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Sustainability assessment and optimization of legumes production systems: energy, greenhouse gas emission and ecological footprint analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2021

Nahid Aghili Nategh*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Sonqor Agriculture Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Narges Banaeian*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Mechanization Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Guilan, Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Alireza Gholamshahi
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Sonqor Agriculture Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Mohammad Nosrati
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Sonqor Agriculture Faculty, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
*
Author for correspondence: Nahid Aghili Nategh, E-mail: n.aghili@razi.ac.ir; Narges Banaeian, E-mail: banaeian@guilan.ac.ir
Author for correspondence: Nahid Aghili Nategh, E-mail: n.aghili@razi.ac.ir; Narges Banaeian, E-mail: banaeian@guilan.ac.ir
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Abstract

This study examined energy, greenhouse gas emission and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) of chickpea and lentil cultivation with different mechanization production systems. In lentil production, except for tillage operations, other operations are performed manually and the remaining straw is burned in the field; while in chickpea production, most of the agricultural operations are mechanized and residues are collected, baled and transferred to the warehouse for animal feed. In this paper, for the first time, some of the sustainability indicators are investigated and compared in two different legume production systems. Energy productivity and net energy for chickpea and lentil production were calculated at 0.036, 0.161 and 2373 and 5900 MJ per hectare, respectively. The CO2 emission and ecological carbon footprint were 173 kg CO2−eq and 0.15 global hectare for lentil and 484 and 0.87 for chickpea production. Totally, due to excessive consumption of diesel fuel and lack of proper management, the social cost of emission from straw baling in chickpea production (27.65 dollars per hectare) was higher than burning straw in lentil production (8.77). Multi-objective genetic algorithm results showed the potential of minimizing diesel fuel and fertilizer consumption and no chemical for chickpea production. Overall audition results of two different production systems revealed that traditional lentil production is more sustainable. Therefore, implementations of modern agricultural practices alone are not enough to achieve sustainability in agricultural production systems.

Information

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Table 1. A summary of the previous research done on energy and environmental management

Figure 1

Fig. 1. Location of the studied area in western Iran.

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Table 2. Different legumes production systems and straw management in Sonqor

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Table 3. Energy and CO2 emission coefficients in the legumes production system

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Table 4. Emission-cost coefficients for background emission indices in the production system

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Table 5. Lower and upper bounds for the optimization problem of lentil and chickpea

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Table 6. Inputs and outputs in three different scenarios of the legumes production system

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Table 7. Energy, ecological footprint and CO2 emission in the legumes production system of Sonqor

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Table 8. Energy input–output ratio in legume production of Sonqor

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Fig. 2. Social costs ($/kg) of straw management in different legume production of lentil and chickpea in Sonqor.

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Table 9. Pollutant gases in straw management of one hectare of legumes production

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Table 10. Coefficient of independent variables for objective functions

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Table 11. Multi-objective genetic algorithm results for chickpea production

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Table 12. Multi-objective genetic algorithm results for lentil production

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Fig. 3. Comparison between chickpea and lentil production for inputs energy savings.

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Table 13. Optimum energy requirement and saving for chickpea and lentil production based on MOGA