Ecological footprint, water scarcity footprint, and benefit to cost ratio analysis towards sustainable rice production in Thailand

Thailand is a large producer of rice and the sustainable production of rice is very important. This research aimed at assessing the ecological footprint, water scarcity footprint (WSF), and benefit to cost ratio (B/C) of major and second rice cultivation and ecological footprint of packaged rice production using the life cycle assessment approach. The study areas included provinces in the northern, northeastern, central, and southern regions of Thailand. The ecological footprint of major and second rice cultivation ranged between 1.37-3.33 and 1.39-2.64 gha/t, respectively. Rainwater and irrigation water were the most important resources for the major and second rice cultivation as measured by forest productivity or ecological footprint of forest. Applying the alternate wetting and drying technique could decrease the ecological footprint of major and second rice cultivation to 0.89-2.89 and 0.90-2.14 gha/t, respectively. The ecological footprint of packaged rice ranged from 1.78 to 4.02 gha/t, contributed mainly by the ecological footprint of the forest from the water requirement in cultivation. The WSF of major and second rice cultivation ranged between 2.58-25.4 and 14.2-1021 m3 H2Oeq/t. The variation of WSF resulted from the variation in both irrigation water and water stress index. There was a significant change in the benefit of rice cultivation from 2009 to 2018 resulting in the variation of B/C of major rice from 0.75 to 1.48 and second rice from 0.76 to 1.60. To promote sustainable rice cultivation, cultivation at the provincial and regional levels must have lower ecological footprint and WSF as well as higher B/C than the national average. The ecological footprint, WSF, and B/C results can be used by policymakers to promulgate the area-based policy on reducing resource use and increasing the income for the farmers in Thailand.