Does recent land rights transfer support resilient livelihoods and reduce agricultural GHG emissions in China?

Does recent land rights transfer support
resilient livelihoods and reduce agricultural
GHG emissions in China?
Y. Li, YC Zhu, A. Wilkes G. Heggelund W. Jia
Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, CAAS
INTASAVE Asia - Pacific
Y. Li, YC Zhu, A. Wilkes, G. Heggelund, W. Jia. 2016.

Background
• Agricultural sector is vulnerable to climate change
• 12% of GHG emissions for global average, 11% in China
• Land plots are very fragmented
• Extensive migration of rural labor (250 million people
• High inputs, low efficiency.

Land rights transfer (LRT)
• Faced with these environmental, demographic and economic
transitions, China’s policy makers are promoting reforms to meet
the needs of rural, agricultural and farmers’ development
• In the last 5 years, a range of policies to promote transfer of land
use rights have been issued to encourage the development of
larger-scale, more competitive and less environmentally
damaging farming operations

Land rights transfer (LRT)
• Around one third of China’s farmland is now rented for
cultivation by specialized households, cooperatives or companies,
and family farms
• In Shandong Province, 23.3% of farmland is now transferred to
– 9220 specialized operators
– 38 thousand family farms
– 142 thousand farmers’ cooperatives

Effects of LRT

The objective is to increase understanding of the implications of
land rights transfers to addressing climate change.
Specific objectives
 to identify LRT on net GHG emissions and adaptation, to
quantify the costs and benefits of LRT
 to exploit synergies and identify trade-off between greenhouse
gas mitigation and adaptation
 to provide recommendations for policy makers on how to
promote the synergies and address the trade-off
Objectives

Approaches
• Questionnaire survey and participatory rural appraisal
– Open questions to: 1) Government officials at different
levels; 2) Relevant experts; 3) Specialized households,
family farms, cooperatives and agriculture-related
enterprises; and 4) Farmers
– Open question categories: Relevant policies? Impacts of LRT
on farmers livelihood, application of advanced tech.?
Possible positive and negative impacts on agricultural
production?

Selection of survey targets
• Four agro-ecosystems in Shandong Province according to
geomorphology, soil, climate
• Select three scaled-up operators in each agro-ecosystem
• Select at least 30 households nearby each of scaled-up
operator;
• Three categories: poor, middle, and well-off categories, a
list prepared by village leader(10 well-off, 10 middle, 10
poor).

Approaches
• 11 farm cooperatives and family
farm and 350 households have
been surveyed；
• At least 7 farm cooperatives,
family farm or agricultural
related enterprises and 210
households will be surveyed
before Chinese New Year

Approaches
• Questionnaire survey and participatory rural appraisal
– Questionnaire survey: 1) General information; 2) Fertilization;
3) Irrigation; 4) Pest and disease control; 5) Mulching film
utilization; 6) Tillage; 7) Sowing; 8)Harvesting; 9) Crop straw
utilization; 10) Agricultural outputs
Photo Photo

Approaches
• Analysis of the effects of LRT on mitigation and adaptation to
climate change, and analysis of synergies and trade-offs
– GHG emissions: analyze the impacts of different LRT models
on management practices and their implications on GHG
emissions, emission intensity based on yield and/or outputs
– Adaptation: analyze the impacts of different LRT models on
the adoption of technologies, agricultural outputs, crop yield
and yield stability and sustainability
– Identify synergies and possible trade-offs between mitigation
and adaptation

CASE I: Boxin Agricultural
Sciences and Technology Co. LTD
• Land transferred from farmers: 400 ha
• Scope of business: Seed and grain production
• Cropping system: Wheat-maize rotation

Case II: Taiyu Planting Cooperative
 Shandong Taiyu Planting Cooperative
 Comprehensive agricultural company
 Scope of business: Seed and grain production, storage and
food processing, swine raising, biogas digesters
 Land transferred from farmers: 1330 ha
 Cropping system: Wheat-maize rotation

CASE II: Taiyu Planting Cooperative
N2O, CO2
CO2
CO2, CH4 and N2O
N2O and CH4
emission
CO2 displaced
electricity
SOC stock increase
SOC stock increase

LRT effects on inputsInput(kg/ha)
Input(kg/ha)
Input comparison between scaled operation and
household farming

LRT effects on production cost
Productioncost(Yuan/ha)
–Lower production cost, by 30%
• Lower fertilizer price
• Lower cost for tillage, sowing
and harvest
The cost comparison between scaled operation and household
farming

Adaptive capacity increased after LRT
• Changes in management, compared with that of local farmers:
– Cultivation of drought, saline-alkaline resistant varieties. The
renewal of varieties in 3-4 years; Multiple crop verities each
year; Multiple crops including vegetables
– Reliable and timely irrigation with adequate wells, water saving
irrigation systems, and other water saving farming techniques
– Seed coated with pesticide, timely and synchronously pest and
disease control

Adaptive capacity increased after LRT
• Straw amendment and organic fertilizer application to increase soil
productivity
• Lower production cost by 30%
• Crop insurance for risk sharing

LRT effects on GHG emissions-Case I
Wheat/Maize
GHG emission from production (kg CO2e/ha) 3416
GHG emission from storage(t CO2e/y) 277
Total GHG emissions (t CO2e/year) 1643
GHG Intensity (kg CO2e/kg grain) 0.205

LRT effects on GHG emissions-CASE II

LRT effects on GHG emissions-Local farmers
Wheat/Maize
GHG emission from production (kg CO2e/ha) 3075
GHG Intensity (kg CO2e/kg grain) 0.228

Mitigation Effect of LRT
• Planting crops and raising livestock, organic fertilizer application
increased and there is a potential to increase SOC stock
• Higher area scaled GHG emissions for production
• More machinery
• More irrigation
• Lower GHG emission intensity (yield scaled) (from the two cases)
• More renewable energy

 Improved adaptation capacity through new varieties, reliable
irrigation, pest and disease control
 Reduced production cost by 30%
 Reduced GHG emission intensity through straw amendment and
organic fertilizer application
 Stabilized farmers net income and easy life
Does recent land rights transfer support resilient livelihoods
and reduce agricultural GHG emissions in China?

Implications for implementation of Paris
Agreement

Paris Agreement
• The INDC structure is central and universal for all parties (Article 3)
• Article 4 importantly describes transparency requirements (domestic monitoring,
reporting, and verification).
• Each Party shall regularly provide the following information(Article 13)
– A national inventory report of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases;
– Information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving its
INDC under Article 4.
• COP shall periodically take stock of the implementation of this Agreement. The first
global stocktake will be in 2023 and every five years thereafter
• All countries must eventually face the same monitoring and reporting requirements,
regardless of their status as developed or developing.

Intended National Determined Contributions
• China submitted its INDCs to UNFCCC. The commitments by 2030
are as follows:
– To achieve the peaking of carbon dioxide emissions around 2030 and
making best efforts to peak early;
– To lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60% to 65% from
the 2005 level;
– To increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy
consumption to around 20%; and
– To increase the forest stock volume by around 4.5 billion cubic meters
on the 2005 level.

Intended National Determined Contributions
• In agricultural sector
• To promote the low-carbon development in agriculture, making
efforts
– to achieve zero growth of fertilizer and pesticide utilization by
2020
– to control methane emissions from rice fields and nitrous oxide
emissions from farmland
– to construct a recyclable agriculture system, promoting
comprehensive utilization of straw and animal waste

The gaps
Gaps to meet transparency
requirements of PA
 National or sectoral monitoring, verification and reporting
guidelines or standards in agricultural sector
 Methodologies and default parameters for accounting
GHG emissions from agricultural activities in different
levels
 What kind of information is necessary to track progress
made in implementing and achieving its

Progress: Accounting methodology
 Submitted to NDRC for
approval of accounting
and reporting guideline
 After the trial period, it
will be submitted to
National Standard
Committee

Agriculture has an important position in
China’s economy
• Total agricultural GDP RMB 5.7 trillion Yuan and it accounted for
about 10.0% in 2013
Sources: China Statistic Yearbook 2014

Key Challenges of Agriculture In China
Challenges Impacts
Per capita arable land (1.3 Mu) resources
in China are limited. Land plots are very
fragmented
A barrier to
Achieving scale economies
Reducing costs in production
Application of advanced tech.
Market competitiveness
Profitability of farming
Extensive migration of rural labor (250
million people, around 80% of them are
educated young adults at age 20-50
Availability and the structure of farm labor
Low land utilization
Access advanced tech. and market info.
Lower net income

Key challenges of agriculture in China
Challenges Impacts
High inputs, low efficiency. Fertilizer
per hectare is 4 times higher than
the world’s average, 60% of water
consumption, 1.8million t pesticides
Non-point pollution
Waste of resources
Extreme climate events and climate
change
In decrease of wheat and corn yields
by about 5%
Main source of greenhouse gas
emissions, 11% of total GHG
emissions in China in 2005.
To reduce GHG emissions will bring
addition burden to agriculture
production

Thank you for your attention

Does recent land rights transfer support resilient livelihoods and reduce agricultural GHG emissions in China?

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