Investigation of Resources Depletion and Social Costs of Different Management on Rice and Straw

The present study investigated the depletion of natural and fossil resources in rice production process in three Northern provinces (Mazandaran, Guilan and Golestan) in two types of regular cultivating systems (conventional and mechanized) and two types of rice (low and high yield). Also distributed pollutants and social costs were estimated in different rice and straw management. The highest final index was obtained to 6.56 (low yield varieties, mechanized cultivation, Golestan province) and the lowest level was 4.02 (high yield varieties, conventional cultivation, Guilan province). Results of emission of pollutants showed that in first scenario (straw burning in the field) pollutant emissions were much higher than the second scenario (straw packing for animal feed). Also, the highest social cost for burning per hectare of straw was 182.76 $ (high yield varieties, traditional cultivation, Guilan province) and the lowest value was 105.34 $ (low yield varieties, traditional cultivation, Mazandaran province).