 rice, excluding the stages of distribution, retailing, home consumption and waste management.
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145 The organic and conventional rice production systems were divided into two parts in this study:
146 production and transportation of agricultural material (agro-input) subsystem and farming
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147 subsystem (Figure 1). The functional unit for the analysis was one metric ton dry matter of rice.

148 2.3.2. Life cycle inventory analysis

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149 An inventory of production data, emissions, and resources used was compiled for the entire life
150 cycle. Data on fossil energy used for fertilizer and pesticide production were calculated from the
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151 consumption of primary energy factors in China (Liang, 2009). The information on emissions,
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152 such as CO, CO2, NOx, SO2, CH4, and N2O originate from the energy consumed during
153 agricultural material production (Liang, 2009). The energy consumption and pollutant emissions
154 data of organic fertilizer is based on Ji et al. (2012). Paddy nitrogen loss data, CH4, CO2 emissions
155 data were calculated using the DNDC9.5 model simulation (EOS, 2012). Phosphorus loss was
156 calculated as 0.8% of inputs from chemical/ organic phosphorus sources (Lu et al., 2014; Ji et al.,
157 2006).

158 In conventional rice production, airborne pesticide residues were determined using a standard
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159 residue rate of 10% per unit weight of pesticides, 1% to freshwater, and 43% to the soil (Van et al.,
160 2004). In organic rice production, different agricultural methods are used to control pests, such as
161 hormone traps, color plate traps, and so on. Sometimes farmers also use small amounts of
162 bio-pesticides instead of chemical pesticides. The toxicity of bio-pesticides was not considered in
163 our analysis as farmers usually apply a few bio-pesticides that easily decomposes in the
164 environment with little toxicity for human beings (He, et al., 2016).

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165 Residues of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb) were considered in terms of inputs of agricultural
166 materials in the farming subsystem. Heavy metal residues mainly came from organic manure and

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167 fertilizers. Heavy metal content in the organic manure and fertilizers were estimated according to
168 Chen et al. (2009), Kong et al. (2006), Liu et al. (2005), Peng et al. (2010), Xing et al. (1999) and
169 Zhai. (2012). Results of life cycle inventory were shown in Appendix.

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170 2.3.3. Life cycle impact assessment

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The Life Cycle Impact Assessment aims to categorize emissions and resource inputs for
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172 interpretation. The assessment involves three steps: characterization, normalization, and weighting.
173 The following environmental impacts were considered: non-renewable energy depletion (NED),
174 water depletion (WD), land occupation (LO), global warming potential (GWP), acidification
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175 potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), aquatic toxicity potential (ATP), human toxicity
176 potential (HTP), and soil toxicity potential (STP). In this study, only the residues of heavy metal
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177 and pesticide had been considered to be the sources of toxicity impacts, residues of heavy metal
178 and pesticide for STP, and residues of pesticide for HTP and ATP. The following toxicity impacts
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179 were considered in conventional rice: HTP, STP, and ATP. In the organic rice systems (OR5, OR10
180 and OR15), we only analyzed the STP due to none usage of chemical pesticides in the organic rice
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181 production.

182 For characterization, the equivalent coefficient of emissions according to Huijbregts et al. (2000)
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183 and Deng et al. (2003) was used (Table 2), the global warming potential (GWP) over 100 years
184 was computed according to the CO2 equivalent factors from the Intergovernmental Panel on
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185 Climate Change (IPCC, 2013).The methods described by Wang et al. (2007) and Huijbregts et al.
186 (2008) ware used for normalization and weighting. During the normalization step, each of the
187 environmental impact potentials was divided by the world per-capita environmental impact
188 normalization factor for 2000 in order to normalize environmental impacts and calculate the
189 environmental index for organic and conventional production systems. The normalization for WD
190 and LO was computed using per capita data from China's national bureau of statistics (NBS 2000).
191 In the weighting step, each normalized indicator value was multiplied by a weighting factor,
192 which evaluates the different effects, such as global warming and acidification, according to their
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193 potential to harm the environment. An expert panel was used for weight determination (Wang et
194 al., 2007).

195 3. Results

196 3.1 Resource use for organic and conventional rice production

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197 The primary resources used in organic and conventional rice production in Wanzai included
198 renewable (land and water) and non-renewable (e.g. fossil fuels) resources. The Non-renewable
199 Energy Depletion for organic rice production was from 344 to 512 MJ/t, and 2393 MJ/t for

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200 conventional rice (Figure 2). The Non-renewable Energy Depletion of conventional rice was
201 significantly higher than that of the organic systems (OR5, OR10 and OR15), and the

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202 Non-renewable Energy Depletion of organic rice production system only accounted for 14 to 42%
203 of the impact from conventional rice. The Non-renewable Energy Depletion included the
204 resources used in the production and transportation of the pesticides, fertilizers and organic
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manure (agro-input subsystems) and the diesel used in the rice cultivation and harvest (farming
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206 subsystem). In the organic rice systems OR10 and OR15, farmers bought more commercial
207 organic fertilizer than in OR5, which led to more energy depletion in the transportation of the
208 commercial organic fertilizer.
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209 For the Land Occupation, the paddy land was the only one considered. The Land Occupation of
210 the organic rice system OR5 was the highest because of the lowest yield. The Land Occupation for
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211 conventional rice was 1402 m2 per metric ton, which was 15 to 25% lower compared to the
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212 organic systems OR5, OR10, and OR15. For the Land Occupation, there were higher demands in
213 the organic rice production systems since the yield was lower compared to the conventional rice.
214 However, the Water Depletion of conventional rice was significantly higher than that of the
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215 organic systems OR5, OR10, and OR15 (Figure 2), mainly due to the agro-input subsystems,
216 accounting for 75%. The Water Depletion of organic rice was only from the irrigation water in the
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217 farming subsystem (Appendix).

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218 3.2 Characterized environmental impacts for organic and conventional rice

219 Global Warming Potential of the organic rice was higher than that of conventional rice with a
220 significant difference. The farming subsystem contributed more than 98% to the Global Warming
221 Potential for organic rice, whereas it only contributed 87% for conventional rice (Figure 3A). The
222 contribution of CH4 to the Global Warming Potential was 72%, followed by CO2, accounting for
223 26-27% for the organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15). The contribution of CH4 and CO2 were 61%
224 and 35% respectively for conventional rice (Figure 3A).
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225 However, the total Acidification Potential for conventional rice 7.5 kg SO2-eq/t, 3 times higher
226 than that of organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15). The Eutrophication Potential of conventional
227 rice was 1.9 kg PO4-eq/t, similar to the results of organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15) (Figure 2).
228 The Acidification Potential and Eutrophication Potential were mainly from the farming subsystem
229 in both organic and conventional rice production. In both organic and conventional rice production
230 systems, NH3 contributed the most to the Acidification Potential, accounting for 90% in the
231 organic and 82% in the conventional rice production system (Figure 3B and 3C).

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232 For the conventional system, the use of large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers was associated with

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233 significant NH3 emissions in the farming subsystem, which was more than 3 times of that in the
234 organic farming subsystems. In the agro-input subsystem, the amount of NH3 emissions for
235 organic rice was higher than that for conventional rice, because of high NH3 emissions during the

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236 composting process. The Eutrophication Potential of rice production was mainly dominated by Ptot
237 and NH3, accounting for 69% and 27% for organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15), and accounting
238
239
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for 35% and 55% for conventional rice, respectively. For the organic system, the use of large
amounts of pig manure was associated with significant Ptot emissions in the farming subsystem.
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240 The Human Toxicity Potential and Aquatic Toxicity Potential for conventional rice were 1.1 kg
241 1,4-DCB-eq/t and 343 kg 1,4-DCB-eq/t, respectively, which was approximately 50-60 times
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242 higher than for organic rice. The Soil Toxicity Potential for conventional rice was 7.3 kg
243 1,4-DCB-eq/t, similar to the results of organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15) (Figure 2). The Soil
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244 Toxicity Potential of OR5 was the highest because of the lowest yield. In the conventional rice
245 production, Chlorpyrifos, Triazophos, and Glyphosate were used for pest and weed control. These
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246 pesticides contributed the most to toxicity impacts for conventional rice, accounting for 100% in
247 the Human Toxicity Potential and Aquatic Toxicity Potential, and 79% in Soil Toxicity Potential.
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248 Triazophos contributed the most to the Human Toxicity Potential, accounting for 93%, followed
249 by Chlorpyrifos (7%). The Aquatic Toxicity Potential for conventional rice was mainly dominated
250 by Chlorpyrifos and Triazophos, accounting for 74% and 25 %. Triazophos and Chlorpyrifos are
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251 broad-spectrum organophosphorus insecticides that are very toxic to aquatic organisms.
252 Triazophos contributed the most to the Soil Toxicity Potential, accounting for 75%, followed by
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253 heavy metal Zn (15%). In the organic rice production, only the effects of heavy metals (Zn, Cu,
254 Cd, and Pb) on the soil ecosystem have been considered. Zn contributed the most to Soil Toxicity
255 Potential, accounting for 68-70%, followed by Pb (14-15%), Cu (11-12%) and Cd (5-6%)
256 (Figure3D). Heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb) accounted for 21% of the Soil Toxicity Potential
257 for conventional rice.

258 3.3 Result of normalization and weighting

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259 The aggregate life cycle environmental impact index of CR is 9.65, which was more than 10 times
260 higher than for organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15), with a significant difference. The indices of
261 organic rice (OR5, OR10 and OR15) decreased from 0.80 (OR5) to 0.68 (OR15) with increasing
262 years after conversion to organic (Table 3). For conventional rice, the Aquatic Toxicity Potential
263 was found to be the major impact, contributing 81% to the environmental impact index, followed
264 by Water Depletion (17%) and Eutrophication Potential (1%). For organic rice (OR5, OR10 and
265 OR15), the environmental impact indices were dominated by Water Depletion, accounting for

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266 65-67%. Soil Toxicity Potential (14-16%) and Eutrophication Potential (12-13%) also contributed
267 a large part to the indices (Figure 4).

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268 4．
．Discussion

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269 4.1 Organic versus conventional rice production and comparison with similar studies

270 Several studies have found that the environmental impact of organic agriculture production is
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generally lower than the conventional (Gomiero et al., 2008; He et al., 2016; Meier et al., 2015;
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272 Meng et al., 2014; Schader et al., 2012; Tuomisto et al., 2012). Other LCA studies comparing the
273 results of conventional and organic rice production found similar conclusions to this study, that
274 avoiding chemical usage results in multiple environmental benefits (Blengini and Busto, 2009;
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275 Hokazono and Hayashi, 2012; 2015).

276 Because of the different functional units, types of systems, life cycle impact assessment
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277 methodologies used, a direct comparison of these results is not easy to achieve. Bacenetti et al
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278 (2016) showed the main methodological differences among different LCA rice studies. The Global
279 Warming Potential found for organic rice in this study (2676 kg CO2 eq/t) was in the same range
280 and in between the values found by Bacenetti et al. (2016) and Hokazono & Hayashi (2012),
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281 which were 3270 and 2000 kg CO2 eq/t, respectively. Furthermore, similarities regarding the
282 identified hotspots were found. In this study, the major contributors identified in organic rice
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283 system was Water Depletion followed by Soil Toxicity Potential and Global Warming Potential,
284 which is similar to other studies on paddy rice system (Bacenetti et al., 2016; Blengini and Busto,
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285 2009; Hokazono et al., 2012, 2015). For conventional rice, Aquatic Toxicity Potential was found
286 to have the most significant impact, contributing 81% to the environmental impact index, followed
287 by Water Depletion and Eutrophication. The environmental impact index of conventional rice was
288 mainly caused by the use of chemical pesticides (Chlorpyrifos, Triazophos, and Glyphosate). The
289 use of less toxic pesticides or bio-pesticides in smaller amounts and preventive ecological methods
290 for pest and disease management would reduce the environmental impact of conventional rice.
291 The arable farming subsystem was the main contributor to the environmental indices for both the
292 organic (98%) and conventional (88%) rice. Likewise, Hokazono and Hayashi (2012) identified
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293 direct field emissions, field operations, and compost production as main contributors to the
294 environmental impact of organic rice.

295 Overall, LCA results showed clear environmental benefits associated with a transition from
296 conventional to organic rice production. However, some environment categories of organic
297 production system such as Global Warming Potential and Land Occupation have higher impact
298 than conventional production systems (Seufert and Ramankutty, 2017).

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299 4.2 Changing environmental impact of organic rice over time

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300 LCA results showed a decreasing trend of total environmental impact indices as the time increased
301 since conversion to organic practices, from 0.80 (OR5), 0.72 (OR10) to 0.68 (OR15). The impact

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302 within each of the environmental impact categories showed a similar trend. Hokazono and
303 Hayashi (2012) also found that the environmental impacts associated with organic farming
304 decreased over the years for the impact categories of Acidification Potential, Eutrophication
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Potential, and Non-renewable Energy Depletion. While there was a period of fluctuation in the
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306 numbers during the conversion period from conventional to organic production, the results were
307 similar to our study. In the long-term, the fluctuations diminished.
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308 Inputs and yields mainly affected the environmental impacts of rice. According to Table 1, there
309 was not much difference of farming inputs among OR5, OR10, and OR15 production. Organic
310 production became gradually stable after the conversion period. Yield varied with about 7% within
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311 these three organic production systems. In general, the yield increased over the years from
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312 conversion to organic management practices. In agreement with Blengini and Busto (2009),
313 Hokazono and Hayashi (2012, 2015) found that lower yields achieved in organic production
314 deeply affected the environmental results when a mass based functional unit is selected compared
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315 to an area based functional unit.

316 The use of large amounts of organic manure were associated with significant greenhouse gas
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317 emissions in organic system and significant amounts of heavy metals in the farming subsystem,
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318 leading to the higher Soil Toxicity Potential, contributing 14-16% to the environmental impact
319 index of organic rice systems. The flooding processes also contributed significantly to the
320 greenhouse gas emission, which was also found by Hokazono and Hayashi (2012). Both research
321 and extension efforts are necessary to help farmers use organic manure more efficiently and
322 thereby reduce the potential risk of negative environmental impacts.

323 4.3 Policy implication

324 Based on the results of this study, organic rice systems have the potential of being recommended
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325 as sustainable agricultural practices in comparison with the conventional practices from the
326 environmental perspective. However, organic agriculture needs more land to produce the same
327 amount of agricultural products because of the lower yield. With increasing competition for land,
328 especially in subtropical mountain areas of China, agricultural policy should focus on increasing
329 the yield of the organic farming system instead of expansion of the scale. The agricultural research
330 and development system in China aims at achieving higher productivity and food security in the
331 short term, however, it is also important to devote resources to develop and apply more

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332 agro-ecological measurements in farming practices (Cook and Buckley, 2015), and research on
333 such issues should be encouraged.

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334 5. Conclusion

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335 The results showed that 1) overall, the organic rice production system had lower environmental
336 impacts comparing to conventional system. 2) The total environmental impact indices decreased
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as years since conversion to organic rice production increased, mainly due to the rice yields. 3)
Higher Land Occupation, Global Warming Potential, and Soil Toxicity Potential impacts were
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339 found in the organic rice production systems compared to the conventional one, whereas
340 conventional rice had higher environmental impact within Non-renewable Energy Depletion,
341 Eutrophication Potential, Water Depletion, Acidification Potential, Human Toxicity Potential, and
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342 Aquatic Toxicity Potential than organic rice. The Aquatic Toxicity Potential was the largest
343 environmental impact in conventional rice, whereas it was Water Depletion in organic rice. 4)
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344 Main factors that caused the environmental impact were the application of chemical fertilizer and
345 pesticide for conventional rice and manure application in organic rice production in the paddy
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346 fields.
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347 In conclusion, the organic rice cultivation is a promising sustainable agricultural practice
348 compared to conventional practices from an environmental perspective. However, this can be only
349 seen as a case study in subtropical area. Therefore, there are limitations to generalize our findings
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350 and apply them to other areas. More LCA research should be carried out in order to give a broader
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351 environmental assessment of organic rice production.

352 Acknowledgement

353 This work is supported by the “Key organic Certification technology research and demonstration
354 for Regional specialty products” (No. 2014BAK19B00), the National Key Technology R&D
355 Program in the 12th Five-Year Plan of China. We are grateful to Xu Xiaolin, Pan Xihe, and Wu
356 Xunjiang from the Wanzai Organic Agriculture Office, as well as colleagues and farmers for their
357 assistance and cooperation during data collection. We are also grateful to Elizabeth Cassidy for
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358 refining the grammar of the article.

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Table. 1 Resource use and yields of conventional rice production (CR) and organic rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years
since conversion to organic in the Wanzai county, Jiangxi Province.
Input/output CR OR5 OR10 OR15

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fertilizer 128.2 - - -
N (kg/ha)
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manure 82.1 290.3 307.8 289.9
fertilizer 86.3 - - -
P2O5 (kg/ha)
manure 91.1 228.8 217.2 224.8
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fertilizer 86.3 - - -
K2O (kg/ha)
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manure 108.0 245.7 249.7 243.9

pesticides* (kg/ha) 2.6 0.03 0.04 0.04
irrigation water** (m³/ha) 9000 9000 9000 9000
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diesel*** (kg/ha) 27.8 27.8 27.8 27.8

seed (kg/ha) 15.5 15.7 18.6 20.5
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yield (kg/ha) 7137 5354 6000 6114

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The values are means based on interviews with 98 farmers.

* Bio-pesticides such as matrine were used in OR5, OR10 and OR15.
**Irrigation water was estimated based on farmers’ agricultural practices, not measured value.
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***Diesel was used by the harvester, which is the same machine in organic and conventional rice, so the diesel were the same per ha.
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Table 2. Environmental impact categories and their characterization factors

Impact categories Unit Contributing elements Characterization factors

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Global Warming Potential (GWP) CO2-eq CO2 1
CH4 25.25
N2O 265

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Acidification Potential (AP) SO2-eq SO2 1
NH3 1.88
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NOx 0.7
Eutrophication potential (EP) PO4-eq PO4 1
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Ptot 3.06
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NOx 0.13
NH3 0.33
Human toxicity potential (HTP) 1,4-DCB-eq. Chlopyrifos 21
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Triazophos 210
Glyphosate 0.0031
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Aquatic toxicity potential (ATP) 1,4-DCB-eq. 1,4-DCB 1

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Chlopyrifos 640 000

Triazophos 170 000
Glyphosate 1 400
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Cu 1 200
Zn 92
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Cd 1 500
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Pb 9.6
Soil toxicity potential (STP) 1,4-DCB-eq. 1,4-DCB 1
Chlopyrifos 17
Triazophos 250
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Glyphosate 0.096
Cu 14

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Zn 25
Cd 170
Pb 33

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Table 3. Life cycle environmental impact indexes and evaluation results of conventional rice (CR) and organic 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years since conversion to organic.

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Impact Normalization values Environmental indices
Unit Reference value Weight
categories CR OR5 OR10 OR15 CR OR5 OR10 OR15

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NED MJ/t 2 590 457.00 0.0009±0.0001 0.0001±0.00001 0.0004±0.0001 0.0002±0.00004 0.15 0.0001±0.00001 0.00002±0.000002 0.0001±0.00002 0.00003±0.00001
WD m3/t 2 193.90 12.0±0.6 4.0±0.3 3.6±0.3 3.5±0.2 0.13 1.55±0.08 0.53±0.04 0.46±0.04 0.45±0.03
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LO m2/t 988.17 1.4±0.1 1.9±0.1 1.7±0.1 1.7±0.1 - - - - -
GWP kg CO2-eq/t 6 869.00 0.24±0.008 0.43±0.02 0.38±0.04 0.36±0.05 0.12 0.03±0.0009 0.05±0.0023 0.05±0.004 0.04±0.006
AP kg SO2-eq/t 52.26 0.143±0.04 0.049±0.005 0.047±0.006 0.042±0.01 0.14 0.02±0.006 0.007±0.0007 0.007±0.0009 0.006±0.002
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EP kgPO4-eq/t 1.9 1.02±0.24 0.79±0.08 0.76±0.09 0.69±0.21 0.12 0.12±0.03 0.09±0.01 0.09±0.01 0.08±0.02
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HTP kg1,4-DCB-eq/t 197.21 0.0058±0.0004 - - - 0.14 0.0008±0.0001 - - -

ATP kg1,4-DCB-eq/t 4.83 71.09±5.14 - - - 0.11 7.82±0.56 - - -
STP kg1,4-DCB-eq/t 6.11 1.19±0.09 1.33±0.14 1.24±0.16 1.08±0.36 0.09 0.11±0.01 0.12±0.01 0.11±0.01 0.10±0.03
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In total 1.00 9.65±0.54a 0.80±0.06b 0.72±0.07b 0.68±0.09b

The impact categories were Non-renewable Energy Depletion (NED), Water Depletion (WD), Land Occupation (LO), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP),
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Eutrophication Potential (EP), Aquatic Toxicity Potential (ATP), Human Toxicity Potential (HTP) and Soil Toxicity Potential (STP). The values are means (± SD). Different letters indicate
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significant differences among treatments (CR, OR5, OR10 and OR15), P<0.05, Duncan’s Multiple Ranger Test (DMRT) method was used.
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Input: Minerals, fossil Agricultural material production subsystem: Output: rice, greenhouse gas,

fuels, seeds, land and Exploration, processing and transportation of nutrients, heavy metal and

water resources Fertilizers, Pesticides, Diesel pesticides.

Farming subsystem: Soil preparation, sowing,

fertilizer application, Plant protection, Irrigation and

System boundary
harvesting etc.

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Figure.1 System boundary, relevant inputs, outputs of
organic/conventional rice system

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Figure. 2 The characterized environmental impact of conventional rice production (CR) and organic
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rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years since conversion to organic.
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A - Global Warming Potential B- Acidification Potential

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3500 8
FS-N2O FS-NOx
3000 7

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FS-CH4 6 FS-NH3
2500
FS-CO2 FS-SO2
kg SO2-eq/t

5
kg CO2-eq/t

2000
MS-N2O 4 MS-NOx
1500
1000
MS-CH4
MS-CO2 U 3
2
MS-NH3

MS-SO2
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500 1
0 0
CR OR5 OR10 OR15
CR OR5 OR10 OR15
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C- Eutrophication Potential D- Soil Toxicity Potential

2.5 9
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FS-NH3 Pb
8
2 FS-NO3 7 Cd
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kg 1,4-DCB-eq/t

FS-Ptot 6 Cu
kg PO4-eq/t

1.5
MS-COD 5 Zn
MS-NH3 4 Glyphosate
1
MS-NH4 3 Triazophos
EP

0.5 2
MS-Ptot Chlopyrifos
1
0 0
CR OR5 OR10 OR15 CR OR5 OR10 OR15
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Figure. 3 Effect of pollutant emissions on environmental impacts in conventional rice production

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(CR) and organic rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15) years since conversion to organic.
MS: Agricultural Material Subsystem, FS: Farming Subsystem.
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OR15 67% 14% ATP
WD

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EP
OR10 65% 16%
STP

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GWP
OR5 66% 15% AP
HTP

CR 81% U 16%
NED
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0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
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Figure. 4 The proportion of different environmental impacts on the total impact indices in
conventional rice production (CR) and organic rice production 5 (OR5), 10 (OR10) and 15 (OR15)
years since conversion to organic.
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Highlights of “Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of long-term organic

rice production in Subtropical area of China”

• LCA results show organic rice had lower environmental impact than conventional one.
• Environment impact declines as organic operation period increases from 5 to 15 years.
• The largest impact category is ATP in conventional rice, and WD for organic rice.

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• The arable farming subsystem contributed more than 85% to environmental indices.

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