An econometric analysis of Greenhouse gas emissions from different agricultural factors in Bangladesh

Abstract

Global climate change triggered by greenhouse gases (GHGs) puts incomparable threats to the environment and food security. Agriculture is one of the key drivers of environmental deterioration, which is linked to GHG emissions and labeled ultrasensitive to climate change. However, there is a scarcity of research exploring the nexus between agriculture and GHG emissions in Bangladesh. Thus, the present study empirically investigates the dynamic impacts of agricultural land expansion, agricultural value added, crop production, livestock production, fisheries production, energy use in agriculture, fertilizer consumption, and forest land on GHG emissions in Bangladesh. Time series data from 1990 to 2018 were utilized by employing the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) approach. The empirical findings reveal that a 1% increase in agricultural land, crop production index, livestock production index, fisheries production, energy use in agriculture, and fertilizer consumption will increase GHG emissions by 0.25%, 0.29%, 0.40%, 0.18%, 0.46%, and 0.28% in the long run. Conversely, a 1% increase in agricultural value added and the forest land may lead to GHG emissions reduction by 0.32% and 1.44% in the long run. The estimated results are robust to alternative estimators such as fully modified least squares (FMOLS) and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). This research contributes to the existing literature by shedding light on the GHG emissions from the agriculture sector of Bangladesh. This article put forward policy recommendations on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture that would enhance productivity and resilience while reducing emissions from the agriculture sector.

Keywords

• Agriculture
• Environment
• Climate change
• GHG emissions
• Renewable energy
• Sustainability