IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i19p5368-d271674.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Eco-Efficiency Assessment of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: Joint Application of Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Kiyotaka Masuda

    (Department of Biological Resources Management, School of Environmental Science, The University of Shiga Prefecture, 2500 Hassaka-cho, Hikone, Shiga 522-8533, Japan)

Abstract

To promote sustainable agriculture worldwide, it is important to understand what constitutes eco-efficiency for rice, a staple food in many countries. This study examined whether expanding the scale of rice farming contributed to the improved eco-efficiency of intensive rice production in Japan. Both life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) were used to measure comprehensively the eco-efficiency of rice production. A DEA window analysis technique with two DEA inputs (global warming and eutrophication from the LCA results) and one DEA output (weight-based rice yield) was applied to the statistical data for 2005–2011 categorized by the size of rice farms. The results indicate that expanding the size of rice farms is an effective way of improving the eco-efficiency of intensive rice production in Japan. The important factors for improving eco-efficiency are the implementation of economies of scale, reduced outsourcing of farm work, and savings in chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Expansion of the size of rice farms through the recent abolition of the rice production adjustment program will also contribute to improving the eco-efficiency of Japanese rice production.

Suggested Citation

  • Kiyotaka Masuda, 2019. "Eco-Efficiency Assessment of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: Joint Application of Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5368-:d:271674
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5368/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5368/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nassiri, Seyed Mehdi & Singh, Surendra, 2009. "Study on energy use efficiency for paddy crop using data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(7-8), pages 1320-1325, July.
    2. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6151-8, March.
    3. Kaoru Tone, 2011. "Slacks-Based Measure of Efficiency," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 195-209, Springer.
    4. Galanopoulos, Konstantinos & Aggelopoulos, Stamatis & Kamenidou, Irene & Mattas, Konstadinos, 2006. "Assessing the effects of managerial and production practices on the efficiency of commercial pig farming," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 88(2-3), pages 125-141, June.
    5. Timo Kuosmanen & Mika Kortelainen, 2005. "Measuring Eco‐efficiency of Production with Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(4), pages 59-72, October.
    6. Solhee Kim & Taegon Kim & Timothy M. Smith & Kyo Suh, 2018. "Environmental Implications of Eco-Labeling for Rice Farming Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-19, April.
    7. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107005198, January.
    8. David Tilman & Kenneth G. Cassman & Pamela A. Matson & Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky, 2002. "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 671-677, August.
    9. Stijn Reinhard & C.A. Knox Lovell & Geert Thijssen, 1999. "Econometric Estimation of Technical and Environmental Efficiency: An Application to Dutch Dairy Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 44-60.
    10. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2016. "Optimization Model for Mitigating Global Warming at the Farm Scale: An Application to Japanese Rice Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Deng, Xiangzheng & Gibson, John, 2019. "Improving eco-efficiency for the sustainable agricultural production: A case study in Shandong, China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 394-400.
    12. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2018. "Energy Efficiency of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, January.
    13. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521182935, January.
    14. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, December.
    15. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu, 2011. "Data Envelopment Analysis: History, Models, and Interpretations," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 1-39, Springer.
    16. Duffy, Michael, 2009. "Economies of Size in Production Agriculture," Staff General Research Papers Archive 31282, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giuliana Vinci & Roberto Ruggieri & Marco Ruggeri & Sabrina Antonia Prencipe, 2023. "Rice Production Chain: Environmental and Social Impact Assessment—A Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    2. Malan Huang & Linlin Zeng & Chujie Liu & Xiaoyun Li & Hongling Wang, 2022. "Research on the Eco-Efficiency of Rice Production and Its Improvement Path: A Case Study from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Hongwei Liu & Ronglu Yang & Zhixiang Zhou & Dacheng Huang, 2020. "Regional Green Eco-Efficiency in China: Considering Energy Saving, Pollution Treatment, and External Environmental Heterogeneity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Heidari, Mohammad Davoud & Turner, Ian & Ardestani-Jaafari, Amir & Pelletier, Nathan, 2021. "Operations research for environmental assessment of crop-livestock production systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    5. Jianling Fan & Cuiying Liu & Jianan Xie & Lu Han & Chuanhong Zhang & Dengwei Guo & Junzhao Niu & Hao Jin & Brian G. McConkey, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment on Agricultural Production: A Mini Review on Methodology, Application, and Challenges," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Min Yang & Quan Long & Wenli Li & Zhichao Wang & Xinhua He & Jie Wang & Xiaozhong Wang & Huaye Xiong & Chaoyi Guo & Guancheng Zhang & Bin Luo & Jun Qiu & Xinping Chen & Fusuo Zhang & Xiaojun Shi & Yue, 2020. "Mapping the Environmental Cost of a Typical Citrus-Producing County in China: Hotspot and Optimization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Kyrgiakos, Leonidas Sotirios & Kleftodimos, Georgios & Kremantzis, Marios Dominikos & Vlontzos, George & Pardalos, Panos M., 2023. "Assessing efficiency differences in a common Agriculture Decision Support System - A comparative analysis between Greek and Italian durum wheat farms," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 14(01), January.
    8. Rui Wang & Bing Xia & Suocheng Dong & Yu Li & Zehong Li & Duoxun Ba & Wenbiao Zhang, 2020. "Research on the Spatial Differentiation and Driving Forces of Eco-Efficiency of Regional Tourism in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-23, December.
    9. Kalli, Rajesh & Jena, Pradyot Ranjan & Timilsina, Raja Rajendra & Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2024. "Effect of irrigation on farm efficiency in tribal villages of Eastern India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    10. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2023. "Combined Application of a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm and Life Cycle Assessment for Evaluating Environmentally Friendly Farming Practices in Japanese Rice Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    11. Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos & Georgios Kleftodimos & George Vlontzos & Panos M. Pardalos, 2023. "A systematic literature review of data envelopment analysis implementation in agriculture under the prism of sustainability," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-38, March.
    12. Xiangyu Hua & Haiping Lv & Xiangrong Jin, 2021. "Research on High-Quality Development Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity of Regional Economies in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Changhee Kim & Hyunjung Kim & Kanghwa Choi, 2020. "Efficiency Analysis of Public Library Services Based on Establishing Entity and Outsourcing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2018. "Energy Efficiency of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, January.
    2. Dyckhoff, Harald & Souren, Rainer, 2022. "Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis and production theory for performance evaluation: Framework and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(3), pages 795-816.
    3. Anastasiou Athanasios & Kalligosfyris Charalampos & Kalamara Eleni, 2022. "Assessing the effectiveness of tax administration in macroeconomic stability: evidence from 26 European Countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 2237-2261, November.
    4. Matthias Klumpp & Dominic Loske, 2021. "Sustainability and Resilience Revisited: Impact of Information Technology Disruptions on Empirical Retail Logistics Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Duk Hee Lee & Il Won Seo & Ho Chull Choe & Hee Dae Kim, 2012. "Collaboration network patterns and research performance: the case of Korean public research institutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 925-942, June.
    6. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    8. Joanna Domagała, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture in the EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    9. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Khalil Md Nor & Seyed Meysam Khoshnava, 2018. "Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    10. Jaime Bonet-Morón & Jhorland Ayala-García, 2016. "La brecha fiscal territorial en Colombia," Documentos de trabajo sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 235, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    11. Mousavi-Avval, Seyed Hashem & Rafiee, Shahin & Jafari, Ali & Mohammadi, Ali, 2011. "Optimization of energy consumption for soybean production using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 3765-3772.
    12. Yang Li & An-Chi Liu & Shu-Mei Wang & Yiting Zhan & Jingran Chen & Hsiao-Fen Hsiao, 2022. "A Study of Total-Factor Energy Efficiency for Regional Sustainable Development in China: An Application of Bootstrapped DEA and Clustering Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, April.
    13. Magdalena Rybaczewska-Błażejowska & Aneta Masternak-Janus, 2021. "Assessing and Improving the Eco-Efficiency of Manufacturing: Learning and Challenges from a Polish Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, December.
    14. Jaime Bonet‐Morón & Jhorland Ayala‐García, 2020. "The territorial fiscal gap in Colombia," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 7-24, February.
    15. Fazlollahi, Ariyan & Franke, Ulrik, 2018. "Measuring the impact of enterprise integration on firm performance using data envelopment analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 119-129.
    16. Zurano-Cervelló, Patricia & Pozo, Carlos & Mateo-Sanz, Josep María & Jiménez, Laureano & Guillén-Gosálbez, Gonzalo, 2019. "Sustainability efficiency assessment of the electricity mix of the 28 EU member countries combining data envelopment analysis and optimized projections," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    17. Mª Isabel Ortega-Díaz & Ricardo Ocaña-Riola & Carmen Pérez-Romero & José Jesús Martín-Martín, 2020. "Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship between Ownership Structure and Technical Efficiency Frontier in the Spanish National Health System Hospitals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Chih-Cheng Chen, 2015. "Assessing the Activeness of Online Economic Activity of Taiwan’s Internet Users: An Application of the Super-Efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 433-451, June.
    19. Pejman Peykani & Jafar Gheidar-Kheljani & Reza Farzipoor Saen & Emran Mohammadi, 2022. "Generalized robust window data envelopment analysis approach for dynamic performance measurement under uncertain panel data," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 5529-5567, November.
    20. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2016. "Optimization Model for Mitigating Global Warming at the Farm Scale: An Application to Japanese Rice Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5368-:d:271674. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.