Carbon and nitrogen footprint of different peanut rotation systems in Hubei Province, China

Clarifying carbon and nitrogen emissions of different peanut rotation planting system can provide an effective reference to achieve high yield, high efficiency, and low carbon and nitrogen emissions. Based on field surveys on agricultural inputs and field managements, we calculated the carbon footprint and nitrogen footprint of three planting modes (rape-peanut rotation, wheat-peanut rotation and peanut monoculture) in Huanggang, Hubei Province. The results showed that compared with wheat-peanut rotation, carbon emission per unit area of rape-peanut rotation decreased by 7.8%, carbon emission per unit net present value decreased by 36.9%, the nitrogen emission per unit area decreased by 12.5%, and nitrogen emission per unit net present value decreased by 41.9%. Compared with peanut monoculture, rape-peanut rotation reduced carbon and nitrogen emissions by 19.6% and 30.8%, respectively. The net income of rape-peanut rotation was 1.4 times as that of wheat-peanut rotation and 2.4 times as that of peanut monoculture. It is suggested that rape-peanut rotation could achieve the synergistic benefits of high yield and efficiency and low carbon and nitrogen emissions, which is conducive to the green, high quality, and high efficiency production of oil crops.