Evaluation of Sustainability in Wheat, Onion and Garlic Cropping Systems by Joint Use of Emergy and Economic Accounting

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Background and objective: Sistan is one of the largest wheat producing region in Iran, but wheat production has given way to the production of wheat during the past years.
 
Materials & Methods: In order to analysis the reason behind this conversion, the productivity and sustainability of wheat, onion and garlic systems was examined using emergy and economy evaluation in 2019. In order to research site to have similar conditions, the data required for this study were collected in two villages of Karim Koshteh and Safarzaei, Zabol.
 
Results: Total emergy supporting the systems was estimated to 2.45E+16, 3.12E+16 and 4.73E+16 sej.ha-1 for the wheat, onion and garlic production systems, respectively. The purchased resource accounts for 55.9, 53.4 and 65.4 percent of total emergy flow for the wheat, onion and garlic production, respectively. This shows that the studied both systems are an extremely open system influenced strongly by the input from purchased inputs. The composition of emergy input to these production systems largely was different. The emergy yield ratio was 1.27, 1.15 and 1.90 for wheat, onion and garlic production, respectively. The values are low, indicating that the many process of the two systems converts natural resources from local into product. The environmental loading ratio of garlic systems was, a little bit higher than the wheat and onion systems, and correspondingly the sustainable index is lower than that of wheat and onion. Economic analysis indicated that output/input ratio and the benefit of the garlic production were greater than that of wheat and onion.
 
Conclusion: As a general outcome, these analyses showed that the better environmental performance of the system accmparied by  the worse its economic performance.
 

Keywords


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Appendix:
Garlic systems
1- Solar energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (during growth season, 4.58E+09 J m-2) × (1-albedo, 0.8) = 3.66E+13 J ha-1
2- Wind, kinetic energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (air density, 1.3 kg m-3) × (drag coefficient, 0.002) × (wind velocity, 11.22 m s-1)3 × (growth season, 2.91E+7 s) = 1.07E+12 J ha-1
3- Rain, chemical potential energy (J ha-1): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (evapotranspiration, 0.910 m yr-1) (density, 1,000 kg m-3) (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 4.31E+10 J ha-1
4- Rain, geopotential energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (rainfall, 0.032 m) × (runoff rate, 0.028) ×(average elevation, 480 m) × (density, 1000 kgm3) × (gravity, 9.8 m s-2) = 4.21E+07 Jha-1
7- River water energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (average quantity, 0.580 m) × (conversion, 1000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4900 J kg-1) = 2.84E+10 J ha-1
6- River water evapotranspiration energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (transpiration, 0.397 m yr-1) × (density, 1,000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 1.88E+10 J ha-1
7- Groundwater energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (average quantity, 0.085 m) × (conversion, 1000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4900 J kg-1) = 4.17E+09 J ha-1
8- Groundwater evapotranspiration energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (transpiration, 0.062 m yr-1) × (density, 1,000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 2.94E+09 J ha-1
9- SOM change: -0.11%
SOM reduction weight = (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (0.3 m, soil layer) × (1400 kg.m-3, Soil bulk density) × (0.11%) = 4620 kg
SOM reduction energy: (4620 kg ha-1, SOM reduction weight) × (5400 kcal kg-1) × (4186 J kcal-1) = 1.04E+11 J ha-1
10- Soil erosion (gr ha-1):
Average soil loss from water erosion calculated by USLE model (Vaezi et al., 2008; Ostovari et al., 2016) to be 3.42 E+06 gr ha-1
11- Agricultural Machinery steel (gr ha-1): 3.42E+06 gr (tractor) + 7.0E+05 gr (mouldboard plow) + 6.0E+05 gr (disc plow) + 8.0E+05 gr (leveler) = 5.53E+06 gr ha-1
Assume an economic life of 25 years, yearly work hours 540 h and hours ha-1 of 5 h.
Agricultural Machinery (g) = Σ (steel/economic life/yearly work hours) × hours ha-1 = 2.43E+05 gr ha-1
12- Fuel for machinery (J): (area, 1 ha) × (average quantity, 44.4 kg ha-1) × (conversion, 4.67E+07 J kg-1) = 2.07E+09 J
13- Garlic cloves (IR Rials ha-1): (garlic cloves quantity: 500 kg ha-1) × (garlic cloves price, 1.10E+05) = 5.50E+07 IR Rials ha-1
14- Human labor (J ha-1): (human labour working hour, 1160 h ha-1) × (energy equivalent, 1.96E+06 J h-1) = 2.27E+09 sej ha-1
15- Electricity (J ha-1): (average quantity, 75 kWh ha-1) × (conversion, 3.6E+06 J kWh-1) = 2.70E+08 Jha-1 
 
Onion systems
1- Solar energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (during growth season, 4.52E+09 J m-2) × (1-albedo, 0.8) = 3.62E+13 J ha-1
2- Wind, kinetic energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (air density, 1.3 kg m-3) × (drag coefficient, 0.002) × (wind velocity, 11.21 m s-1)3 × (growth season, 2.89E+7 s) = 1.06E+12 J ha-1
3- Rain, chemical potential energy (J ha-1): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (evapotranspiration, 0.910 m yr-1) (density, 1,000 kg m-3) (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 4.31E+10 J ha-1
4- Rain, geopotential energy (J)= (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (rainfall, 0.032 m) × (runoff rate, 0.028) ×(average elevation, 480 m) × (density, 1000 kgm3) × (gravity, 9.8 m s-2) = 4.21E+07 J ha-1
5- River water energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (average quantity, 0.460 m) × (conversion, 1000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4900 J kg-1) = 2.25E+10 J ha-1
6- River evapotranspiration energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (transpiration, 0.317 m yr-1) × (density, 1,000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 1.50E+10 J ha-1
7- Groundwater energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (average quantity, 0.080 m) × (conversion, 1000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4900 J kg-1) = 3.92E+09 J ha-1
8- Groundwater evapotranspiration energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (transpiration, 0.064 m yr-1) × (density, 1,000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 3.03E+09 J ha-1
8- SOM change: -0.09%
SOM reduction weight = (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (0.3 m, soil layer) × (1400 kg.m-3, Soil bulk density) × (0.09%) = 3,780 kg
SOM reduction energy: (3780 kg ha-1, SOM reduction weight) × (5400 kcal kg-1) × (4186 J kcal-1) = 8.54E+10 J ha-1
9- Soil erosion (J):
Average soil loss from water erosion calculated by USLE model (Vaezi et al., 2008; Ostovari et al., 2016) to be 3.42 E+06 gr ha-1
10- Agricultural Machinery steel (gr ha-1): 3.42E+06 gr (tractor) + 7.0E+05 gr (mouldboard plow) + 6.0E+05 gr (disc plow) + 8.0E+05 gr (leveler) + 1.1E+06 (drill planter) = 6.63E+06 gr ha-1
Assume an economic life of 25 years, yearly work hours 540 h and hours ha-1 of 5 h.
Agricultural Machinery (gr) = Σ (steel/economic life/yearly work hours) × hours ha-1 = 2.92E+05 gr ha-1
11- Fuel for machinery (J): (area, 1 ha) × (average quantity, 62.6 kg ha-1) × (conversion, 4.67E+07 J kg-1) = 2.92E+09 J ha-1
12- Onion seeds (gr ha-1): (Seed quantity: 2.0 kg ha-1) × (seed price, 1.20E+06) = 2.40E+06 IR Rials ha-1
13- Human labor (J ha-1): (human labour working hour, 650 h 1000 m-2) × (energy equivalent, 1.96E+06 J h-1) = 1.27E+09 J ha-1
14- Electricity (J ha-1): (area, 13.5 ha) × (average quantity, 70 kWh ha-1) × (conversion, 3.6E+06 J kWh-1) = 2.52E+08 J ha-1
 
Wheat system
1- Solar energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (during growth season, 3.46E+09 J m-2) × (1-albedo, 0.8) = 2.77E+13 J ha-1
2- Wind, kinetic energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (air density, 1.3 kg m-3) × (drag coefficient, 0.002) × (12.83 m s-1)3 × (growth season, 1.55E+7s) = 8.51E+11 J ha-1
3- Rain, chemical potential energy (J ha-1): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (evapotranspiration, 0.882 m yr-1) (density, 1,000 kg m-3) (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 4.18E+10 J ha-1
4- Rain, geopotential energy (J)= (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (rainfall, 0.03 m) × (runoff rate, 0.028) × (average elevation, 480 m) × (density, 1000 kgm3) × (gravity, 9.8 m s-2) = 3.95E+07 J ha-1
6- River water energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (average quantity, 0.51 m) × (conversion, 1000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4900 J kg-1) = 2.50E+10 J ha-1
5- River water evapotranspiration energy (J): (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (transpiration, 0.349 m yr-1) × (density, 1,000 kg m-3) × (Gibbs free energy, 4,740 J kg-1) = 1.65E+10 J ha-1
7- SOM change: -0.06%
SOM reduction weight = (area, 1 ha) × (10,000 m2 ha-1) × (0.3 m, soil layer) × (1400 kg.m-3, Soil bulk density) × (0.06%) = 2,520 kg ha-1
SOM reduction energy: (2520 kg ha-1, SOM reduction weight) × (5400 kcal kg-1) × (4186 J kcal-1) = 5.70E+10 J ha-1
8- Soil erosion (J):
Average soil loss from water erosion calculated by USLE model (Vaezi et al., 2008; Ostovari et al., 2016) to be 3.42 E+06 gr ha-1
9- Agricultural Machinery steel (gr ha-1): 3.42E+06 gr (tractor) + 7.0E+05 gr (mouldboard plow) + 6.0E+05 gr (disc plow) + 8.0E+05 gr (leveler) + 1.1E+06 (drill planter) + 5.0E+05 gr (harrow) + 4.2E+06 gr (combine harvester) = 1.13E+07 gr ha-1
Assume an economic life of 25 years, yearly work hours 540 h and hours ha-1 of 5 h.
Agricultural Machinery (g) = (area, 1 ha) × Σ (steel/economic life/yearly work hours) × hours ha-1 = 2.98E+05 gr ha-1
10- Human labor (J ha-1): (human labour working hour, 120 h 1000 m-2) × (energy equivalent, 1.96E+06 J h-1) = 2.35E+08 J ha-1
11- Fuel for machinery (J): (area, 1 ha) × (average quantity, 82.0 kg ha-1) × (conversion, 4.67E+07 J kg-1) = 3.83E+09 J ha-1