【Objective】The middle Yangtze River Valley is one of the major double cropping rice areas in China, and it is of great significance to analyze the carbon footprint of double cropping rice for developing low-carbon agriculture in this region.【Method】According to a survey on farmers, the carbon footprint of double rice production in the middle Yangtze River Basin was estimated using a life-cycle assessment method in the agricultural sector. The proportion of different agricultural inputs in the carbon footprint of double cropping rice production was explored. In addition, the relationships between fertilizer and irrigation inputs and the double cropping rice yield, carbon footprint and the rice grain yield were analyzed.【Result】The results showed carbon footprint per unit yield, carbon footprint per unit biomass and carbon footprint per unit production value for double rice in the middle Yangtze River Valley were 0.67 kg /kg, 0.35 kg/kg and 0.27 kg/CNY, respectively, showing a significant decrease with the increase of double yield. The main components of the carbon footprint were CH₄ (66.2%), Diesel consumption (13.2%) and fertilizer (10.9%). With low grain yield, 22.4% early rice field and 36.7% late rice field were found excessively-fertilized, and 28.4% and 33.5% were excessive in irrigation. There were large potentials in energy saving and emission reduction. A decrease of carbon footprint in early rice and late rice was found in large-sized farms by 29.7% and 37.2%, respectively, compared to smaller ones. This study demonstrated that carbon footprint of crop production could be affected by farm size and climate condition as well as crop management practices.【Conclusion】 Thus, moderate reduction of double-cropping rice area and developing technology that saves water and fertilizer, as well as conservation tillage technology and large scaled farms could help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from double-cropping rice production of the middle Yangtze River Valley.