Economical And Ecological Analysis Rice Production Structure Changes In China

Rice is one of the most important food crops in China. The development of rice industry affects the supply of rice directly, and relates to the stability of national grain market and the country's food security condition. In order to maintaining a long-term stability of rice production, it must be reviewed from the economic perspective and the ecological perspective, to achieve sustainable development.First, at the economic perspective, the discussion of the main factors of rice cultivation is launched from the macro level of economic development and the micro level of relative economic benefits of rice. Since reform and opening up, China's rice acreage decreased slightly, while rice production increased significantly. The rice production center is transferring from the South to the North, from the East to the West, gradually. Qualitative and quantitative analysis prove, except the Northeast region, among the economic factors, the per capita GDP and the ratio of the relative net income between alternative crops and rice impact rice acreage negatively. The effects of government's subsidies policies which supporting the development of grain production is not obvious, but it did have some positive effect on rice acreage.Second, at the ecological perspective, using two concepts-virtual water and carbon footprint, accounting the ecological impact of rice cultivation through a more comprehensive ways. The study found that, in rice production, the southern and southwest regions showed significant environmental advantages of water, while the northeast and central regions showed prominent water conflict. Rice carbon footprint emerges in raw material stages and growing stages is accounted for90%-97%, mainly indirectly caused by fossil fuel combustion emissions happened in these phases. On the regional comparison, the eastern and southern regions have the highest carbon footprint among China's main rice producing areas, and it has a further growth trend.The center of rice production is transferring from the South to North, from East to West and the production structure is just opposite to the spatial distribution of water resources in China, it will pull down the country's water use efficiency, and it is not conducive to the sustainable use of agricultural water resources. However, the transfer trends of rice production layout is relatively consistent with the distribution of the size of rice carbon footprint, to a certain extent, the transformation can promote the reduction of rice industry carbon emissions. But the factor which decides the size of rice carbon footprint is the operation mode of rice production, rather than natural resource endowment, therefore, the transformation of rice production layout does not fundamentally reduce greenhouse gas emissions of rice.Policy recommendations of this paper are following:First, continue to increase rice production subsidies, raising farmers income; second, take the national effect of water use, distribute the rice production layout rationally, and improve agricultural water use efficiency; third, change the operation mode of agricultural production, to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions in rice production; fourth, develop the targeted rice industry development plan according to different regional circumstances.