Nexus between rice productivity and greenhouse gas emission in Nigeria

Abstract

Crop residue burning, which is a common land preparation practice for rice production, generates anthropogenic gases that compound climate change menace. Hence, this study estimated the nexus between rice productivity and greenhouse gas emission in Nigeria using time series that ranged from 1981 to 2020. Time series data on rice yield and residue burning-induced nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests were used to ascertain the stationarity of the series. Johansen-Juselius cointegration and Engle-Granger causality models were used to test for long-run relationship and causality, respectively. The result shows that the series were I(1) and the trace and Max-Eigen tests produced divergent results on the existence of long-run relationship. Findings showed that there was a uni-directional causality from rice yield to nitrous oxide (p < 0.05), carbon dioxide (p < 0.05) and methane (p < 0.05) gases, respectively. The study concluded that rice intensification is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in Nigeria. It was suggested that instead of burning crop leftovers, the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Environment should educate farmers on proper crop residue management techniques.