New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Science News
from research organizations

Coal emissions cost India millions in crop damages

For Indian farmland within 62 miles of a coal plant, eliminating coal emissions could add $820 million annually in wheat and rice output

Date:
February 4, 2025
Source:
Stanford University
Summary:
New research shows grain yields critical to India's food security are dragged down 10% or more in many parts of the country by nitrogen dioxide pollution from power stations that run on coal. Economic losses from crop damages exceed $800 million per year.
Share:
FULL STORY

In many parts of India, a single noxious pollutant from coal-fired power stations drags down annual wheat and rice yields by 10% or more, according to a new study by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability researchers.

The two grains are critical for food security in India, the second most populous country in the world and home to a quarter of all undernourished people globally.

"We wanted to understand the impact of India's coal electricity emissions on its agriculture because there might be real trade-offs between meeting growing electricity demand with coal generation and maintaining food security," said Kirat Singh, a PhD student in environment and resources in the Doerr School of Sustainability and lead author of the Feb. 3 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Clean air and food security

Past studies have sought to quantify overlooked costs of burning coal for electricity by estimating the number of deaths linked to resulting pollution. Government agencies and other organizations use these figures -- and estimates of the economic value of statistical life -- to understand the costs and benefits of various economic development strategies and environmental regulations.

Until now, however, estimates of crop damages specifically tied to coal-fired power stations -- which supply more than 70% of electricity in India -- have been lacking despite more than a decade of research showing that air pollutants such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide hurt crop yields.

"Crop productivity is incredibly important to India's food security and economic prospects," said senior study author David Lobell, the Benjamin M. Page Professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability's Earth System Science Department. "We've known that improved air quality could help agriculture, but this study is the first to drill down to a specific sector and measure the potential benefits of reducing emissions."

Crop damage concentrated in key regions and seasons

For the new study, the authors estimated rice and wheat crop losses linked to emissions of nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, from coal power stations. They used a statistical model that combines daily records of wind direction and electricity generation at 144 power stations in India and satellite-measured nitrogen dioxide levels over cropland.

The authors found coal power plants affected NO2 concentrations above cropland up to 100 kilometers, or roughly 62 miles, away. Eliminating coal emissions from all farmland within this range during key growing seasons (January-February and September-October) could boost the value of rice output across India by approximately $420 million per year and of wheat output by $400 million per year, according to the study.

"This study underscores the importance of looking at environmental issues under a systems lens," said study co-author Inês Azevedo, a professor of energy science and engineering in the Doerr School of Sustainability. "Any policy focused on reducing emissions from coal power plants in India will be ignoring a crucial part of the problem if it does not consider the damages from air pollution to agriculture."

In some states with high levels of coal-fired electricity generation, such as Chhattisgarh, coal emissions account for as much as 13-19% of the region's nitrogen dioxide pollution, depending on the season. Elsewhere, like Uttar Pradesh, coal emissions contribute only about 3-5% of NO2 pollution. Other common sources of the gas, which results from burning fossil fuels, include vehicle exhaust and industry.

Broad benefits from emission cuts

The analysis reveals that the value of lost crop output is almost always lower than the mortality damage caused by any given coal power station. But the intensity of crop damage per gigawatt-hour of electricity generated can often be higher. At 58 of the 144 power stations studied, rice damage per gigawatt-hour exceeded mortality damage. Wheat damage per gigawatt-hour exceeded mortality damage at 35 power stations.

"It's rare to find a single thing -- in this case, reducing coal emissions -- that would help agriculture so quickly and so much," said Lobell, who is also the Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of Stanford's Center on Food Security and the Environment.

The researchers found little overlap among the stations associated with the largest crop losses and those associated with the highest mortality. This means benefits from possible emission reductions in the future could be more significant and widely distributed than previously understood. According to the authors, the results highlight "the importance of considering crop losses alongside health impacts when regulating coal electricity emissions in India."

"Well-targeted policies to cut emissions could deliver thousands of dollars of increased crop output for each clean gigawatt-hour, in addition to all the climate and human health benefits," said Singh.

Lobell is also the William Wrigley Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

Azevedo is also a professor (by courtesy) of civil and environmental engineering, a joint department of the Doerr School of Sustainability and Stanford School of Engineering. She is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Precourt Institute for Energy.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Stanford University. Original written by Josie Garthwaite. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Kirat Singh, David B. Lobell, Inês M. L. Azevedo. Quantifying the impact of air pollution from coal-fired electricity generation on crop productivity in India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025; 122 (6) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2421679122

Cite This Page:

Stanford University. "Coal emissions cost India millions in crop damages." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 February 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250204173806.htm>.
Stanford University. (2025, February 4). Coal emissions cost India millions in crop damages. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 4, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250204173806.htm
Stanford University. "Coal emissions cost India millions in crop damages." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250204173806.htm (accessed February 4, 2025).

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES