Land-Water-GHG-Food Nexus performance and physical-socio-economic-policy factors influencing rice cultivation in Central Thailand.

Agriculture activity contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through its utilization of land, water, and energy for food production. Hence, the interactions between land, water, and GHG emissions in agricultural production need to be comprehensively studied. The study aimed to assess the Land-Water-GHG-Food Nexus Index (LWGFNI) of rice cultivation across various land suitability classes in Central Thailand and determining the physical, socio-economic, and policy factors that can influence farmers' decisions to choose for cultivating rice instead of shifting to other crops. The results indicated that the highest LWGFNI score was 0.69 for the rice grown in the moderate suitability land class which revealed a lower use of land and water resources as well as GHG emissions compared to other levels of land suitability. The LWGFNI scores of major rice cultivation were greater compared to the second rice in all four-land suitability. The use of fertilizers had a crucial role in enhancing productivity levels and was a significant factor in the generation of GHG emissions. Hence, improving effective production should consider the appropriate use of fertilizer. The physical, socio-economic, and policy-related aspects that significantly influenced farmers' decisions on cultivation of rice included topography, water resources, inherited professions, price guarantee, and knowledge/training factors. The methodology used and results obtained can help policy makers to plan the use of water and land resources efficiently and appropriately with local resources based on land suitability class. The assessment results revealed the GHG hotspots and the strategies to mitigate GHG emissions associated with rice cultivation.

Association between ambient air particulate matter and human health impacts in northern Thailand.

Air pollution in Thailand is regarded as a serious health threat, especially in the northern region. High levels of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) are strongly linked to severe health consequences and mortality. This study analyzed the relationship between exposure to ambient concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 by using data from the Pollution Control Department of Thailand and the burden of disease due to an increase in the ambient particulate matter concentrations in northern Thailand. This study was conducted using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology considering the human health damage impact category in the ReCiPe 2016 method. The results revealed that the annual average years of life lived with disability from ambient PM2.5 in northern Thailand is about 41,372 years, while from PM10 it is about 59,064 years per 100,000 population. The number of deaths from lung cancer and cardiopulmonary diseases caused by PM2.5 were approximately 0.04% and 0.06% of the population of northern Thailand, respectively. Deaths due to lung cancer and cardiopulmonary diseases caused by PM10, on the other hand, were approximately 0.06% and 0.08%, respectively. The findings expressed the actual severity of the impact of air pollution on human health. It can provide valuable insights for organizations in setting strategies to address air pollution. Organizations can build well-informed strategies and turn them into legal plans by exploiting the study's findings. This ensures that their efforts to tackle air pollution are successful, in accordance with regulations, and contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future guidelines on appropriate practices of air pollution act/policy linkage with climate change mitigation.

A comparative environmental analysis of conventional and organic rice farming in Thailand in a life cycle perspective using a stochastic modeling approach.

System stochasticity is an inherent characteristic of agricultural systems. Many studies have been conducted in Thailand to analyze the rice production systems. However, most of the prior work just focused on deterministic approach to investigate the rice production systems while disregarding the system variability. In this study, the conventional and organic rice farming systems in Thailand were compared considering the uncertainties associated with parameters. The system variability was taken into account by employing a stochastic modeling approach. The considered impact categories include global warming, ozone formation (human health), freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial acidification, fine particulate matter formation, freshwater eutrophication, and fossil resource scarcity. The results showed that yield had considerable influence on the environmental profiles of the two systems; organic and conventional farming showed similar results in terms of global warming on a per hectare basis, but the considerable difference was observed on a per tonne basis. The field emissions due to farm inputs were the most significant contributor to most of the impact categories. The fuel used for irrigation, land preparation, and harvesting also contributed significantly to several impact categories. On the other hand, the impacts of inputs production and material transportation were modest. Uncertainty analysis outcomes indicated that there was a noticeable deviation from the deterministic results in terms of global warming and freshwater ecotoxicity. However, when considering the associated uncertainties, no significant difference was observed between the environmental profiles of the two systems.

Life cycle assessment and circularity of polyethylene terephthalate bottles via closed and open loop recycling.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling is considered as one of the key approaches to achieving the circular economy (CE) of plastic waste. Bottle-to-Bottle and Bottle-to-Fiber recycling were assessed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Material Circularity Indicator (MCI). Three allocation methods (i.e., substitution, recycled content, and economic allocation) were used to deal with the recycling system. Producing bottle-grade PET resin and polyester fiber from PET bottle waste can reduce environmental impacts for most midpoint impact categories (e.g., 60% greenhouse gas emissions reduction and 85% fossil resource scarcity reduction). At the endpoint level, the damages to resources, ecosystem quality, and human health of the recycled PET bottles derived from Bottle-to-Bottle recycling were less than virgin PET bottles when using the substitution and recycled content methods. When using the economic allocation method, the final LCA findings highly depended on the recycled content used to produce the PET bottles. On the other hand, regardless of the allocation method used, recycled polyester fiber derived from Bottle-to-Fiber recycling caused less environmental damages than virgin polyester fiber. The MCI scores of Bottle-to-Bottle recycling in the baseline scenarios range between 0.20 and 0.31, whereas the MCI scores of the expected scenario in the future show a higher level of material circularity (0.55-0.60) as a result of 100% collection rate for recycling of PET bottles and the use of recycled PET as a feedstock. Therefore, higher collection rates and recycled content support Bottle-to-Bottle recycling. On the other hand, the MCI score of Bottle-to-Fiber recycling in the baseline scenario is 0.52. This high score resulted from the use of 100% recycled PET as a feedstock of polyester fiber. Recycling polyester fiber at the end-of-life could further increase the MCI to almost 0.7. However, to keep the materials at their highest quality and value, Bottle-to-Bottle recycling should be the preferred option.

Resource efficiency analysis through planetary boundary-based life cycle assessment: a case study of sugarcane in Pakistan.

Purpose: Extensive agriculture activities for crop production have led to increasing environmental impacts that threaten to exceed environmentally safe limits. The purpose of this study is to analyze resource efficiency of the agri-food industry, considering the case of sugarcane production in Pakistan. Methods: A holistic approach has been applied by determining the relevant impact categories and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and linking them with Planetary Boundary-based Life Cycle Assessment (PB-LCA). Both the spatially generic and spatially resolved approaches were considered with application of different sharing principles. Results and discussion: Application of different sharing principles showed high variations in the assigned share of the safe operating space values. When taking a spatially generic approach, most of the impacts (except marine eutrophication and water consumption) were within the safe operating space for equal per capita, economic, caloric, and grandfathering sharing principles. However, all the impacts exceeded their limits considering the agri-land sharing and land use impact surpassed its budget considering the grandfathering sharing. In the spatially resolved approach, most of the impact values surpassed the available budgets. Furthermore, the failure to attain the pertinent SDG targets from a PB-LCA perspective is indicated by the exceeding of safe operating space for relevant impact categories. Conclusions: Overall, the production of sugarcane was found to be unsustainable, requiring urgent action to promote resource improvement and contain the impacts within safe limits. The developed framework enabled the evaluation of the SDGs using PB-LCA at the product level. The target-driven impact reduction values would help in achieving the targets and prioritizing the efforts by making informed decisions for reducing impacts within safe limits. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11367-023-02185-7.

Microplastics in ASEAN region countries: A review on current status and perspectives.

A literature assessment was conducted to determine the current state of microplastics research in ASEAN countries focusing on 1) microplastics in water, sediment, and water organisms; 2) microplastics' sources and dispersion; and 3) microplastics' environmental consequences, including human toxicity. ASEAN countries contributed only about 5 % of the global scholarly papers on microplastics, with Indonesia contributing the most followed by Malaysia and Thailand. The lack of standard harmonized sampling and processing methodologies made comparisons between research difficult. ASEAN contributes the most to plastic trash ending up in the ocean, indicating a need for more work in this region to prevent plastic pollution. Microplastics are found in every environmental compartment; however, their distribution and environmental consequences have not been sufficiently investigated. There are very few studies on microplastics in the human blood system as well as respiratory organs like the lungs, indicating that more research is needed.

Assessment of eutrophication potential from fertiliser application in agricultural systems in Thailand.

Releases of excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilisers applied in agricultural production cause eutrophication in the aquatic ecosystem. This study assessed the marine and freshwater eutrophication potentials associated with the fertiliser application in rice, maize, cassava, sugar cane and oil palm, cultivation in Thailand using a life cycle assessment characterisation model at midpoint and endpoint levels. The total marine eutrophication potential was 209,632,298 kg N eq while the total freshwater eutrophication potential was 2,044,136 kg PO4 eq. The associated ecosystem damage was 2,643,706,874 PDF.m2.year. Marine eutrophication potential was the major contributor to the ecosystem damage, accounting for 99.1% of the total. Sugarcane cultivation was the main contributor (28.5%) to eutrophication impacts, followed by rice (28.0%), cassava (16.0%), oil palm (14.8%) and maize (12.7%). Nitrate was the major contributor to marine eutrophication (92.7%), far more than ammonia (6.7%) and nitrogen oxide (0.6%). Seventeen scenarios were developed and analysed in view of mitigating the ecosystem damage through emission reduction. Applications of a nitrification inhibitor (Dicyandiamide) with fertilisers, 4R nutrient management practices (right source, right rate, right time and right place) and the integrated scenario of these two scenarios depicted substantial decreases in ecosystem damage by 46%, 40% and 68%, respectively compared to the damage from existing fertiliser application rates. Therefore, the integrated approach would be recommended as the most effective way to reduce the eutrophication impacts from fertilisers. Existing studies have significantly focused on ammonia mitigation with less attention on nitrate reduction. This assessment revealed that nitrate reduction plays a crucial role in reducing the eutrophication impacts and new policy focuses should include the nitrate reduction. Future studies could consider threshold values for the impacts of freshwater and marine eutrophication to discover the risk level of eutrophication.

Evaluation of CMIP6 GCMs for simulations of temperature over Thailand and nearby areas in the early 21st century.

This study evaluates the performance of 13 global climate models (GCMs) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) for simulating the temperature over Thailand during 2000-2014, for land-only, sea-only, and both land and sea. Both observation and reanalysis datasets are employed to compare with the GCMs, evaluated by five performance metrics including mean annual temperature, mean bias errors, mean seasonal cycle amplitude, correlation coefficient, and root mean square error. GCMs are ranked by relative error of all performance metrics. Results show that the temperatures from most GCM simulations are below the mean reference data (i.e., average of ground-based and reanalysis datasets), with north to south gradient in the range from 19 °C to 33 °C. In addition, all the GCM biases range from -0.07 °C to 2.78 °C and show severity of the temperature changes in spatial pattern ranging from -5 °C to 15 °C. The correlations of most GCMs range from 0.70 to 0.95, while the magnitudes of error are less than 2 °C. Study cases point out that the 13-MODEL ENSEMBLE, CESM2, and CNRM-CM6-1 perform better than the other models in simulating the temperature over Thailand for land-only and sea-only, and both land and sea cases, respectively, while MIROC6 performs the worst for all study cases in this study area. From the designed methodology, CNRM-CM6-1 has the best performance and is the most appropriate choice to simulate the temperature for the overall Thailand area.

Understanding the impacts on land use through GHG-water-land-biodiversity nexus: The case of oil palm plantations in Thailand.

The promotion of biodiesel from palm oil for on-road transportation during the past decade has led to the expansion of oil palm plantations, including in Thailand. Hence, it is necessary to study the effects of land use for oil palm and the linkage between each impact for a holistic understanding. Besides, the consideration of various impact aspects in terms of a nexus is necessary for suggesting appropriate practices or zoning, because a single impact evaluation may not be comprehensive. Therefore, this study assessed the land use impacts from oil palm plantations in the five regions of Thailand. The land use impacts studied were greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, soil quality, and biodiversity. The assessment indicated the southern region to be the most suitable for further expansion of oil palm plantations, which is consistent with the government recommendation. However, if the expansion of oil palm in other regions is necessary, the central region is recommended because of available irrigation supply and better soil fertility compared to other regions. This study found that the land use impacts resulted from unsuitable management of oil palm plantations in the past. The increase of greenhouse gas emissions was mainly due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers for soil quality improvement and water pumping from irrigation water consumption. Meanwhile, the deficiency of water availability led to the degradation of biodiversity and ecosystems. To decrease the land use impacts in the long run, suitable practice is important for sustainable oil palm plantations.

To Rent or Not to Rent: A Question of Circular Prams from a Life Cycle Perspective.

Product-as-a-service business models have been strongly promoted to support a transition to a circular economy. Prams for babies are an ideal product for this type of business model since they are widely used, are mature products, have established design cycles, and are very durable. A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment was conducted to compare the environmental impacts of the pram rental business model and the traditional pram ownership business model to serve all children born in Singapore over a period of 5 years. The results revealed that the total environmental impacts of the rental business model were lower than the ownership business model by 29-46%, depending on the impact category. However, the impacts of the pram rental business model were shown to be higher than the ownership business model if rental prams undergo heavy cleaning more than 10 times per year. It is generally recommended that pram users rent a pram if the alternative choice is to own a pram, use it for only 3 years, and then dispose of it. This study provides policy recommendations focused on partnerships between government agencies and pram rental companies to facilitate greater collection, refurbishment, and recirculation of used prams in the market.

Life cycle assessment of maize cultivation and biomass utilization in northern Thailand.

Maize, a major food source for the world, is a high-yield commodity crop, and one of five major crops in Thailand. Occupying about 33% of the Thai upland farmlands, maize farming has been growing tremendously especially in northern Thailand. However, after harvesting, open burning is widely used in order to get rid of maize cobs and husks in land preparation for the next period. The current maize farming practices have caused several problems to local communities as well as urban dwellers. The objectives of this research were: (i) to analyze the life cycle inventory of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production in northern Thailand using IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 databases; (ii) to evaluate environmental impacts of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production using A Global Scale Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LIME-3) with the results of weighting (Country-specific) based on monetary valuation of end-points. This study evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts in the north of Thailand by using two different databases, IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 with an endpoint-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method (LIME-3). The system boundary of this study includes land preparation, planting, weeding, farming, harvesting, maize cob pellet production and heat production from maize cob pellet and heavy fuel oil. The units of analysis in this study are 1 kg of maize grain, 3.76E-03 MJ of biomass energy production from maize cob and 3.76E-03 MJ of heat production from heavy fuel oil, respectively. The data were obtained from field survey supplemented with the Thai National Life Cycle Inventory Database and other scientific publications. The results included the environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts by using two different databases with LCIA method on the endpoint approaches (LIME-3). The total damage cost based on IDEA v2.0 life cycle inventory (LCI) database in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 4.64E-01 USD and 4.89E-01 USD, respectively. As regards ecoinvent v3.0 database, the total damage cost in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 5.37E-01USD and 5.99E-01 USD, respectively. It can be seen that the total damage cost using different inventory databases in Chiang Dao are slightly higher than Mae Chaem due to different input materials. The result of total cost using inventory data from ecoinvent v3.0 is slightly higher than IDEA v2.0 due to different inventory processes in each database. However, the results in this study demonstrated that the databases show similar trends in the assessment results. On the other hand, certain numerical differences between the databases at some points were found to be more substantial. The results of present study are particularly relevant to policy choices for improving or using the good practices for maize cultivation, which would reduce the environmental performance of maize production systems in the area. To address the air pollution issue from biomass open burning of agricultural residues in the study area, the government agencies in Thailand should be responsible for promoting better biomass management for the future.

International trade, dietary change, and cardiovascular disease health outcomes: Import tariff reform using an integrated macroeconomic, environmental and health modelling framework for Thailand.

United Nations (UN) member states have, since 2011, worked to address the emerging global NCD crisis, but progress has, so far, been insufficient. Food trade policy is recognised to have the potential to impact certain major diet-related health and environmental outcomes. We study the potential for using import tariff protection as a health and environmental policy instrument. Specifically, we apply a rigorous and consistent Macroeconomic-Environmental-Demographic-health (MED-health) simulation model framework to study fiscal food policy import tariffs and dietary change in Thailand over the future 20 year period 2016-2035. We find that the existing Thai tariff structure, by lowering imports, lowers agricultural Land Use Change (LUC)-related GHG emissions and protects against cholesterol-related cardiovascular disease (CVD). This confirms previous evidence that food trade, measured by import shares of food expenditures and caloric intakes, is correlated with unhealthy eating and adverse health outcomes among importing country populations. A continued drive towards tariff liberalization and economic efficiency in Thailand may therefore come at the expense of reduced health and environmental sustainability of food consumption and production systems. Due to large efficiency losses, the existing tariff structure is, however, not cost-effective as an environmental or health policy instrument. However, additional simulations confirm that stylized 30% food sector import tariffs generally improve nutritional, clinical health, demographic, and environmental indicators across the board. We also find that diet-related health improvements can go hand-in-hand with increased Saturated Fatty Acid (SFA) intakes. Despite limited cost-effectiveness, policy makers from Thailand and abroad, including WHO, would therefore be well advised to consider targeted fiscal food policy tariffs as a potential intervention to maintain combined health and environmental sustainability, and to reconsider the specification of WHO dietary guidelines with their focus on SFA intake (rather than composition of fatty acid intake) targets.

Water-energy-food nexus of bioethanol in Pakistan: A life cycle approach evaluating footprint indicators and energy performance.

Water, energy, and food are the most basic and essential sectors for human welfare. However, an inextricable nexus and competition exists among these sectors. Production of molasses-based bioethanol is an interesting case resulting in the production of different food and energy materials while consuming water, energy, land, and other raw materials, throughout its life cycle. This paper briefly describes the nexus among water, energy, and food for bioethanol in Pakistan and its environmental implications. A life cycle approach has been used for evaluating four footprint categories including the carbon, ecological, water scarcity, and energy footprints along with an energy analysis of bioethanol. In comparison to conventional gasoline, bioethanol would have benefits in terms of lesser greenhouse gas emissions, better use of productive land, and superior energy performance, but, this will be at the expense of higher impacts in terms of water scarcity. Therefore, considering only a single aspect could result in inadvertent trade-offs that may go unnoticed. The quantified values would help accomplish integrated resource management along with their utilization within limits so as to be available for other uses. This study could help in developing strategies for optimal management of resources to maximize the synergies and minimize the possible trade-offs.

Evidence on the magnitude of the economic, health and population effects of palm cooking oil consumption: an integrated modelling approach with Thailand as a case study.

BACKGROUND: Palm oil's high yields, consequent low cost and highly versatile properties as a cooking oil and food ingredient have resulted in its thorough infiltration of the food sector in some countries. Longitudinal studies have associated palm oil's high saturated fatty acid content with non-communicable disease, but neither the economic or disease burdens have been assessed previously. METHODS: This novel palm oil-focussed disease burden assessment employs a fully integrated health, macroeconomic and demographic Computable General Equilibrium Model for Thailand with nine regional (urban/rural) households. Nutritional changes from food consumption are endogenously translated into health (myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke) and population outcomes and are fed back into the macroeconomic model as health and caregiver-related productive labour supply effects and healthcare costs to generate holistic 2016-2035 burden estimates. Model scenarios mirror the replacement of palm cooking oil with other dietary oils and are compared with simulated total Thai health and macroeconomic burdens for MI and stroke. RESULTS: Replacing consumption of palm cooking oil with other dietary oils could reduce MI/stroke incident cases by 8280/2639 and cumulative deaths by 4683/894 over 20 years, removing approximately 0.5% of the total Thai burden of MI/stroke. This palm cooking oil replacement would reduce consumption shares of saturated/monounsaturated fatty acids in Thai household consumption by 6.5%/3% and increase polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption shares by 14%, yielding a 1.74% decrease in the population-wide total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio after 20 years. The macroeconomic burden that would be removed is US$308mn, approximately 0.44% of the total burden of MI/stroke on Thailand's economy or 0.003% of cumulative 20-year GDP. Bangkok and Central region households benefit most from removal of disease burdens. CONCLUSIONS: Simulations indicate that consumption of palm cooking oil, rather than other dietary oils, imposes a negative health burden (MI and stroke) and associated economic burden on a high consuming country, such as Thailand. Integrated sectoral model frameworks to assess these burdens are possible, and burden estimates from our simulated direct replacement of palm cooking oil indicate that using these frameworks both for broader analyses of dietary palm oil use and total burden analyses of other diseases may also be beneficial.

Palm oil and dietary change: Application of an integrated macroeconomic, environmental, demographic, and health modelling framework for Thailand.

Palm oil is a cooking oil and food ingredient in widespread use in the global food system. However, as a highly saturated fat, palm oil consumption has been associated with negative effects on cardiovascular health, while large scale oil palm production has been linked to deforestation. We construct an innovative fully integrated Macroeconomic-Environmental-Demographic-health (MED-health) model to undertake integrated health, environmental, and economic analyses of palm oil consumption and oil palm production in Thailand over the coming 20 years (2016-2035). In order to put a health and fiscal food policy perspective on policy priorities of future palm oil consumption growth, we model the implications of a 54% product-specific sales tax to achieve a halving of future energy intakes from palm cooking oil consumption. Total patient incidence and premature mortality from myocardial infarction and stroke decline by 0.03-0.16% and rural-urban equity in health and welfare improves in most regions. However, contrary to accepted wisdom, reduced oil palm production would not be environmentally beneficial in the Thailand case, since, once established, oil palms have favourable carbon sequestration characteristics compared to alternative uses of Thai cropland. The increased sales tax also provokes mixed economic impacts: While real GDP increases in a second-best Thai tax policy environment, relative consumption-to-investment price changes may reduce household welfare over extended periods unless accompanied by non-distortionary government compensation payments. Overall, our holistic approach demonstrates that product-specific fiscal food policy taxes may involve important trade-offs between nutrition, health, the economy, and the environment.

Energy and environmental impact analysis of rice cultivation and straw management in northern Thailand.

Rice cultivation and energy use for rice production can produce the environmental impacts, especially related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Also, rice straw open burning by farmers generally practiced after harvesting stage in Thailand for removing the residues in the rice field is associated with emissions of air pollutants, especially particulate matter formation that affects human health and global climate. This study assessed the environmental burdens, consisting of GHG emissions, energy use, and particulate matter formation (PM10), from rice cultivation in Thailand by life cycle assessment (LCA) and compared the environmental burdens of rice straw management scenarios: open burning, incorporation into soil, and direct combustion for electricity generation. The data were collected from the rice production cooperative in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, via onsite records and face-to-face questionnaires in 2016. The environmental impacts were evaluated from cradle-to-farm gate. The results showed that the total GHG emissions were 0.64 kg CO2-eq per kilogram of paddy rice, the total energy use was 1.80 MJ per kilogram of paddy rice and the PM10 emissions were 0.42 g PM10-eq per kilogram of paddy rice. The results of rice straw management scenarios showed that rice straw open burning had the highest GHG and PM10 emissions. However, rice straw utilization by incorporation into soil and direct combustion for electricity generation could reduce these impacts substantially.

Assessment of ecosystem productivity damage due to land use.

Land use can affect ecosystems on land and their services. Because land use has mainly local effects, damage to ecosystem productivity due to land use should be modelled spatially dependent. Unfortunately, even though land use of impacts are particular importance for countries whose economies are highly agriculture-based, ecosystem productivity damage due to land use has not yet been assessed in Thailand so far. This study presents the method for assessing the damage to ecosystem productivity due to land use (land occupation and land transformation) in Thailand. Ecosystem productivity damage is expressed through net primary production (NPP). To convert the damage into monetary units, this study performs an economic valuation of NPP using the production function approach. The results show that the value of marginal product of NPP is around 10-15 Thai baht (THB) (1 USD≈36 THB), per tonne dry weight biomass. The results are applied to the case of biodiesel production. The method presented in this paper could be a guideline for future land use impact assessment research. In addition, converting the NPP damage results into monetary units facilitates integration of impact assessment and economic analysis results for supporting decision support tools such as cost benefit analysis.

Life cycle GHG evaluation of organic rice production in northern Thailand.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is one of the serious international environmental issues that can lead to severe damages such as climate change, sea level rise, emerging disease and many other impacts. Rice cultivation is associated with emissions of potent GHGs such as methane and nitrous oxide. Thai rice has been massively exported worldwide however the markets are becoming more competitive than ever since the green market has been hugely promoted. In order to maintain the same level or enhance of competitiveness, Thai rice needs to be considered for environmentally conscious products to meet the international environmental standards. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of rice production in order to identify the major emission sources and possible reduction strategies. In this research, the rice variety considered is Khao Dawk Mali 105 (KDML 105) cultivated by organic practices. The data sources were Don-Chiang Organic Agricultural Cooperative (DCOAC), Mae-teang district, Chiang Mai province, Thailand and the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) of Thailand with onsite records and interviews of farmers in 2013. The GHG emissions were calculated from cradle-to-farm by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach and the 2006 IPCC Guideline for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The functional unit is defined as 1 kg of paddy rice at farm gate. Results showed that the total GHG emissions of organic rice production were 0.58 kg CO2-eq per kg of paddy rice. The major source of GHG emission was from the field emissions accounting for 0.48 kg CO2-eq per kg of paddy rice, about 83% of total, followed by land preparation, harvesting and other stages (planting, cultivation and transport of raw materials) were 9, 5 and 3% of total, respectively. The comparative results clearly showed that the GHG emissions of organic paddy rice were considerably lower than conventional rice production due to the advantages of using organic fertilisers.