Environmental performance in agricultural supply chain: evidence from the major grain crops in China

This paper estimates the carbon shadow price (CSP) of three major grain crops, including rice, wheat, and corn, in China from 2004 to 2018 by applying a nonparametric by-production (BP) model. We further investigate the main driving factors of their environmental factors. The findings show that the carbon shadow price of rice and wheat presents an obvious upward trend over years, but the price of corn does not. The average carbon shadow price of rice is the highest and that of corn is the lowest. There are great differences in environmental performance across provinces. The carbon shadow price is higher in the central and western provinces, especially in the non-grain-producing provinces, while the value in some economically developed areas or agricultural provinces is lower. The trend of carbon shadow prices in different provinces also varies greatly over years. Agricultural innovation has a significantly positive influence on the carbon shadow price of rice, production size and price index of agricultural products have a significantly negative influence on corn’s carbon shadow price, and environmental regulation has a strong positive impact on the carbon shadow price of both rice and wheat.