analysis on straw storage and transportation cost using activity-based costing: a case study of jiangsu province, china

The high storage and transportation costs restrict the sustainable utilization of straw industrialization. In order to reveal the composition of straw storage and transportation costs, this paper took the field survey data from three straw storage enterprises in Jiangsu Province, Yancheng Jianhu, Yangzhou Gaoyou and Wuxi Yixing as the samples, using the activity -based costing method, made the comparative analysis to the storage and transportation costs of wheat and rice straw. The results showed that the average storage and transportation costs of these three were 148.5 yuan·t^-1 for the wheat and 116.8 yuan·t^-1 for rice, the cost of wheat straw was higher than that of rice straw. In the storage and transportation cost of wheat, field collection cost took 52%, transportation cost took 21% and storage cost took 27% while the percentages were 48%, 21% and 31% respectively for rice. So the field collection cost was the highest, followed by the storage cost and the transportation cost. According to the cost analysis, it was concluded that the mechanized bundling and loading operation under the condition of the straw field collection operation would greatly reduce the collection cost and improve the collection efficiency. In the process of transportation, it was more cost-effective to use high-capacity truck than farm tractor, and to save the cost of vehicle purchase than renting. In storage operation, low-cost land should be selected; on the other hand, the flow rate of straw preprocessing should be increased to reduce the straw loss of storage. Crop straw is an important renewable resources. So reducing its circulation in the cost of operating details, optimizing its circulation can protect the healthy development of straw industry chain.