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Greenhouse gas emissions from the production of cereals and livestock across high-, middle- and low-income countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

Azmat Gani Open the ORCID record for Azmat Gani [Opens in a new window]
Azmat Gani*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, College of Economics and Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 20, Al Khod 123, Muscat, Oman
*
Author for correspondence: Azmat Gani, E-mail: azmat@squ.edu.om
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Abstract

This study examines the effect of cereal and livestock production-induced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) across high-, middle- and low-income countries from 2002 to 2016. A structural equation formulated within an environmental modeling framework is tested using the balanced panel-corrected standard errors estimation procedure. The findings showed that total food production is strongly correlated with methane and nitrous oxide in high-income countries and nitrous oxide emissions in middle-income countries. After disaggregating total food production into cereal and livestock production, the findings revealed that cereal production is positively and statistically significantly correlated with nitrous oxide emissions in high- and middle-income countries. The findings also confirmed that livestock production is positively and statistically significantly correlated with methane and nitrous oxide emissions in high-income countries. Incomes, industrial expansion, forest cover and education are other strong common determinants of GHGs in all three income categories of countries. The prime policy implication of this finding is the need for the food producers to transit toward environmentally cleaner and sustainable food production systems that mitigate GHGs and improve environmental performance and comply with the broader objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 12, 13 and 15 (United Nations, 2015a, p. 3) relating to sustainable production, climate action and life on land, respectively.

Keywords

Cerealfoodincomeslivestockmethanenitrous oxide
Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 36 - 48
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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