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Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy

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31-10-2023 | Original Paper

Presenting a new approach for energy-exergy-environmental-economic evaluation of agroecosystems: a case study of the mung bean crop rotation

Author: Fatemeh Nadi

Published in: Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy | Issue 10/2023

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Abstract

Due to resource limitations and challenges caused by accelerating climate change, meeting the world’s growing nutritional needs in a more sustainable way has become an essential global need. One of the strategies for sustainable agriculture is crop rotation. Research on the analysis of the energy consumption of consecutive cultivation has been conducted in many regions of the world. However, the sustainability of crop rotation thermodynamically has not been studied so far. So, in this study farmers were not only ask about the amount of inputs used to produce mungbean, but also, the name of the previous crop. Data were collected based on the pre-mungbean crop (barley, canola, and wheat) and then divided into three groups: wheat–mungbean (WM), barley–mungbean (BM), and canola–mungbean (CM). Considering that the aim of legume cultivation is also to provide protein, this study proposed a new approach to determine the sustainability based on the amount of protein produced for human consumption. The results showed that fuel and chemical fertilizer inputs have the most significant effects on energy use and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in all three agroecosystems. Although manure input has a small share in energy consumption and GHG emissions, it is the most important input in the exergy and unsustainability of all three agroecosystems. According to the results, WM is the most sustainable system if a kg of mungbean is considered as a functional unit. However, BM is the most sustainable agroecosystem if a kg of protein is considered as a functional unit. The CM agroecosystem is the most unsustainable regardless of the criterion.

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Title: Presenting a new approach for energy-exergy-environmental-economic evaluation of agroecosystems: a case study of the mung bean crop rotation
Author: Fatemeh Nadi
Publication date: 31-10-2023
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy / Issue 10/2023
Print ISSN: 1618-954X
Electronic ISSN: 1618-9558
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-023-02614-z

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