Citation:

Asgharipour, M., H. Shahgholi, Dan Campbell, I. Khamari, AND A. Ghadiri. Comparison of the Sustainability of Bean Production Systems Based on Emergy and Economic Analyses. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT. Springer, New York, NY, 191(1):2, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-018-7123-3

Impact/Purpose:

The development of less intensive and more sustainable agricultural practices is important for the future prosperity and health of people and the environment. This problem is particularly acute in arid and semi-arid environments where the demands for fossil fuel and water are both high. Beans are one of the most important vegetal sources of protein and many people in developing countries rely on them as a major source of protein. For these reasons the development of less resource intensive and more sustainable agricultural practices is of importance in developing countries like Iran, where this study was carried out. Emergy analysis and economic methods were used to evaluate the efficacy of a spectrum of agricultural methods from the low resource intensive ecologic mode to highly industrialized cultivation methods heavily reliant on fuel and fertilizer input. Results showed that the ecologic and the low intensity modes were more sustainable, but the more industrialized modes yield higher economic profits. In a future where fossil fuels will be limited, agriculture may not be the highest priority for their use. The use of more renewable inputs such as organic fertilizer and progressive culture methods, such as conservation tillage, increased nutrient recycling and integrated pest management will be needed to ensure that bean production will be sustainable throughout the world in the future.

Description:

To address increasing demand during the last decades, bean producers have intensified agricultural activities by increasing the use of industrial inputs. Such intensification can impose environmental as well as economic risks to fragile ecosystems. Emergy and economic analyses were used in this study to investigate and compare environmental performance of five management patterns specified by differing degrees of intensification, i.e., ecologic, integrated, low-input, medium-input and high-input production systems at the Khomein Bean Research Station in Khorram Dasht, Iran. The total emergy supporting these systems was estimated to be 6.52E+15, 1.22E+16, 6.62E+15, 1.10E+16 and 1.54E+16 sej ha-1 for the ecologic, integrated, low-input, medium-input and high-input systems, respectively. The purchased emergy inputs accounted for the largest portion of the total emergy inputs to these systems and ranged between 60.84 and 75.80%. The non-renewable purchased resources make the major contribution to the integrated, low-input, medium-input and high-input systems; whereas, the renewable purchased emergy input constitutes the main contribution to the ecologic system. The renewable fractions, transformities, emergy yield ratios, environmental loading ratios, emergy sustainability indices, and the economic output/input ratios demonstrate that the less industrial ecologic and lowinput systems performed well compared to the three more industrial systems when considering their environmental sustainability. However, the more industrial systems had comparatively higher economic output. Generally, the results illustrate that sustainable bean production will depend on the transition from fossil fuel intensive systems to more natural resource intensive ones. To achieve more sustainable systems, applying conservation tillage, replacing chemical fertilizer with organic fertilizer, enhancing nutrient recycling, integrating weed and pest control measures are advocated for use in bean production systems. Joint use of emergy and economic evaluation provided different but complementary standpoints for comparison of the five bean production systems examined, and can assist in solving the problems that may occur in planning and decision-making.

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