No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Evaluation of the environmental, economic, and social performance of soybean farming systems in southern Brazil
Abstract
Soybean production has a crucial role in the development of Brazilian agriculture and recently became the most important commodity in Brazilian agribusiness. Various soybean farming systems exist, which are claimed to differ in terms of sustainability performance. In this regard, evaluation of environmental, economic, and social performance of different soybean farming systems in Brazil, by consideration of variability in input parameters, is critically needed. In this context, we evaluated a number of environmental, economic, and social issues for the two main soybean farming systems in southern Brazil, the conventional system, which produces genetically modified (GM) or non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybeans, and the organic system. Data were collected for 2012 from three sources: soybean farms in Paraná, Brazil (15 GM, 15 non-GM, and 15 organic farms), the Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA), and expert elicitation. Monte Carlo simulation was used to account for the variation in input parameters. Five sustainability issues were evaluated in this study: global warming, land occupation, primary energy use, profitability, and employment. Results revealed that, compared with the GM and non-GM systems, organic systems had a higher probability (77%) to have a lower global warming potential. Land occupation was higher and energy use was lower for organic systems than for the GM and non-GM systems at every level of probability. Concerning profitability, organic systems had a higher probability (60%) to have higher profitability compared with GM and non-GM production, and employment was higher for organic systems at every level of probability. Overall, simulation results of this study illustrated the relatively high level of variation in the environmental, economic, and social performance of organic soybean farming systems. This study shows that accounting for variability in key system parameters provides not only insight in the most likely outcomes, but also in the robustness of system performance.
... These prior studies vary in methodological decisions. Primary data collection stands out in the research area (Escobar et al., 2020;Matsuura et al., 2017;Kamali et al., 2017), and the authors mostly employ emission factors and global warming potentials provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Kamali et al., 2017;Raucci et al., 2015;Castanheira and Freire, 2013). Nonetheless, secondary data (Castanheira and Freire, 2013;Zortea et al., 2018) and LICA methods such as ReCiPe (Escobar et al., 2020;Matsuura et al., 2017) and CML (Silva et al., 2010;Zortea et al., 2018) have also been observed. ...
... These prior studies vary in methodological decisions. Primary data collection stands out in the research area (Escobar et al., 2020;Matsuura et al., 2017;Kamali et al., 2017), and the authors mostly employ emission factors and global warming potentials provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Kamali et al., 2017;Raucci et al., 2015;Castanheira and Freire, 2013). Nonetheless, secondary data (Castanheira and Freire, 2013;Zortea et al., 2018) and LICA methods such as ReCiPe (Escobar et al., 2020;Matsuura et al., 2017) and CML (Silva et al., 2010;Zortea et al., 2018) have also been observed. ...
... Also, these papers varied in terms of geographical scope. Among them, only two were conducted in Paraná, with data from 2012 (Kamali et al., 2017(Guareschui et al., 2019. The other papers used the LCA methodology in soybean production in the states of Mato Grosso (Lathuillière et al., 2018;Raucci et al., 2015), Rio Grande do Sul (Maciel et al., 2015;Zortea et al., 2018), in the Brazilian Cerrado (Matsuura et al., 2017), in the Southern Amazonia (Lathuillière et al., 2017), in the South and Center-West regions (Silva et al., 2010). ...
Soybean is a global crop with significant environmental externalities. However, as an agricultural system, it is also vulnerable to extreme events associated with climate change, such as droughts. Nevertheless, there is a gap in the literature regarding how these extreme events can influence the carbon footprint of soybean production. To better understand the climate implications of soybean production, this study assessed and compared the carbon footprint in the Paraná State, Brazil, during the 2020|21 super harvest and the 2021|22 rainfall scarcity. The method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the cradle-to-gate perspective were applied using the ImpactWorld+ for Continental Latin America v.1.251 method to calculate the climate change impacts. The uncertainties of short and long-term climate impacts were calculated by the Monte Carlo simulation. The results showed that the carbon footprint of the 2021|22 harvest was 267% greater than that of the 2020|21 harvest, while the 2020|21 production was 86% greater than that of 2021|22. The reduction in productivity observed in 2021|22 soybean crop contributed the most to the long-term climate impacts and impacts on ecosystems and human health. The study showcased the significant short-term impact of climate change on soybean production but also its equally considerable, long-term impact on global food security.
... Economic feasibility can be examined by several parameters. Firstly, the contribution of the agribusiness chain supply to the benefits of the important actors involved, namely farmers (Pashaei Kamali et al., 2017). The parameters to see the economic feasibility are: 1) B/C ratio, a parameter regarding the feasibility of an economic business because it justifies whether a business profitable or not for its owner (Cita et al., 2016); 2) Farmer's share, is the proportion of the amount paid by the final consumer for the agribusiness product that the farmer receives (Busch and Spiller, 2016). ...
... The parameters to see the economic feasibility are: 1) B/C ratio, a parameter regarding the feasibility of an economic business because it justifies whether a business profitable or not for its owner (Cita et al., 2016); 2) Farmer's share, is the proportion of the amount paid by the final consumer for the agribusiness product that the farmer receives (Busch and Spiller, 2016). Secondly, the agribusiness supply chain must contribute to reducing social problems such as poverty and unemployment (Pashaei Kamali et al., 2017;Hulme and Shepherd, 2003;Hulme & Shepherd, 2003;Hulme & Shepherd, 2003;Bolwig et al., 2010). ...
... In terms of feasibility from a macroeconomic perspective, Gerga agribusiness can become a source of new economic growth if it can overcome poverty problems of the biggest stakeholders involved in this business i.e. farmers (Pashaei Kamali et al., 2017;Hulme & Shepherd 2003;Bolwig et al., 2010) . For this reason, the income of farmers from Gerga's orange farming must be greater than the poverty line of Lebong Regency, the area where this agribusiness is located. ...
This research gave the empirical verification that orange’s agribusiness can be a source of new growth for its center production region, as in case the Gerga’s orange agribusiness for Bengkulu province in Indonesia. It is verified this kind of agribusiness benefited its largest stakeholder, namely farmers, based on parameters such as B/C ratio, farmer's share, and marketing margin. From a macroeconomic perspective, Gerga's agribusiness also can solve macroeconomic problems such as poverty, unemployment, basic needs, and regional minimum wages.
... During the agricultural phases of soybean production, there is an intense exchange of gases with the atmosphere, mainly associated with the photosynthesis, but also related to the nitrogen fixation capability of soy crops. The gases that have major impact to the environment are carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O), all of them responsible for greenhouse effects [38,39]. Croplands and pastures generally emit more CO 2 compared to forest areas, and the global trend to increase agricultural lands including soybean cultures generates great concern. ...
... The CH 4 is especially worrying due to its emission potential of 34 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg, a parameter that has increased in last decades. It is interesting to remember that both gases are also emitted in other sectors of soybean production chain, such as transport and processing, which use fuel as energy resource [38,41]. ...
... However, in terms of total soybeans produced, the carbon footprint is around 270 kg CO 2 eq per ton, for either genetically modified, nonmodified or organic crops. In countries with high production, especially Brazil, the United States, and Argentina, this can become a severe environmental challenge [38]. ...
Soybean is one of the most abundant and cheap sources of high-quality vegetable protein. The most important suppliers of this commodity, as predicted for 2020/2021, are Brazil, the United States and Argentina, with 131, 112 and 53 million tons, respectively. China is expected to remain the greatest consumer (112 million tons). The main products obtained from soybean are the oil, the defatted bran, lecithin and in some cases the protein-concentrate bran. Soybean hulls and soybean molasses are the main residues to be valorized in a soybean biorefinery. This chapter will present the industrial processing of soybean, the variety of soy-derived products and the possible valorization strategies for soybean hulls and molasses. Socio-economic and environmental aspects within the soybean production chain will be addressed in a circular bioeconomy approach.
... Table 1 indicates the sectors of the S-LCA studies. It shows that, to date, the social life cycle assessment has been evaluated in various sectors including the agricultural sector, such as [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] olive production [52], palm oil [53,54], sugarcane [55], pork production [56] cocoa production [57], honey [58], dairy farm [59], citrus production [60], and soybean [61]; the industrial sector, for example assessment of S-LCA on sugar industry [62], water [63,64], bioelectricity [65], energy [66], wood-based products [67], jewelry [68], waste management [69], computer software [70], laptop [71], bridges [72], technology [73], recycling [74], tourism [75], welding technology [76], (see Table 1). Walters and Mirkouei (2020) evaluated environmental and social LCA of the computer software industry to compare different scenarios to reduce time and CO 2 emission, and increase job satisfaction [70]. ...
... Table 1 indicates the sectors of the S-LCA studies. It shows that, to date, the social life cycle assessment has been evaluated in various sectors including the agricultural sector, such as [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] olive production [52], palm oil [53,54], sugarcane [55], pork production [56] cocoa production [57], honey [58], dairy farm [59], citrus production [60], and soybean [61]; the industrial sector, for example assessment of S-LCA on sugar industry [62], water [63,64], bioelectricity [65], energy [66], wood-based products [67], jewelry [68], waste management [69], computer software [70], laptop [71], bridges [72], technology [73], recycling [74], tourism [75], welding technology [76], (see Table 1). Walters and Mirkouei (2020) evaluated environmental and social LCA of the computer software industry to compare different scenarios to reduce time and CO 2 emission, and increase job satisfaction [70]. ...
... Table 2 lists the techniques utilized in S-LCA studies. It can be seen that most LCA scholars integrated S-LCA with environmental aspects by conducting an E-LCA method that is called social environmental life cycle assessment (ES-LCA) [61,65,70,[76][77][78]80,81]. Combining two methods can produce comprehensive and useful information about social and environmental impacts of products' life cycle that contribute to sustainable assessment of products. ...
Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) is an emerging and pivotal tool for sustainability evaluation of products throughout their life cycle. Understanding deeply published papers helps to modify methods and identify research gaps. The aim of this study is to discover the existing gap in the S-LCA of products and to find the weaknesses of the approach. The method of performing the review was a narrative review where published papers from 2006 to 2020 were included through the use of the Web of Science and Scopus databases. S-LCA is considered to be relevant to a majority of sectors and processes (agricultural, industrial, technology, energy, and tourism). However, there is not sufficient research on evaluation of S-LCA on cereal crops and livestock output. It is indicated that, in the present S-LCA studies, there has been a lack of attention paid to the society and value chain actors and final consumer stakeholders. The elements of sexual harassment and employment relationships are not considered in SLCA studies. Italy has the largest amount of cases of S-LCA studies. The major challenges of applying S-LCA (by using site specific data) is data collection, which is time-consuming. It is recommended to evaluate a comprehensive sustainability assessment by adding cost of social assessment to LCA since there has been a lack of attention on assessment of cost in S-LCA.
... Diante do contextualizado, este estudo propõe-se à uma análise diversa daquela desenvolvida por Kamali et al. (2017) e Zortea, Maciel e Passuello (2018, os quais analisaram a sustentabilidade da produção de soja no sul brasileiro, a partir de diferentes abordagens, tipos de dados e público alvo, ou ainda, estudos críticos como de Pessoa (2018) e Sauer (2018, que propuseram discussões acerca do padrão atual de produção de soja e os seus reflexos nos campos sociais, ambientais e econômicos. Frisa-se, portanto, que o estudo ora proposto tem como fator de diferenciação o público alvo da análise, os produtores de soja, considerados um dos elos da extensa cadeia produtiva desse grão (HIRAKURI et al., 2014;KAMALI et al., 2017) e a sua percepção acerca de questões socioambientais nesta atividade. ...
... Diante do contextualizado, este estudo propõe-se à uma análise diversa daquela desenvolvida por Kamali et al. (2017) e Zortea, Maciel e Passuello (2018, os quais analisaram a sustentabilidade da produção de soja no sul brasileiro, a partir de diferentes abordagens, tipos de dados e público alvo, ou ainda, estudos críticos como de Pessoa (2018) e Sauer (2018, que propuseram discussões acerca do padrão atual de produção de soja e os seus reflexos nos campos sociais, ambientais e econômicos. Frisa-se, portanto, que o estudo ora proposto tem como fator de diferenciação o público alvo da análise, os produtores de soja, considerados um dos elos da extensa cadeia produtiva desse grão (HIRAKURI et al., 2014;KAMALI et al., 2017) e a sua percepção acerca de questões socioambientais nesta atividade. ...
... Quanto à ênfase social da produção de soja, esta é relacionada principalmente com melhores condições de vida para todos os envolvidos nesta cadeia produtiva. No que se refere às unidades produtivas, o aspecto social da produção de soja pode ser medido pelas características da geração de emprego nas propriedades (KAMALI et al., 2017); mudanças demográficasleia-se, êxodo rurale desigualdades ligadas à agricultura de larga escala (CORREIA, 2019); e conflitos por posse de terra (SAUER, 2018). ...
A produção de soja tem um papel determinante no desenvolvimento agrícola brasileiro, sendo reconhecida como a commodity mais importante para o agronegócio do país e caracterizada por um processo produtivo exigente, para além das questões econômicas tradicionais. Este artigo objetiva analisar as perspectivas sociais e ambientais da produção de soja, de acordo com a percepção do produtor. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo e que teve aplicação de questionário à produtores de soja do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul/Brasil. A análise estatística descritiva e multivariada demonstra que no geral há responsabilidade socioambiental nesta atividade produtiva, contudo, se entende que esses índices podem ser aperfeiçoados especialmente a partir da conscientização e maior aderência a legislação.
... The existing top-down approaches such as market moratoriums [9], reductions in foreign direct investments [10], and commitments to eliminate deforestation from agricultural commodity chains [11] put pressure on domestic and multinational groups operating in the farming and trading sectors. However, by focusing on output segments, these approaches do not hold accountable the important multinational corporations involved in the input segments, such as seeds, machinery, agrochemicals, and fertilisers [8,12]. ...
... These approaches also offer no trade-offs between reducing domestic investments in farming expansion into new agricultural frontiers and increasing them in agro-industrial sectors such as seeds, machinery, fertilisers, agrochemicals, and trading. The opportunity costs of reducing the expansion of agricultural frontiers can be offset by investments in industrial segments that better remunerate capital and labour [12]. As a consequence, important stakeholders lack accountability in these current approaches to improve governance [13]. ...
... Considering agricultural and agro-industrial practices, new concerns have emerged [7], specifically in areas of the environment [12], transparency [8], and sustainability [28]. Therefore, the development of sustainable food supply chains has gained prominence in recent years [5], with special attention for local characteristics [1] and ecological, environmental, and social dimensions [3]. ...
Background: Although agri-food supply chains have become fundamental for food security throughout the world, some are associated with negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. This study explores the possibilities of transforming the governance in Brazil’s soybean supply chain based on stakeholders’ accountability. Methods: We used secondary data from companies’ reports and statistical yearbooks to identify key stakeholders in the soybean supply chain as well as to explore trade-offs between reducing farming expansion into new agricultural frontiers and increasing investments in agro-industrial sectors. Results: The results reveal that at the global level, multinational corporations along with domestic groups should be held accountable for improving the governance of the soybean supply chain in Brazil since foreign multinationals control 65.4% of it. At the domestic level, losses in Brazil’s farming sector can either be offset by an 11% or 5.2% market share increase in the trading segment or in the whole supply chain, respectively, since Brazilian groups control 93.4% of the farming sector but only 7.1% of the agro-industrial sectors. Conclusions: Global accountability and domestic trade-offs are fundamental for transforming governance in global agri-food supply chains. They serve as a means for overcoming the current strategy of expansion into new farming frontiers.
... The existing top-down approaches such as market moratoriums [9], reductions in foreign direct investments [10], and commitments to eliminate deforestation from agricultural commodity chains [11] put pressure on domestic and multinational groups operating in the farming and trading sectors. However, by focusing on output segments, these approaches do not hold accountable the important multinational corporations involved in the input segments, such as seeds, machinery, agrochemicals, and fertilisers [8,12]. ...
... These approaches also offer no trade-offs between reducing domestic investments in farming expansion into new agricultural frontiers and increasing them in agro-industrial sectors such as seeds, machinery, fertilisers, agrochemicals, and trading. The opportunity costs of reducing the expansion of agricultural frontiers can be offset by investments in industrial segments that better remunerate capital and labour [12]. As a consequence, important stakeholders lack accountability in these current approaches to improve governance [13]. ...
... Considering agricultural and agro-industrial practices, new concerns have emerged [7], specifically in areas of the environment [12], transparency [8], and sustainability [28]. Therefore, the development of sustainable food supply chains has gained prominence in recent years [5], with special attention for local characteristics [1] and ecological, environmental, and social dimensions [3]. ...
Background: Although agri-food supply chains have become fundamental for food security throughout the world, some are associated with negative envi-ronmental and socioeconomic impacts. This study explores the possibilities of transforming the governance in Brazil’s soybean supply chain based on stake-holders’ accountability. Methods: We used secondary data from companies’ re-ports and statistical yearbooks to identify key stakeholders in the soybean supply chain as well as to explore trade-offs between reducing farming expan-sion into new agricultural frontiers and increasing investments in agro-industrial sectors. Results: The results reveal that at the global level, mul-tinational corporations along with domestic groups should be held accountable for improving the governance of the soybean supply chain in Brazil since for-eign multinationals control 65.4% of it. At the domestic level, losses in Brazil’s farming sector can either be offset by an 11% or 5.2% market share increase in the trading segment or in the whole supply chain, respectively, since Brazilian groups control 93.4% of the farming sector but only 7.1% of the agro-industrial sectors. Conclusions: Global accountability and domestic trade-offs are funda-mental for transforming governance in global agri-food supply chains. They serve as a means for overcoming the current strategy of expansion into new farming frontiers.
... This can largely be attributed to the importance of this crop as a staple food, and the potential impacts associated with its production (e.g., the release of methane, and water use) (Abdul Rahman et al., 2019;Cai et al., 2018;Coltro et al., 2017;Habibi et al., 2019;Nunes et al., 2016Nunes et al., , 2017Ramsden et al., 2017;Yodkhum et al., 2017). Moreover, some authors have applied LCA in a joint approach by integrating economic indicators into their analysis (e.g., Costa et al., 2018;Kamali et al., 2016;Ramsden et al., 2017;Ruviaro et al., 2016;Zortea et al., 2018). With the exception of a number of studies that focus on carbon footprint, the majority of the studies have applied a range of indicators to identify hot spots and trade-offs among the agricultural systems. ...
... Disregarding the boundaries of the systems, the production of one tonne of LW in this study was still within the ranges reported for the region. In terms of GWP, Pashaei Kamali et al. (2016) reported 26,800 kg CO 2 eq. tLW − 1 for a croplivestock system in Southern Brazil with cattle grazing soybean residues; this value is similar to the results of the BL_cattle system in this study. ...
... The fossil depletion impact category that was not evaluated by most livestock studies, or was assessed as part of a different impact category. For example, Pashaei Kamali et al. (2016) assessed the impact category fossil energy use and reported that improved pasture systems have a significantly higher impact compared to low input natural pasture systems (i.e., ~27 folds). This tendency is consistent with results pertaining to cattle production, as shown in our study, where the experimental systems presented a 23 folds higher FD than the BL_cattle system. ...
CONTEXT
The adoption of improved crop-livestock (CL) systems is an important strategy to enhance the sustainability of agricultural systems. However, before new CL systems technologies are brought into commercial practice their environmental and economic performance should be scrutinized.
OBJECTIVE
We apply life cycle assessment and profit analysis to compare two technically improved paddy-based crop-livestock systems with a baseline scenario.
METHODS
Attributional life cycle assessment and profit analysis is applied to compare the performance of the three CL systems. We selected six impact categories to investigate the influence of production-related and area-related functional units. Each CL system has been evaluated by employing the crop-by-crop approach as well as the whole system analysis. The baseline scenario represents a traditional CL system in Southern Brazil, where flooded rice is grown as the spring-summer crop followed by beef cattle being released into paddy fields to graze rice straw and regrowth after the cereal is harvested. The experimental systems were managed under no-tillage, sowing of ryegrass in winter for cattle, fertilisation based on soil analysis and crop requirements, agrochemical application based on best management practices; additionally, in one of the improved systems, soybean have been introduced in the rotation with rice.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that the improved experimental systems presented higher productivity and profitability per ha than the baseline systems. The environmental performance was substantially affected by the functional units selected for the evaluation. Production-related functional units benefited the improved systems; conversely, the area-related functional unit benefited the less intensive baseline system. Generally, the CL system where soybean was included in the rotation presented considerably better performance; this was particularly evident with regard to the global warming potential, agricultural land occupation, and water depletion impact categories. Increasing farm inputs in the CL system without including soybean in the rotation increased profit and production per area but brought little advantages to the environmental performance.
SIGNIFICANCE
We expand the understanding of the environmental and economic performance of paddy field-based crop-livestock systems in Southern Brazil, and provide valuable information to researchers, as well as the broader audience interested in the sustainability of agricultural systems.
... Soybean is one of the crops with the greatest impact on agribusiness [2]. Kamali et al. [3] emphasized that soybean production plays a crucial role in the development of agriculture, making it the most important commodity of Brazilian agribusiness. ...
... Bi-criteria analysis for scenario 3 Bi-criteria analysis for scenario 4 Figure 9. Sensibility analysis of θ weight variation for scenario 3 result with waterway (50%)-railway (50%) and scenario 4 result with waterway (75%)-railway (25%). In Figure 10, which represents scenario 5, the analysis of the highlighted light blue region allows for keeping the cost of installing new transshipment terminals at a minimum value of BRL 668 million with an emission reduction in CO 2 by 20.5%, through the reduction of approximately 10,000 km of road traffic. ...
The transport system is one of the main bottlenecks of the world’s largest producer and exporter of soybeans, Brazil. Long-distance truck transportation of grains increases costs, food waste, and CO2 emissions. To handle these problems, the Brazilian government seeks to expand the transportation system through the national transport logistics plan (PNLT), promoting efficient operations. Collaborating on the environmental aspect, this paper proposes sustainable logistic infrastructure for soybean transportation. Investigating the largest grain-producing state in the world, Mato Grosso (Brazil), we show the optimal location for capacitated transshipment terminals untangling the relationship between logistics and sustainability. Besides handling cargo truck costs and CO2 emission, the optimization model considers cities, road distances, transshipment terminals existents, terminals capacities, implementing costs, and locations near waterways and railways. In five scenarios with different combinations of waterways and railways, we contrast the cost of installing terminals and the total road distance traveled under different weights for the environmental components. The results indicate that it is possible to simultaneously obtain the minimum cost of installing transshipment terminals and to reduce emissions by 20% in all analyzed scenarios. We conclude that obtaining strategic solutions at lower costs can be combined with proper environmental responsibility. As contributions, the results allow for advances in the area of sustainable logistics, encouraging the development of new research in Brazil involving the dimensions of sustainability. In addition, the study supports the government’s strategic decisions regarding ongoing discussions on expanding the intermodal soy transport network in the country.
... Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) plays an important role in the development of Brazilian agriculture and has recently become the most important commodity in Brazilian agribusiness (Cavalett and Ortega 2009;Kamali et al. 2017). Soybean cultivation is primarily conducted in Brazil's southern and central-western regions (Kamali et al. 2017). ...
... Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) plays an important role in the development of Brazilian agriculture and has recently become the most important commodity in Brazilian agribusiness (Cavalett and Ortega 2009;Kamali et al. 2017). Soybean cultivation is primarily conducted in Brazil's southern and central-western regions (Kamali et al. 2017). The increase in soybean yield and productivity in previous decades has resulted in increasingly nutritionally demanding plants; therefore, the critical foliar concentrations used for interpretation of critical level are now below those required by plants to express their productive potential. ...
The micronutrient interactions in the process of root and/or leaf uptake can lead to contradictory results in the interpretation of sufficiency concentrations in plants when using only the results of soil analysis, as observed with copper (Cu), which has a negative interaction with other cations, mainly calcium (Ca). To define the critical level of Cu for the two most representative biomes of soybean crops in Brazil, soybean leaves, and grains were collected, and grain yield was evaluated at 52 and 60 sites that were originally covered with forest vegetation ('Atlantic Forest' and 'Cerrado', respectively). In the average of the two biomes, the Cu concentrations in the leaves ranged from 6.7- to 14.4 mg kg⁻¹ for yields of 3,000 and 4,200 kg ha⁻¹, with an average concentration for the maximum estimated yield (MEY) of 10.3 mg kg⁻¹, while for grains Cu concentration ranged from 8.1- to 16.2 mg kg⁻¹ with an average of 12.2 mg kg⁻¹ for MEY. There was a significant correlation between Cu concentrations in leaves and grains, and both proved to be efficient for use in assessing the nutritional status of Cu in soybean crops.
... Scholars associate the connotation of sustainable development with the dimensions of economy, society and environment, and apply this connotation to a wide range of research. For example, Živković et al. [17], Cambero and Sowlati [18], and Kamali [19], respectively, analyzed the influence of biodiesel production and use, supply chain construction of forest biomass energy, and performance and problems of agricultural planting system from the perspectives of sustainable development, namely, economy, society, and environment. Moreover, relevant United Nations agencies believe that sustainable development should include economic, social, and environmental aspects, which are not only different but also interrelated [20]. ...
... The calculation steps are as follows: The first step is to calculate the proportion of the index value of the country i under the index j. Equation (19) shows the calculation formula, where is the index value corresponding to country i under the index j. The second step is to calculate the entropy value of the indicator j, as shown in Equation (20). ...
Considering that the effect of different types of energy on sustainable development differs, the optimization of energy structure is commonly seen as a decisive factor for sustainable development. In this study, we focus on energy structure and construct a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) analysis framework including the environment, society, and the economy. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of different technology shocks on sustainable development when the proportion of clean energy is separately set at 10%, 20%, and 40%. To demonstrate the conclusions of the DSGE analysis framework, we construct the sustainability index and measure the relationship between the sustainability index scores and the proportion of clean energy of 68 countries in 2017, and the of the linear relationship between the sustainability index score and the proportion of clean energy was 0.30. Results show that the technology shock of clean energy exhibits more benefits for sustainable development than that of non-clean energy. Moreover, we find that the optimization of the energy structure can be helpful for the enhancement of sustainable development capacity. This study is helpful to expand the DSGE analysis framework from the perspective of energy structure. This study also provides effective ways and reference suggestions for local governments to optimize energy structure and improve sustainable development capability.
... Brazil is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of food, fibers and energy, being one of the largest producers of coffee, maize, grapes, oil plants, oranges (fruit and juice), soybeans, sugarcane and meat [1]. These agricultural commodities have a crucial role in the development and agribusiness of the country, being the focus of Brazilian production and exports [2]. Agricultural pests limit global food security by reducing crop yields [3,4]. ...
... Total glufosinate sales exceeded 1000 tons year −1 in 2017 (1137 tons) and 2018 (1450 tons), but they are still very far from glyphosate sales (173,150 and 195,056 tons in 2017 and 2018, respectively) [7]. This shown that farmers often prefer to continue living with glyphosate resistance than to adopt a new but more expensive technologies, i.e., the adoption of an HR technology is motivated by the cost-benefit ratio by saving costs devoted to pest control guaranteeing high yields [2]. Therefore, the success of Enlist E3™ and Intacta 2 Xtend® technologies, which will be available in the Brazilian market from 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 crop cycles, respectively, will depend on their final cost; meanwhile, farmers will continue to be reluctant to adopt integrated management measures for herbicide-resistant weed control or new HR technologies [96,97]. ...
Brazil is a large producer and exporter of crops in global terms. Weeds may be responsible for ~14% of crop losses, depending on the crop system. Herbicides occupy 58% of the Brazilian pesticide market; however, the continuous use of these products and the high selection pressure have led to the emergence of weeds resistant to herbicides. Today, there are 51 weed species reported as being resistant to herbicides in Brazil, of which 17 involves cross and multiple-resistance. Acetolactate synthase (ALS), acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) and 5-enolpiruvylshi-kimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPs) inhibitors are the herbicidal groups with the most resistance cases. Soybean, corn, rice, wheat and cotton present 30, 12, 10, 9 and 8 cases, respectively, occurring mainly in herbicide-resistant crop fields from the Southern and Central West regions of the country. To better understand the dimensions of herbicide resistance, in this chapter, we will explore the size of agricultural activity in Brazil, the pesticide market and the use of herbicides in the main crops. In addition, the agronomic, scientific-technical and economic aspects that have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the selection of resistant weeds will be discussed in order to have an overview of the economic impact of herbicide resistance management.
... The examination of economic feasibility can be conducted using various metrics. The study conducted by (Kamali et al., 2017) examines the role of the agribusiness supply chain in generating advantages for critical stakeholders, particularly farmers. The economic viability of a venture can be assessed by considering specific parameters. ...
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kelayakan agrobisnis (usahatani) Jeruk Gerga di Desa Lolo Gedang dan Lolo Kecik Kecamatan Bukit Kerman Kabupaten Kerinci dengan mempertimbangkan perspektif syariah mikro, makro, dan maqashid. Teknik pemilihan sampel petani dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode purposive sampling. Jumlah petani jeruk di kecamatan tersebut berjumlah 26 orang, banyak yang beralih menanam jeruk Madu. Penelitian ini mengkaji budidaya jeruk, khususnya menyasar jeruk yang telah mencapai umur minimal 2 tahun. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan meliputi analisis rasio B/C, saluran pemasaran, margin, Farmer's Share, IPCG - PL > 0, IG - AEON > 0, IPCG - RMW > 0, dan analisis Maqashid syariah. Temuan penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa usaha budidaya Jeruk Gerga di Desa Lolo Gedang dan Desa Lolo Kecik, Kecamatan Bukit Kerman, Kabupaten Kerinci, tidak dapat dipertahankan dalam kondisi saat ini. Hal ini ditentukan oleh margin pemasaran, rasio B/C, dan farm share, serta beberapa faktor lainnya. Selain itu, agrobisnis Gerga Oranye juga masih perlu mencapai kemampuan dalam menyelesaikan permasalahan makroekonomi, antara lain pengangguran, kemiskinan, kebutuhan pokok, dan upah minimum regional. Sebagaimana ditentukan oleh pendekatan maqashid syariah, kesejahteraan produsen Jeruk Gerga pada dasarnya tidak berubah selama budidaya Jeruk Gerga.
... Finally, several recent papers have studied the tradeoff among the economic, environmental, and societal considerations of performance in agriculture. For example, Li et al. (2020) propose a framework for optimal land and water allocation under uncertainty that combines the performance objectives defined with respect to these three dimensions, while Kamali et al. (2017) assess the economic, environmental, and social performance of Brazilian soybean farms. ...
Aiming to achieve sustainable development, a constantly growing number of countries have strived to promote economic growth while simultaneously mitigating environmental degradation and maximizing social welfare. However, despite the importance attributed to social well-being in contemporary discourse, its role has not received much attention in the performance evaluation literature. We propose a novel, multi-stage framework based on three dimensions of performance allowing us to assess the tradeoffs between the economic, environmental, and social efficiency in 28 OECD member countries from 2000 to 2019. We construct several scenarios representing policymakers' preferences by altering the weights assigned to the different performance pillars, allowing us to assess the environmental and social repercussions of economic growth. Our findings suggest that policies promoting relatively balanced growth patterns can offer opportunities for higher performance across all three pillars. At the same time, prioritizing development along any single dimension can trigger a relatively significant drop in progress in terms of the other two pillars. We also demonstrate that the sustainable development potential has varied across time and space. Comparisons suggest that the European OECD member countries have outperformed their non-European counterparts in terms of the economic performance, health outcomes, life expectancy, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Our results can provide policymakers with insights into strategies for promoting economic growth that account for sustainable development objectives.
... Our results of NRE profiles by categories and agricultural management show great dependency on fertilizers as a main external input within the agroecosystems (59-82% of CE), whether in organic or conventional operations. As stated in previous studies the use of fertilizers constitutes by far the largest energy contribution within farms (Smith et al., 2015;Kamali et al., 2017;Stylianou et al., 2020). Any reduction in type and quantity would significantly decrease the energy input, thus improving the efficiency of external inputs (EFEROI) and the final energy return of the farm (NPP act EROI). ...
... The panel has been coherent and an increase in group size could have lead to compromises. For example, we did not want to invite experts that do not fit the group and/or do not have sufficient expertise (Pashaei Kamali et al., 2017). Further, we acknowledge the potential for a selection bias as all experts are partners in the SIMBA project. ...
... For the MCS, the uncertainties will be attributed to the variables that most impact the NPV results. MCS is a tool that uses probability distributions for stochastic variables to perform several iterations to find out what is the impact of the uncertainty of the input variables on the output variables (Kamali et al., 2017). MCS is performed from the numerous runs through different values for the main input variables, which are randomly selected from predefined probability distributions (Jiang et al., 2013). ...
Due to environmental, operational, and regional restrictions, Brazil still has a lot of communities that do not have an integrated electricity supply, however, the government aims to promote universal access to electricity in the country. In this way, diesel oil generators are the main electricity source for these isolated indigenous communities, but in the generation expansion planning, renewable energy sources are an important way to promote a more sustainable generation in these Amazon regions. This article aims to present an economic analysis based on a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis and Cost-Benefit Analysis, using the Monte Carlo Simulation that compares the extension of the diesel capacity versus a PV-diesel-battery (PVDB) system in the Maruwai indigenous community that is located in the state of Roraima (Brazil). The photovoltaic system and the battery storage system are considered an alternative instead of repowering the electricity supply of the increase in on-site diesel generator operation. The results show that the diesel breakeven price is far below the current diesel oil spot price, which indicates that the hybrid system with photovoltaic cells and batteries is more economically feasible. In turn, the stochastic analysis, the results indicate that the hybrid PVDB system is economically attractive, but needs political incentives to mitigate the uncertainties about the average return for the investor.
... Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is a globally important crop because of its chemical composition, nutritional quality, and productive potential (Kamali et al., 2017). In Brazil, soybean is a major agricultural commodity and accounts for approximately 13% of the country's exports (Moreira et al., 2022;Moretti et al., 2020). ...
Mathematical models that incorporate biotic and abiotic attributes are important tools for improving fertilizer use efficiency and reducing production costs for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] crop. In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to estimate soybean grain yield (GY) under subtropical conditions in Brazil from plant morphological and nutritional data collected from 16 cultivars in two growing seasons. The ANNs were adequately trained, with a mean squared error of approximately 10⁻⁵ between the outputs obtained (via ANN) and desired (via experimental field), equivalent to a mean percentage error of 70.1 kg ha⁻¹ (1.6%), confirming their efficacy as a tool to estimate GY. Smaller plant height, higher foliar calcium, magnesium and chlorophyll concentrations, and greater numbers of grains per pod and branches per plant were associated with higher GY, whereas oil content, crude protein content, and foliar manganese and potassium concentrations had no predicted effects on GY.
... Other identified sources of data on fertilizer use in soybean farming in Brazil have not been possible to implement within the scope of this study since the scale of the reported data is either at farm level or just for a single state (e.g. Pashaei Kamali et al., 2017;Riskin et al., 2013bRiskin et al., , 2013aRoy et al., 2016). ...
Global demand for food, including rising consumption of meat and dairy products, is increasing pressure on the environment and natural resources, often in locations distant from points of consumption. To identify and quantify consumer driven impacts and the components of the supply chain where sustainability interventions will be most effective, spatially explicit consumption-linked indicators that encompass environmental risks are required. Large amounts of phosphorus fertilizers are used in Brazilian soybean cultivation, which potentially cause eutrophication and impact freshwater species. We use a sub-national trade model to develop a spatially explicit approach for assessing commodity-driven phosphorus fertilizer use and its potential impact on biodiversity linked to four key consumers. The use of phosphorus for embedded consumption per capita of Brazilian soybean in China, the EU, the UK, and Sweden are estimated at municipal level and combined with metrics that influence losses of phosphorus to create a normalised relative risk index. The relative risk index is presented in geospatial visualisations to explore geographical patterns of risk to freshwater biodiversity and make the link between consumer and producer countries less obscure. The results indicate high phosphorus-linked species risk in municipalities within Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Goiás. Sweden and the UK generate the highest relative risk and the geographical patterns of risk differ between the investigated consuming countries, showing that smaller countries can have relatively large impacts at a spatially explicit scale. In the Amazon biome, risk of nutrient losses and biodiversity are relatively high, creating concerns as soybean production is expanding into the area. The results and methodological approach can contribute to understanding of accountability, agency, and increased transparency for the governance of global supply chains, necessary for enabling transformations towards sustainable food systems.
... On the other hand, in the period 2010-2016, there was only one Brazilian company (EMBRAPA) among the top 10 soliciting transgenic patents in Brazil (FIGUEIREDO et al., 2020). Furthermore, comparing crops of genetically modified soy and organic soy, the latter has a 77% probability of lesser climate impacts and a 60% chance of being more profitable for farmers (KAMALI et al., 2017). Thus, compared to organic products, the GMOs are not necessarily the most sustainable, in addition to the fact that GMOs involve the use of glyphosate, a molecule with deleterious impacts on human health insofar as it undermines the integrity of the intestinal biota, which is fundamental to the regulation of the immune system. ...
This article introduces the debate on low-carbon socio-technical transitions in Brazilian agribusiness, based on the premise that a growing portion of the industry adopts digital technologies in its business models, configuring a new productive paradigm: agriculture 4.0. We use the Sustainability Transitions theory to examine the relationship between agriculture 4.0 and climate change in Brazil, classifying Brazilian agribusiness into three subsectors: family farming, conservative agribusiness, and sustainable agribusiness. The article demonstrates technical, institutional, and political-economic challenges for each of these subsectors to support Brazil's journey towards a low-carbon economy, observing that sustainable agribusiness has performed the best so far.
... No Brasil, é utilizada (FIGUEIREDO et al., 2020). Ainda, comparando-se cultivos de soja comum, geneticamente modificada, e soja orgânica, esta última tem 77% de probabilidade de menores impactos climáticos, e 60% de chance de ser mais lucrativa ao agricultor (KAMALI et al., 2017). Portanto, se comparados aos produtos orgânicos, os OGMs não são necessariamente as tecnologias agrícolas mais sustentáveis, além de utilizarem glifosato, molécula pesticida com impactos deletérios à saúde humana, contribuindo para minar a integridade da microbiota intestinal, fundamental na regulação do sistema imunológico. ...
Este artigo introduz o debate sobre transições sociotécnicas de baixo-carbono no agronegócio brasileiro, partindo da premissa de que parcela crescente do setor adota tecnologias digitais em seus modelos de negócios, configurando um novo paradigma produtivo, a agricultura 4.0. Utilizamos a teoria de Transições para a Sustentabilidade para exa-minar a relação entre agricultura 4.0 e mudanças climáticas no Brasil. Para tanto, classificamos o agronegócio em três subsetores: agricultura familiar, agronegócio conservador, e agronegócio sustentável. O artigo demonstra desafios de ordem técnica, institucional e político-econômi-ca para cada um desses subsetores avançar em direção a uma economia de baixo carbono, sendo o agronegócio sustentável o que tem tido me-lhor desempenho até o momento.
... Nitrogen (N) is the main nutrient for plant growth and good development (Maschner, 2012), and the soybean is one of the principal legumes and sources of oil and protein in the world (Kamali et al., 2017). The objective of this study was to evaluate if the N, cobalt (Co), molybdenum (Mo), and nickel (Ni) application improve N concentration in soybean foliar and grains. ...
... To date, there are several S-LCA researches in the agricultural sector globally, such as olive production in Italy (Iofrida et al. 2020), pork in Sweden (Zira et al. 2020), cocoa in Malaysia (Sharaai et al. 2020), honey in Italy (D'Eusanio et al. 2018), dairy farm in Ireland (Chen and Holden 2017), citrus in Italy (Iofrida et al. 2019), soybean in Brazil (Pashaei Kamali et al. 2017), sugar in Thailand (Prasara-A and Gheewala 2018), and milk (Revéret et al. 2015), and eggs in Canada (Pelletier 2018). Only a limited study (Prasara-A and Gheewala 2019) considered the S-LCA of rice production in Thailand. ...
Purpose
Sustainable agri-food production is incredibly important for society. Despite Iran and Malaysia being one of the highest production countries for paddy rice, there is no study on the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) for rice production for both countries in the literature. The lack of data and complexity of social issue are the challenges of conducting the S-LCA study. This study compared the social impacts from the related stakeholders in the life cycle of paddy rice production between Malaysia and Iran.
Methods
This study applied S-LCA based on UNEP (UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, 2020) as an evaluation technique to investigate social issues and social performance of paddy rice production in Malaysia and Iran. This research included workers, local communities, and farmers as the stakeholders. The inventory data were collected by using questionnaires. The subcategories for evaluation were adapted from UNEP 2020 guideline. The items in the questionnaire were separately validated by experts in Malaysia and Iran, and the reliability was done by conducting pilot studies in Malaysia and Iran. The questionnaires were distributed by multistage sampling method. The following four steps were conducted following the ISO14040 framework: (1) goal and scope definition, (2) social life cycle inventory analysis (S-LCI), (3) social life cycle impact assessment (S-LCIA), and (4) interpretation.
Results and discussion
The result showed that the social performance of workers and farmers in Malaysia was better than Iran because of low cost with high yield for farmers, contributing to increased income. Rice cultivation in Iran for local community did not show good performance regarding health and safety because of burning of rice residue. Around 62% of local Iranian people reported air pollution from rice residue burning. However, the overall social performance for local community was not different in Iran and Malaysia, showing good performances with respect to job opportunity. Sexual harassment was identified as one of the negative social issues in Iran with the score of 60%, including unwanted sexual attention. Moreover, the farmers showed poor performance in Iran, resulting from low satisfactory from income, and low yield and high cost of paddy production in Iran.
Conclusion
The key investigation from this research revealed that social performance of crop production in different geographical areas could show different results. The key finding from this study reported that modern agriculture could increase social and economic performance by reducing the production cost, and increasing productivity and social performance in terms of satisfactory from income for farmers. The result of this study can be used for policy makers to improve social performance by using modern agriculture.
... However, there have been reports of decreased protein content in grains with increased soybean productivity, probably because of N dilution in the plants. If this inverse relationship continues, management alternatives will be necessary to increase the crop productivity and protein content, mainly because of the importance of soybean meal as a component of animal feed (Kamali et al. 2017). ...
Foliar fertilization with nitrogen (N) and nickel (Ni) at the end of the vegetative stage can decrease the abortion of flowers and pods of the plants and increase the productivity and protein content of soybean. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of N and Ni foliar application on the yield components and oil and protein content in soybean. The experiment was performed in a completely randomized design with six treatments (control [only inoculation], urea, ammonium sulfate [AS], nickel chloride [NiCl2], NiCl2+ AS, and NiCl2+ urea) and five replicates. Foliar application with urea increased the soybean grain yield (GY) by 46%, whereas the NiCl2 foliar application or NiCl2+ urea and NiCl2+ AS applications decreased the GY, shoot dry weight (SDW), weight of pods per pot, root volume, and grain size. N (AS and urea) and NiCl2 foliar applications had no effect on the oil and protein content in the grains, and application of 60 g ha⁻¹ of Ni (132.4 g of NiCl2) caused a toxic effect on the plants and negatively influenced the GY and quality of grains.
... Currently, one out of four agribusiness products in circulation worldwide is Brazilian (EMBRAPA, 2020). In addition, soybean has become a protagonist in developing Brazilian agribusiness (Caetano et al., 2018;Kamali et al., 2017). In 2019/2020, Brazil produced 128.5 million tons of soybeans, of which almost 72% were exported (United States Department of Agriculture -USDA, 2021). ...
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the complexities of the Brazilian soybean supply chain (SSC) and develop strategic interventions to improve the origin system’s performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used stakeholder interviews to identify the SSC bottlenecks and determine and assess drivers of competitiveness. A methodological framework based on the systems thinking approach for developing long-term structural changes was used. The problem was structured using behavior over time graph and causal loop modeling to propose three investment strategies to solve the logistics problem in SSC.
Findings
This study highlights the gaps in coordination between stakeholders and the public sector regarding the public policy for infrastructure investment. Three strategic interventions were developed to address the agro-industrial logistical problem, namely, investment in storage, multimodal transport systems and improvements in existing transport infrastructure. To overcome transport and storage logistics limitations, the authors suggest different forms of partnerships, including public-private partnerships.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited to evaluating an agricultural commodity (soybean) and does not include its by-products. The sample of stakeholders was limited and the boundary of analysis was Brazil. Nevertheless, the study showed how strategic interventions could be developed following a holistic analysis.
Practical implications
The proposed integrated approach illustrates the development of three strategic initiatives. It can be implemented by stakeholders, including the public sector, which is the basis for providing assertive long-term investments in Brazilian logistics.
Social implications
The SSC analysis could promote the implementation of systemically determined interventions and strategies. It could significantly improve the performance of agricultural systems and help the formulation of public policies aimed at rural development.
Originality/value
The use of system dynamics to identify intervention points is an essential contribution to mitigating the SSC’s hindrances. Moreover, the combining methodologies resulted in comprehensive intervention strategies.
... Subsequently, an analysis of the regression mapped values by input variable was applied(Zinnanti et al., 2019;Kamali et al., 2017;Ghasemi et al., 2012). This analysis measures the amount of change in the output (mapped values) due to a one standard deviation change in one input variable, while other input variables remained unchanged at their mean value. ...
... The global sales of organic food and drink reached more than EUR 96 million in 2018 [2]. The fundamental difference between the organic and conventional systems of production is related to soil fertility, which can affect chemical composition and therefore quality of the plant, including the content of secondary metabolites, besides the yield [3]. Soybean is an excellent crop for organic production because it improves soil structure and leaves considerable amounts of nitrogen in the soil for subsequent crops [4]. An observation of data for the period from 2009 to 2018 (Table 1) shows that areas under organic soybean cultivation are increasing both in Europe and worldwide [5]. ...
Soybean production in the system of organic agriculture is not very demanding, and this has been well documented both through experimental results and commercial production. However, one of the biggest problems in organic production is the lack of adequate pre-sowing treatments. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of the electrostatic field. This is a physical treatment that was first used for seed treatment in the 18th century but has mostly been neglected since then. Seeds of five soybean genotypes with differently colored seed coats (yellow, green, dark green, brown, and black) were included in this study. The seeds were exposed to different values of direct current (DC) with the following voltages: 0 V (control), 3 V, 6 V, and 9 V, to which the seeds were exposed for 0 min (control), 1 min, and 3 min. After exposing the seeds to the electric field, the physiological properties of seeds and seedlings at the first stage of growth were evaluated. The results show that the effect of the electrostatic field on seed quality depends on the genotype, voltage, and exposure time. The application of DC can be a suitable method for improving seed germination and the initial growth of soybean seedlings. In addition, the results indicate that it is necessary to adjust the DC treatment (voltage and duration of exposure of seeds) to particular genotypes since inadequate treatments may reduce the quality of seeds.
... The mean difference between organic and conventional farming systems explained that six of the sub themes in organic were significantly different from conventional. Other empirical studies (Bonisoli et al., 2019;Berg et al., 2018;Kamali et al., 2017;Crowder and Reganold, 2015;Panneerselvam et al., 2015) showed that organic farming is economically better than conventional in terms of investment. The organic farming system is more profitable than the conventional system due to price premiums, most especially so when the crops are grown for exports. ...
The potential of organic agriculture to contribute to sustainable development in Ghana is unclear. This article assesses the sustainability performance of organic and conventional cocoa farming systems in Ghana. Data was collected from 398 organic and conventional cocoa farmers using the SMART-Farm tool. Compared to conventional cocoa farming systems, we found a higher environmental sustainability performance in organic cocoa farming systems regarding water withdrawal (+29%), species diversity (+26%), land degradation (+24%), genetic diversity (+24%) and greenhouse gases (+22%). The organic farming systems performed better compared to conventional in profitability (+20%) due to market premiums, gender equity (+27%), and verbally committed to sustainability topics (+25%). Agronomic practices had a strong influence on the observed sustainability performance, especially the environmental performance. Typical organic cocoa farming system has small farm sizes, spends more hours weeding manually since chemical weedicides are prohibited and has more diverse crops. Measures to improve performance is paramount for farming systems sustainability.
... In the literature, there is a preference for studies with an economic focus to evaluate soybean and corn crops individually (Kamali et al., 2017;Robusti et al., 2019;Garbelini et al., 2020). Thus, these studies usually consider only one crop, instead of the double summer crop system, in which, different sowing date possibilities of each crop may greatly affect the economic result (Melo et al., 2012;Volsi et al., 2020). ...
The success of soybean-maize double summer crop is very dependent on the sowing date and relative maturity group of cultivars. This study aimed to evaluate the economic feasibility of the adoption of soybean-maize double cropping under different sowing periods and soybean maturity groups. The production data used were obtained from two summer growing seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) in an experiment carried out at Dois Vizinhos-PR, Brazil. The economic feasibility of each treatment was evaluated through the indicators of gross revenue, gross margin, operating profit, and profitability index. Soybean-maize succession is viable and presents positive profitability. Soybean establishment on October 15th makes it economically unfeasible to sow maize (outside the zoning) as a 2nd summer crop. Soybean maturity groups from 5.1 to 5.3, when sown on October 1st allow profitability and better financial balance, being this combination the most suitable for a double summer crop. Soybean genotypes with maturity group 6.0 are an option for sowing in the middle of September, being the most lucrative and efficient arrangement, providing maize sowing in the middle of February, within the agroclimatic zoning of the region.
... By so doing, it is possible to observe the magnitude and direction of the effect of input variables on the output in each scenario. Subsequently, we opted for an analysis of the regression mapped values by input variable (Zinnanti et al., 2019;Kamali et al., 2017). This analysis measures the amount of change in the output (mapped values) due to a one standard deviation change in one input variable, while other input variables remained unchanged at their mean value. ...
• Due to the low profitability of extensive sheep farming in southern Europe, strategies to improve economic performance are needed.
• The paper aims to evaluate the performance of a quality label and an
increased prolificacy strategy under price and cost risks.
• The increased prolificacy performs much better in terms of average gross margin, whereas the quality label appears vulnerable to price drops.
• The joint implementation of quality and productive efficiency strategies could compensate for their respective weaknesses.
• The paper brings to light weaknesses of quality labels, and quantifies their economic performance in lamb production.
... Researchers also disagree about the effects caused by converting conventional farms to organic farms [47]. According to some of them, organic certification has a positive effect on farmers' income [48][49][50]. The organic farming system leads to specific consequences, such as (i) the reduction of production costs owing to lower use of pesticides and fertilizers, (ii) the increase of income through the price premium given by consumers [51][52][53], and (iii) the economic payment and the offset of crop yields [54]. ...
While there is growing recognition of the positive role played by organic farming in the reduction of the negative externalities due to conventional agriculture, there is uncertainty about the effect of the latter on the economic performance of the farms. In this scenario, the present paper aims at investigating the effect of organic farming on technical efficiency in Italian olive farms. A cross-section dataset was analyzed through the stochastic frontier function, where the adoption of organic farming was explicitly modeled. Then, to obtain an unbiased estimate of the impact of organic farming on technical efficiency, a propensity score matching method was implemented. The findings reveal that organic farming increases technical efficiency in Italian olive farms by approximately 10%. The highest impact of organic farming is observed in small farms. As for the propensity to become organic, we found that the production and the direct sales of a higher quality of gross marketable output, as well as the intensity of labor and machines, increase the probability to adopt organic farming. Conversely, farm localization, the availability of family labor, and financial capital discourage conversion to the organic farming system.
... pesticides and fertilizers) for the production of soy also lead to GHG emissions. 64 Other stages of the soy life cycle also contribute to GHG emissions: soy oil extraction, crude oil refining and biodiesel production lead to substantial emissions. Moreover, the transportation of soy products also leads to considerable emissions. ...
''Soy is the second most traded food commodity in the world and one of the main drivers of commodity-driven forest loss. Growth in population and changes in consumption behaviors foreshadow more soy production and thus – unless the sustainability of its supply chain is addressed – a rise in deforestation. In order to avoid environmental damage caused by soy production and consumption, stakeholders in both the supply and demand of soy need to work towards systematically improving the global supply chain. This includes strengthening standards and safeguards of soy production in producer countries, notably Brazil and Argentina, and measures that increase the demand for sustainable soy in importing regions. Measures by the EU and China, the main global importers of soy, are particularly important to reduce the demand for unsustainable soy.''
''In particular, this study aims to understand the implications of soy production for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how EU actors can improve the SDG impact of soy production and consumption. The present study is the outcome of a nine-months assessment which builds upon several pieces of research, including a stakeholder analysis, the development of an analytical framework, an inception workshop with the GIZ and the BMZ (27.03.19), as well as consultations with more than 20 key soy supply chain stakeholders and experts.''
... 9 This record production has been made possible by the introduction and rapid adoption of herbicide resistant crops, mainly those resistant to glyphosate (GR), which were officially introduced in 2005. 10 From 2008 to 2018, the area cultivated with GRsoybeans went from 14.1 (65% of the soybean planted soybean) to 33 (95% of the soybean planted area) million hectares. 8 Resistance to acetolactate synthase (ALS) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors in soybean cultivation was already widespread by the mid-2000s in Brazil. ...
The occurrence of multiple herbicide resistant weeds has increased considerably in glyphosate-resistant soybean fields in Brazil; however, the mechanisms governing this resistance have not been studied. In this study, the target-site and nontarget-site mechanisms were characterized in an Eleusine indica population (R-15) with multiple resistance to the acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors, glyphosate, imazamox and paraquat. Absorption and translocation rates of 14C-diclofop-methyl, 14C-imazamox and 14C-glyphosate of the R-15 population were similar to those of a susceptible (S-15) population; however, the R-15 population translocated ~38% less 14C-paraquat to the rest of plant and roots than the S-15 population. Furthermore, the R-15 plants metabolized (by P450 cytochrome) 55 and 88% more diclofop-methyl (conjugate) and imazamox (imazamox-OH and conjugate), respectively, than the S-15 plants. In addition, the Pro-106-Ser mutation was found in the EPSPS gene of this population. This report describes the first characterization of the resistance mechanisms in a multiple herbicide resistant weed from Brazil.
... In the perspective of agricultural production, McNabb [37] describes a viable agriculture as economically sustainable, environmentally friendly, resource-conserving, able of sustaining its efficiency and functionality to society over the long run and socially supportive. Therefore, organic agriculture is said to be an appropriate and sustainable alternative for improving food security [28], increasing farmers' income [38,39] and decreasing input cost [40,41], producing healthy food for household consumption [28] and maintaining an eco-friendly environment [42][43][44]. ...
The argument on whether organic agriculture can produce enough food to cater for the world’s growing population has been debated severally by various scholars. While organic farming is rapidly increasing, the paramount question is to know how organic farming can yield to viable systems of producing food. This paper aims to identify the benefits and context reliant performance of organic farming as a development trail to sustainable farming. Gathering of articles from different peer review journals was used to develop this paper. The findings of this paper show that organic farming has many potential benefits including higher biodiversity, improved soil, and enhanced profitability as well as supporting local production, with locally produced source inputs. The findings also show that organic farming is environmentally friendly, promotes distribution of resources, and is economically and socially acceptable to mankind. In order to have a clear view of the contribution that organic farming plays on sustainability, further research is necessary.
... In this case, people call for further separation of energy efficiency, including unsympathetically speaking about unpack and get a better understanding. The findings of the study is consistent with Ouedraogo (2017) and Pashaei Kamali et al. (2017). Figure 1 shows the GDP of G7 countries. ...
The study tries to discover the impact of financial and social indicators’ growth towards environmental considerations to understand the drivers of economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions change in G7 countries. The DEA-like composite index has been used to examine the tradeoff between financial and social indicator matters in environmental consideration by using a multi-objective goal programming approach. The data from 2008 to 2018 is collected from G-7 countries. The results from the DEA-like composite index reveals that there is a mixed condition of environmental sustainability in G-7 countries where the USA is performing better and Japan is performing worse among the set of other countries. The further result shows that the energy and fiscal indicators help to decrease the dangerous gas emissions. Divergent to that, the human and financial index positively contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Fostering sustainable development is essential to successfully reduce emissions, meet established objectives, and ensure steady development. The study provides valuable information for policymakers.
... farmers and consumers-should do the weighting. Experts can also provide reliable results that are similar to those produced by stakeholders (Kamali et al. 2017). We used experts as proxy respondents because this was cheaper and faster than involving a large number of representatives of all stakeholders, and because obviously, the pig, as a stakeholder, cannot speak for itself. ...
PurposeSustainable animal food systems are increasingly important to society. Yet for pork, the most consumed meat product in Europe, there is no social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) in the literature. The breath and complexity of social issues and lack of data makes the task challenging. This study examines the risk of negative social impacts in Swedish pork production systems and includes workers, farmers, consumers, local community, society, and pigs as stakeholders.Methods
The objective was to assess the risk of negative social impacts for the production and consumption of 1000-kg pork (fork weight—bone free meat including cooking losses) originating from two different systems: organic and conventional pork production. Relevant social sustainability issues for pork production systems were identified through a literature search and a consultative workshop with experts. A life cycle inventory was conducted to collect data for activity variables and compute Social Risk (SR), a measure of the risk of negative social impacts related to a reference (here the average European social conditions). Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) was used to obtain weights for subcategories. The SR scores and the weights were used to calculate Social Risk Time (SRT) that relates the Social Risk to the functional unit by considering the ‘exposure’ to the risk, and the Social Hotspot Index (SHI), which relates the SRT to the worst possible situation for that system.Results and discussionThe conventional pork system had 42% of inventory indicators with SR > 0.5 and the organic pork system had 32%. For all stakeholders, the pig farm had the largest SRT in both production systems except for workers in the organic pork system where the soybean farm had the largest SRT. In the conventional pork system, society as well as farmers at the pig farm had SHI > 0.5 slightly, meaning performing the same as European average. In the organic pork system, SHI < 0.5 for all stakeholders and subsystems.Conclusion
Swedish pork production has lower risk of negative social impacts than the average European social conditions for most of the stakeholders: workers, pigs, local community, and consumers. Farmers and society at the subsystem pig farm have the same risk of negative social impacts as the average European social conditions. Due to the dependence of the results of the chosen reference level, the reliance on certification, and the indicators included, results should be interpreted and used with care.
... The study by Kamali et al. (2017), presents another approach, seeking to evaluate the environmental, economic and social performance of soybean cultivation in southern Brazil, based on information from plantation farms, Embrapa (Brazilian Agricutural Research Corporation) and specialists in the area. This research was focused on five sustainability issues: global warming, area of occupation, use of primary energy, profitability and employment. ...
This study aims to analyze the sustainability in the context of soybean cultivation by the cultivators’ perspective. The research is descriptive, with quantitative evidences operationalized through the application of questionnaires to a sample of soybean producers in the state of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. It was executed descriptive analysis of the profiles of the soybean farmers and the properties and technical-agronomic aspects profiles, then subsequently, a correlation analysis between variables from the producers and properties profiles with the environmental, social and economic of sustainability dimension. By the result of the research, it was observed that the majority of soybean producers have been doing this work for 30 years, with low schooling. In addition, regarding the structure of the properties, the area intended for soybeans varies in the sample from 5 to 2,300 hectares, with 25.1% of producers allocating more than 296 hectares for this cultivation. In the production process, it was noticed that most producers use different inputs, such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and fertilizers, besides the care with the soil through the use of no-tillage system and search from crop diversification. In producers’ perspective of the sustainability, it is identified some significant associations between certain producers’ profiles and property variables with environmental, economic and social topics. However, the evidences, it is suggested a wariness from these analyses, since there is a disagreement in the literature on sustainability in agricultural activities, such as soybeans, because of the complexity of assessing the performance of farmer perception and sustainability indicators.
The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of the foliar application of molybdenum (Mo) and nickel (Ni) on the grain yield, yield components, and oil and protein contents in the grains of soybean cultivated under two edaphoclimatic conditions in Brazil. The following soybean genotypes were evaluated at the beginning of the R1-R2 growth stage: 'Brasmax Desafio RR', in the municipality of Londrina, in the state of Paraná; and 'TMG 7063 IPRO' and 'Brasmax Desafio RR', in the municipality of Selvíria, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The treatments consisted in the application of four Mo rates (0, 400, 800, and 1,600 g ha-1) and three Ni rates (0, 60, and 120 g ha-1). The soybean genotypes exhibited varying responses to the two edaphoclimatic conditions. The foliar application of Mo is an effective strategy to increase the grain yield and protein content of 'TMG 7063 IPRO' e 'Brasmax Desafio RR'. However, with the application of 120 g ha-1 Ni, both genotypes show the worst performance for yield components and oil and protein contents. The 'Brasmax Desafio RR' genotype presents varied responses across different soil and climate conditions.
In recent years, interest in studying the climate and environmental impact of organic food has grown. Here, we compared the environmental impacts of organic and conventional food using data from 100 life cycle assessment studies. Most studies focused on climate impacts, with fewer addressing biodiversity loss and ecotoxicity. Findings revealed no significant differences in global warming, eutrophication potential, and energy use per mass unit. However, organic food showed lower global warming, eutrophication potential, and energy use per area unit, with higher land use. Additionally, organic farming showed lower potential for biodiversity loss and ecotoxicity. Challenges in life cycle assessment include evaluating biodiversity, toxicity, soil quality, and carbon changes. The choice of functional units influences results, highlighting the importance of considering multiple units in assessing organic food’s environmental footprint. This study emphasizes the necessity for comprehensive assessments at both product and diet levels to support informed decisions.
Climate governance in Brazil is necessarily connected to the interests of three sectors: deforestation and land use change, agriculture, and energy, which, combined, represent around 90 percent of the country's emissions. While there is a significant number of studies on the first sector, few studies have looked into the bottlenecks of decarbonization in the agricultural and energy sectors. Thus, this article addresses some modulations in Brazilian climate politics and policy by analyzing the interest groups associated with low-carbon transitions in these two sectors. We particularly look into corporate and industrial interests and their dynamic relations with domestic and international policies, which so far have resulted in 'climate coordination gaps' that hinder deep decarbonization in these sectors. The results of the study detail actors, agendas, policies, interests, and challenges for a low-carbon transition in agriculture (family farming and agribusiness) and in the energy sector. The results corroborate the relevance of interest group analysis to understand the complexity of Brazil's domestic climate politics and policy, as well as the country's behavior in foreign policy arenas regarding climate change.
Intensive agriculture involves significant input of chemicals and monoculture, which lead to degradation of soil fertility. Degraded soils cause environmental pollution via erosion and nutrient leaching and require large financial investments. Therefore, restoring soil fertility or creating fertile soil is critically important. The fertility level is determined from the complex physical, chemical, and biological properties of soil. Traditional technologies based on introducing massive doses (up to 20 t/ha or higher) of organic matter can increase soil fertility and provide a large quantity of high-quality crops but reduces the economic efficiency and environmental safety of farms and regions. Numerous modern reports demonstrate that besides organic matter, Si fertilizers, Si-rich soil amendments, and microorganisms are essential for soil fertility management and maintaining nutrient balance in the soil-crop system. In greenhouse tests, the effects of conventional NPK fertilizers, compost, Si-rich soil amendments, Si fertilizer, Bacillus amyloliquefasciens, and a mixture of compost with Si and microbes on the yield and quality of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers were determined. The data obtained showed that conventional NPK fertilizers increased yield but reduced the quality of vegetables and initiated the reduction of soil pH, carbon content, and cation exchange capacity (CEC). All these changes could contribute to soil degradation processes. A combination of organic compost, Si, and bacteria had the best effect on yield (89–201% increase) and quality (increased Brix and reduced nitrate). Application of combined additives increased organic matter and soil adsorption properties and stabilized pH, thereby benefiting soil fertility. The suggested approach could be applicable in any soil-climatic zones due to the widespread availability of organic wastes and Si-rich industrial by-products.
The soil conservation in agriculture may contribute to productivity and sustainable production. The objective was to measure the mass loss rate of cellulose decomposition process in agriculture systems, in different cultivation times (more than 30 years vs. less than 10 years) considering forest in conservation unit and close anthropic forest as control systems. We used substrate bags of two mesh sizes (0.5 mm vs. 10 mm) in soil surface for 30, 60 and 90 days in all systems (agriculture systems vs. close anthropic forest and forest in conservation unit). Cellulose decomposition ecosystem service decreased by a quarter (effect size range ± -22 to -26%) in the studied agriculture systems compared to forests systems, highlighting the cotton strip breakdown process as a good ecological indicator. High species richness and plant strata in forest systems increase the mass loss compared to agriculture systems. The difference between 10 and 30 year of agriculture systems ranges from 3% (total decomposition) to 7% (microbial decomposition), lower in 30-year systems. Also, forest fragments near agriculture systems are refuge for detritivore macrofauna and may retain the ecosystem service on these productive areas.
Current agricultural practices are increasingly considered to be unsustainable, causing serious threats to the
environment. To meet international and European sustainability goals, the transition to sustainable agriculture is
pivotal and ways to achieve it are currently under discussion. Conventional agricultural systems are typically
highly productive, ensuring high yields for feeding a growing global population, but with significant environmental
costs. Contrarily, organic agriculture is perceived as a sustainable farming option, however, is often
criticized for achieving lower yields, so that when this factor is taken into account, its advantages are often
questioned. To compare the environmental performance of different cropping system, life cycle assessment (LCA)
has been increasingly applied over time. The present work aims at systematically reviewing LCA studies that
consistently assess and compare the environmental impacts of organic and conventional crop systems, enabling
the understanding of the environmental performance of organic and conventional management systems,
including a broad spectrum of impacts (15 environmental indicators in total). The systematic review, complemented
with a meta-analysis, resulted in the selection and analysis of 77 pairwise comparative LCA studies.
These perform a comparison between the two cultivation management systems (i.e. organic and conventional) of
a specific crop or group of crops, cultivated under similar pedoclimatic conditions in both systems, and show
consistency in the main LCA methodological choices. Independently from the functional unit adopted (mass or
land-based) and despite the lower yields, organic systems show overall a better environmental performance than
conventional ones. These results are valid for the majority of the impacts assessed (climate change, ozone
depletion, ecotoxicity, human toxicity, acidification, eutrophication, use of resources, water, and energy).
Certain crop classes systematically show lower impacts when organically cultivated, although exception exists
within the same class (e.g. overall trend valid for fruit but not for apples). Fertilisation resulted to be the
cultivation process responsible for most of the impacts in conventional systems, playing a key role also in organic
systems together with activities linked to machinery and field operations. The heterogeneity of modelling approaches
encountered makes the comparison of cropping systems difficult and the definition of trends challenging.
Modelling differences were found regarding the choice of functional unit and inventory models to
estimate emissions, the inclusion or exclusion of certain processes or flows in the inventory, and the selection and
modelling of impact categories. In addition, key aspects such as soil quality, biodiversity and water use are still
poorly investigated.
Currently, food with low levels of pesticides, sustainable agricultural practices and increased crop productivity have gained prominence worldwide. Rhizobacterial inoculants are an alternative to manage large crops that favors sustainable plant growth. Thereby, this study aimed to assess the effect of increasing doses of inoculant based on the rhizobacterium Bacillus subtilis Bs10 compared to the commercial product based on B. subtilis on the development of soybean culture. Two experiments were carried out with two soybean cultivars, M8210 IPRO and M8615 IPRO, assessed at the vegetative and reproductive stages. Doses of B. subtilis Bs10 with 0, 100, 200, 300, 400 mL per 50 kg seeds were inoculated in each experiment, as well as an additional treatment with commercial product based on B. subtilis. Biomass, nodulation, plant height, internodes, number of pods and number of grains of soybean cultivars were assessed. The inoculation of B. subtilis Bs10 significantly (p < 0.05) improved the agronomic characteristics of both soybean cultivars with an increase in shoot and root biomass, nodulation, phosphorus content, and accumulation of nitrogen in the aerial part. The doses of B. subtilis Bs10 between 200 and 350 mL had significant prominence in increasing the variables studied herein.
Purpose
This literature review aims to present the current methodologies that have been developed to perform a social life cycle assessment (sLCA) and to display the main differences among them. In addition to that, to identify the nexus between sLCA and circular economy (CE) and to what extent this life cycle technique has been involved within CE studies.
Methods
An analysis of scientific literature using online databases was made. A total of 76 publications, including all industry sectors worldwide, were chosen spanning 11 years, from 2009 to 2020. Special attention was made to the methodology used to assess the social impacts, the impact categories analyzed, and whether there is or not a circular economy case. All the impact categories of both UNEP/SETAC and PSIA were taken into account when doing the review, and the top three of the categories are mentioned here.
Results and discussion
The leadership of the UNEP/SETAC methodology is clear with 58 cases. Almost 90% of the case studies are focused on products while the remaining ones are related with services. Workers are the most considered stakeholder when conducting an sLCA research, followed by local communities and society. Regarding the impact assessment, the performance reference point (PRP) was the most common method used. When considering the CE even when some cases included the end-of-life stage in the system boundaries, the studies did not consider the actors from that stage; excluding these cases, one out of four articles has a link with CE, a promising proportion taking into account the early stage of both concepts (i.e., sLCA and CE).
Conclusions
UNEP/SETAC guidelines seem to be the most promising methodology due to its reception among the scientific community. However, a more industry-oriented approach is proposed by the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics (PSIA) in a way to respond to manufacturing companies’ demand. Regardless of the type of methodology to be implemented, workers represent the key stakeholder when assessing social impacts. The change in usual patterns is leading to a change in the way how stakeholders interact and therefore new and more impacts may arise, and that is the reason why it is important to include the CE into the sLCA. A series of challenges such as the feasibility of aggregating all the life cycle techniques to one (life cycle sustainability assessment), data availability, and quality are still present for the moment.
Ensuring national food security amidst ongoing economic development whilst both protecting the environment and reducing the dependence on fossil fuels are significant challenges for Chinese sustainable development. The main objectives of this study were to reveal irrigated crop (wheat, maize, and sunflower) performance in terms of energy, economic, and environmental aspects in China’s largest designed irrigation area, Hetao irrigation district (HID), and to evaluate agricultural suitability based on plant structure. An integrated indicator and comprehensively assessment method were used to evaluate the above objectives based on the results from in-person surveys. The results show that maize exhibits the best overall performance compared to two other major crops (wheat and sunflower), which supports the government policy of adjust and optimize the planting structure program (AOPST), an effective way to achieve the multiple-objectives for sustainable agricultural development. However, reducing fertilizer remains a more critical factor than AOPST. These study results provide useful guidance for policy-makers and relevant stake-holders both in a regional context for the HID and at the global agricultural governance and management level.
Although methodological development of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is still under discussion, an increasing number of case studies have been published in recent years. A necessity to strengthen methodological trade-offs and obtain a consistent basis for future LCSA case studies exists. The aim of this research is to identify how LCSA is being applied for each of the pillars of sustainability (environmental, economic and social) and how results are being integrated into the decision-making process. To achieve this aim, a systematic review of case studies was conducted. The methodology followed includes research questions to guide the process, search guidelines for selecting case studies to analyse and assessment rules to identify information to extract. The descriptive and content analyses of case studies provided key findings related to the main goals, divergences in the scope of the pillars of sustainability, data collection sources, the most readily applicable impact indicators for each of the three pillars of sustainability, operational research methods applied as drivers for communication and decision processes. In addition, the incipient interactions between LCSA and new sustainability approaches as circular economy and Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) is analysed. As a final conclusion, further research should be carried out to achieve consistency in the selection of the scope for each pillar of sustainability. This would make it possible to develop more accurate indicators for quantifying the social impact and to point out advantages and disadvantages of operation research methods for communication and support in decision-making.
Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) crop started to be planted in the Brazilian Cerrado in the 1970's, and this region currently contributes with 57% of total soybean production in Brazil. Under natural conditions in this region, the soils present chemical limitations such as low pH, low Cation Exchange Capacity, low nutrient availability, and moreover, clayey soils have a high P fixation capacity mainly due to high contents of Fe/Al oxides. Since P is the most limiting nutrient is this region, a study was performed in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, in a Typic Hapludox, with clayey texture and low available P (extracted by resin). Treatments were defined to evaluate soybean response to broadcast Arad phosphate rock (PR) plus banded triple superphosphate (TSP) and to evaluate the soybean response to three proportions of PR and TSP. The experiment was established in October 2004 and was carried out for three consecutive crop years (2004/05 to 2006/07). The associated use of PR and TSP, in several situations, resulted in yields at least similar to that obtained with the use of the water soluble P source and, in some cases, even using lower P rates. Regarding the "mixtures", a linear response was observed when they were banded; however, when they were broadcasted, no increase in yield was observed above 50% of relative solubility. In conclusion, the association of sources differing in solubility may be a feasible agronomic option for P fertilizer management of soybeans.
This study used a stochastic bioeconomic simulation model to simulate the business and financial risk of different broiler
production systems over a 5-yr period. Simulation analysis was conducted using the @Risk add-in in MS Excel. To compare the
impact of different production systems on economic feasibility, 2 cases were considered. The first case focused on the economic
feasibility of a completely new system, whereas the second examined economic feasibilities when a farm switches from a conventional
to an animal welfare-improving production system. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the key drivers of economic
feasibility and to reveal systematic differences across production systems. The study shows that economic feasibility of systems
with improved animal welfare predominantly depends on the price that farmers receive. Moreover, the study demonstrates the
importance of the level and variation of the price premium for improved welfare, particularly in the first 5 yr after conversion.
The economic feasibility of the production system increases with the level of welfare improvements for a sufficiently high
price level for broiler meat and low volatility in producer prices. If this is not the case, however, risk attitudes of farmers
become important as well as the use of potential risk management instruments.
Prediction of flyrock distance has a remarkable role in reduction and control of blasting accident in surface mines. In this paper, at first a new empirical equation for predicting flyrock distance was developed using dimensional analysis. The equation extended based on controllable blasting para-meters that compiled from 150 blasting events in Sungun copper mine, Iran. Then, flyrock phenomenon is simulated using this equation and Monte Carlo (MC) method. Results showed that MC is a good means for modeling and assessing the variability of blasting parameters. Finally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the effects of the controllable blasting parameters on flyrock distance. Based on correlation sensitivity, the most effective parameters were powder factor, stemming and burden. Finally, it should be noted that the proposed flyrock equation and obtained results are site-specific; it should be used only in the Sungun copper mine, and it should not be used directly in other surface mines.
In a series of focus groups during 2001 and 2002, organic farmers from different regions of the United States identified a wide range of risks to their operations. The focus groups were facilitated by the University of Maryland in cooperation with a research team from USDA's Economic Research Service, to explore the risks faced by organic farmers, how they are managed, and needs for risk management assistance. Contamination of organic production from genetically modified organisms was seen as a major risk, particularly by grain, soybean and cotton farmers. Focus-group participants producing grains and cotton—many of whom knew about and had obtained crop insurance—raised concerns about coverage offered, including the need for insurance to reflect the higher prices received for organic crops. Most fruit and vegetable producers participating in the focus groups had little knowledge of crop insurance. When provided with basic information about crop insurance, operators of small fruit and vegetable farms were skeptical about its usefulness for their type of operation.
Numerous reports have emphasized the need for major changes in the global food system: agriculture must meet the twin challenge of feeding a growing population, with rising demand for meat and high-calorie diets, while simultaneously minimizing its global environmental impacts. Organic farming—a system aimed at producing food with minimal harm to ecosystems, animals or humans—is often proposed as a solution. However, critics argue that organic agriculture may have lower yields and would therefore need more land to produce the same amount of food as conventional farms, resulting in more widespread deforestation and biodiversity loss, and thus undermining the environmental benefits of organic practices. Here we use a comprehensive meta-analysis to examine the relative yield performance of organic and conventional farming systems globally. Our analysis of available data shows that, overall, organic yields are typically lower than conventional yields. But these yield differences are highly contextual, depending on system and site characteristics, and range from 5% lower organic yields (rain-fed legumes and perennials on weak-acidic to weak-alkaline soils), 13% lower yields (when best organic practices are used), to 34% lower yields (when the conventional and organic systems are most comparable). Under certain conditions—that is, with good management practices, particular crop types and growing conditions—organic systems can thus nearly match conventional yields, whereas under others it at present cannot. To establish organic agriculture as an important tool in sustainable food production, the factors limiting organic yields need to be more fully understood, alongside assessments of the many social, environmental and economic benefits of organic farming systems.
We used Life Cycle Assessment to scenario model the potential reductions in cumulative energy demand (both fossil and renewable) and global warming, acidifying, and ozone-depleting emissions associated with a hypothetical national transition from conventional to organic production of four major field crops [canola (Brassica rapa), corn (Zea mays), soy (Glycine max), and wheat (Triticum aestivum)] in Canada. Models of these systems were constructed using a combination of census data, published values, and the requirements for organic production described in the Canadian National Organic Standards in order to be broadly representative of the similarities and differences that characterize these disparate production technologies. Our results indicate that organic crop production would consume, on average, 39% as much energy and generate 77% of the global warming emissions, 17% of the ozone-depleting emissions, and 96% of the acidifying emissions associated with current national production of these crops. These differences were almost exclusively due to the differences in fertilizers used in conventional and organic farming and were most strongly influenced by the higher cumulative energy demand and emissions associated with producing conventional nitrogen fertilizers compared to the green manure production used for biological nitrogen fixation in organic agriculture. Overall, we estimate that a total transition to organic production of these crops in Canada would reduce national energy consumption by 0.8%, global warming emissions by 0.6%, and acidifying emissions by 1.0% but have a negligible influence on reducing ozone-depleting emissions.
The aim of this study was to apply the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, from cradle to gate, to quantify the environmental burdens per 1,000 kg of expected edible carcass weight in the 3 main broiler production systems in the United Kingdom: 1) standard indoor, 2) free range, and 3) organic, and to identify the main components of these burdens. The LCA method evaluates production systems logically to account for all inputs and outputs that cross a specified system boundary, and it relates these to the useful outputs. The analysis was based on an approach that applied a structural model for the UK broiler industry and mechanistic submodels for animal performance, crop production, and major nutrient flows. Simplified baseline feeds representative of those used by the UK broiler industry were used. Typical UK figures for performance and mortality of birds and farm energy and material use were applied. Monte Carlo simulations were used to quantify the uncertainties in the outputs. The length of the production cycle was longer for free-range and organic systems compared with that of the standard indoor system, and as a result, the feed consumption and manure production per bird were higher in the free-range and organic systems. These differences had a major effect on the differences in environmental burdens between the systems. Feed production, processing, and transport resulted in greater overall environmental impacts than any other components of broiler production; for example, 65 to 81% of the primary energy use and 71 to 72% of the global warming potential of the system were due to these burdens. Farm gas and oil use had the second highest impact in primary energy use (12-25%) followed by farm electricity use. The direct use of gas, oil, and electricity were generally lower in free-range and organic systems compared with their use in the standard indoor system. Manure was the main component of acidification potential and also had a relatively high eutrophication potential. The LCA method allows for comparisons between systems and for the identification of hotspots of environmental impacts that could be subject to mitigation.
Although several studies have found biodiesel to be a renewable source of energy, there has been a claim that it is not. This article investigates models used to calculate the net energy ratio (NER) of biodiesel production to point out the reasons for the contradictory results, compares their strengths and weaknesses, and proposes a uniform model for interpretation of the final result. Four commonly referenced models were compared for their assumptions and results. The analysis revealed that the most significant factors in altering the results were the proportions of energy allocated between biodiesel and its coproducts. The lack of consistency in defining system boundaries has apparently led to very different results. The definitions of NER used among the models were also found to be different. A unified model is proposed for biodiesel energy analysis to answer the renewability question. Using the unified boundary, a range of probable NERs was calculated using bootstrapping. The mean NER on a mass basis was 2.55 with a standard deviation of 0.38. The economic sustainability ratio (ESR) is defined as the monetary value ratio of biodiesel to biodiesel's share of the energy inputs. The average ESR was found to be 4.43 with a standard deviation of 0.6.
Organic agriculture can be traced back to the early 20th century, initiated by the Austrian
spiritual philosopher Rudolf Steiner. It was later diversified by a number of key people, and more
recent versions are guided by principles issued by the International Federation of Organic
Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), founded in 1972. Organic practices were built upon the life
philosophies and convictions of the founders regarding how to perceive nature. Today, those original
views and ideas are considered as history. However, to understand the principles and opinions of
modern organic agriculture, such as the exclusion of water-soluble inorganic fertilisers, we analysed
the original ideas and arguments of the founders, who shared the common principle of relying on
natural processes and methods, seen as a prerequisite for human health. For example, the British
agriculturalist Sir Albert Howard, who together with Lady Eve Balfour founded the British Soil
Association, claimed that healthy soils are the basis for human health on earth. In their view, healthy
soils could only be obtained if the organic matter content was increased or at least maintained.
Later, the German physician and microbiologist Hans-Peter Rusch together with the Swiss biologists
Hans and Maria Müller, focused on applying natural principles in agriculture, driven by the conviction
that nature is our master and always superior. Even though these early ideas have been abandoned
or modified in modern organic agriculture, the principle of the founders regarding exclusion of
synthetic compounds (fertilisers and pesticides) is still the main driver for choosing crops and pest
control methods.
Results from long-term experimental trials suggest that similar yields and lower costs are possible with organic compared to conventional soybeans, but there is little information about the relative costs and returns on commercial farms. This study examines the profitability of commercial soybean production using a nationwide survey of soybean producers for 2006 that includes a targeted sample of organic growers. Treatment-effect models are specified to isolate the impact of choosing the organic approach on various levels of soybean production costs. Organic soybean costs range from about 6 per bushel higher than those for conventional soybeans due to both lower yields and higher per-acre costs, while the average organic price premium in 2006 is more than $9 per bushel. High returns to organic production are attributed to the significant price premiums paid for organic soybeans in 2006, and these price premiums have remained high in 2007 and 2008. However, much higher conventional soybean prices and increased fuel prices may have reduced the incentive for planting organic soybeans.
The expansion of livestock production throughout the world has led to increased demand for high protein animal feed. This expansion has created economic benefits for livestock farmers and other actors in the chain, but also resulted in environmental and social side effects. This study aims to identify a set of sustainability issues that cover the environmental, economic and social dimensions of soymeal and beef production chains. The method applied combines the results of multiple studies, including a literature review and stakeholder surveys. Stakeholder surveys were conducted for three different interest groups (business, consumers, and other stakeholders) and two geographical regions (Latin America and the European Union). Our results reveal that the selection of issues in most sustainability assessment studies is a relatively arbitrary decision, while the literature also states that identifying issues is an important step in a sustainability assessment. Defining sustainability issues from a whole chain perspective is important, as issues of sustainability emerge at various stages along the production chain, and are found to vary across stakeholders’ interests. Business stakeholders, for example, perceived economic issues to be more important, whereas the majority of consumer stakeholders and other stakeholders perceived social and environmental issues, respectively, to be more important. Different education levels, knowledge, and living patterns in various geographical regions can affect the stakeholders’ perceptions. The combination of a heterogeneous group of stakeholders and the consideration of multiple chain stages constitutes a useful approach to identify sustainability issues along food chains.
Purpose
Production of feed is an important contributor to life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprints (CFPs), of livestock products. Consequences of methodological choices and data sensitivity on CFPs of feed ingredients were explored to improve comparison and interpretation of CFP studies. Methods and data for emissions from cultivation and processing, land use (LU), and land use change (LUC) were analyzed.
Method
For six ingredients (maize, wheat, palm kernel expeller, rapeseed meal, soybean meal, and beet pulp), CFPs resulting from a single change in methods and data were compared with a reference CFP, i.e., based on IPCC Tier 1 methods, and data from literature.
Results and discussion
Results show that using more detailed methods to compute N2O emissions from cultivation hardly affected reference CFPs, except for methods to determine leaching (contributing to indirect N2O emissions) in which the influence is about −7 to +12 %. Overall, CFPs appeared most sensitive to changes in crop yield and applied synthetic fertilizer N. The inclusion of LULUC emissions can change CFPs considerably, i.e., up to 877 %. The level of LUC emissions per feed ingredient highly depends on the method chosen, as well as on assumptions on area of LUC, C stock levels (mainly aboveground C and soil C), and amortization period.
Conclusions
We concluded that variability in methods and data can significantly affect CFPs of feed ingredients and hence CFPs of livestock products. Transparency in methods and data is therefore required. For harmonization, focus should be on methods to calculate leaching and emissions from LULUC. It is important to consider LUC in CFP studies of food, feed, and bioenergy products.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) calculates the environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle. Uncertainty analysis is an important aspect in LCA, and is usually performed using Monte Carlo sampling. In this study, Monte Carlo sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, quasi Monte Carlo sampling, analytical uncertainty propagation and fuzzy interval arithmetic were compared based on e.g. convergence rate and output statistics. Each method was tested on three LCA case studies, which differed in size and behaviour. Uncertainty propagation in LCA using a sampling method leads to more (directly) usable information compared to fuzzy interval arithmetic or analytical uncertainty propagation. Latin hypercube and quasi Monte Carlo sampling provide more accuracy in determining the sample mean than Monte Carlo sampling and can even converge faster than Monte Carlo sampling for some of the case studies discussed in this paper.
This paper uses data envelopment analysis to compute overall technical and input-specific technical efficiency measures of conventional and organic farms in Finland. Moreover, productivity measures are determined, indicating differences in technology employed by organic and conventional farms. The data are from crop and livestock farms over the period 1994-1997. The results show that organic farms are on average more efficient relative to their own technology, but use a less productive technology than conventional farms.
The aim of this article is to help confront uncertainty in life cycle assessments (LCAs) used for decision support. LCAs offer a quantitative approach to assess environmental effects of products, technologies, and services and are conducted by an LCA practitioner or analyst (AN) to support the decision maker (DM) in making the best possible choice for the environment. At present, some DMs do not trust the LCA to be a reliable decision‐support tool—often because DMs consider the uncertainty of an LCA to be too large. The standard evaluation of uncertainty in LCAs is an ex‐post approach that can be described as a variance simulation based on individual data points used in an LCA.
This article develops and proposes a taxonomy for LCAs based on extensive research in the LCA, management, and economic literature. This taxonomy can be used ex ante to support planning and communication between an AN and DM regarding which type of LCA study to employ for the decision context at hand. This taxonomy enables the derivation of an LCA classification matrix to clearly identify and communicate the type of a given LCA. By relating the LCA classification matrix to statistical principles, we can also rank the different types of LCA on an expected inherent uncertainty scale that can be used to confront and address potential uncertainty. However, this article does not attempt to offer a quantitative approach for assessing uncertainty in LCAs used for decision support.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the soybean production and industrial processing stages in Brazil using the emergy accounting methodology and economic cost and revenue estimation in order to assess the environmental and economic inputs to the soybean chain and to evaluate the amount of emergy and nutrients exported to European countries. The main findings of this work were that the agricultural stage uses the highest amount of resources. The emergy exchange ratio shows that farmers are delivering around six times more emergy in the soybean that is being sold than the emergy they are receiving with the money paid for it. Results demonstrate that producing raw soybean and soy meal for international markets makes Brazil lose a great amount of emergy and nutrients. Besides that, soybean production is nowadays providing low profitability to farmers because of low prices for soybean products and high prices for the chemicals used in soybean farming. Therefore, at present conditions, exporting soybean as a commodity results in low profit per unit of area.
Models and Sensitivity AnalysisMethods and Settings for Sensitivity Analysis – an IntroductionNonindependent Input FactorsPossible Pitfalls for a Sensitivity AnalysisConcluding RemarksExercisesAnswersAdditional ExercisesSolutions to Additional Exercises
The Dutch dairy chain is aiming to achieve energy-neutral production by bringing the whole chain from dairy farm to factory ultimately to be self sufficient in energy in year 2020, through a combination of wind, solar and biogas. This paper investigated the economic feasibility of producing green gas from digestion of dairy manure and other co-substrates. A simulation model of producing 17 PJ of green gas from 2 business models, stand-alone and central upgrading was developed. Probability distributions were chosen to describe the profitability and risks for individual business models and for the aggregate energy production at dairy sector level. Data sources, among others, stem from 23 operating biogas plants in Netherlands. Simulation results showed that the probability of a negative net present value (NPV) is less than 50% for both individual models. The probability that the combined business models producing 17 PJ will result in a negative NPV is 23%. A total of 109 plants are needed to produce the total energy, requiring 8.5% of the total amount of cattle manure produced in the Netherlands to be processed. Sensitivity analysis based on spearman rank correlation coefficient between NPV and each of the sample input distributions showed that biogas yield and investment costs have significant effect in determining the NPV values.
This article, the second in a series looking at the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST), reports on the profitability of six conventional and organic systems, with a focus on net returns and associated risk exposure. Several pricing scenarios were compared to evaluate the impact of government programs and organic price premiums. When net return estimates are made using only neighboring elevator prices (no government programs or organic price premiums), we found that the no-till corn-soybean system [Zea mays L. and Glycine max (L.) Merr.] was the most profitable grain system, and management intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) the most profitable forage system. When government programs and organic price premiums are included, returns increased by 85 to 110% for the organic grain system (corn-soybean-wheat + red clover (Triticum aestivum L. + Trifolium pratense L.) and 35 to 40% for the organic forage system [companion seeded alfalfa with oat + field pea (Medicago sativa L.,Avena sativa L., and Pisum sativum L.), hay, and then corn]. This places both organic systems with higher returns than any of the Midwestern standards of no-till corn-soybean, continuous corn, or intensive alfalfa production. Also, the results indicate how risk exposure varied across systems. Interestingly, taking risk into consideration did not drastically affect the ranking among those systems. Our analysis shows that, under the market scenarios that prevailed between 1993 and 2006, intensive rotational grazing and organic grain and forage systems were the most profitable systems on highly productive land in southern Wisconsin.
Organic farming practices have been promoted as, inter alia, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. This meta-analysis systematically analyses published studies that compare environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming in Europe. The results show that organic farming practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily per product unit. Organic farms tend to have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area. However, ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit were higher from organic systems. Organic systems had lower energy requirements, but higher land use, eutrophication potential and acidification potential per product unit. The variation within the results across different studies was wide due to differences in the systems compared and research methods used. The only impacts that were found to differ significantly between the systems were soil organic matter content, nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions per unit of field area, energy use and land use. Most of the studies that compared biodiversity in organic and conventional farming demonstrated lower environmental impacts from organic farming. The key challenges in conventional farming are to improve soil quality (by versatile crop rotations and additions of organic material), recycle nutrients and enhance and protect biodiversity. In organic farming, the main challenges are to improve the nutrient management and increase yields. In order to reduce the environmental impacts of farming in Europe, research efforts and policies should be targeted to developing farming systems that produce high yields with low negative environmental impacts drawing on techniques from both organic and conventional systems.
Organic farming (OF) is considered a promising solution for reducing environmental burdens related to intensive agricultural management practices. The question arises whether OF really reduces the environmental impacts once lower yields and all the changes in farming methods are taken into consideration. This question is addressed in a comprehensive study of Swiss arable cropping and forage production systems comparing OF to integrated production (IP) systems by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) method.
This paper updates the assessment of the impact commercialized agricultural biotechnology is having on global agriculture, from some important environmental perspectives. It focuses on the impact of changes in pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of biotech crops. The technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 443 million kg (-9.1%) and, as a result, decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on these crops [as measured by the indicator the Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ)] by 17.9%. The technology has also significantly reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from this cropping area, which, in 2010, was equivalent to removing 8.6 million cars from the roads.
The provision of food causes environmental impacts that range from local through to global in scale. Organic farming, used in general here to mean farming practices with a greater emphasis on long-term sustainability, is one general approach to reduce these impacts. Whilst organic farming may be argued to be superior to conventional farming on the basis of local impacts, it is not often clear how organic farming performs relative to conventional farming in terms of wider, global impacts. In this paper we present a comparative assessment of on-farm and indirect energy consumption, land disturbance, water use, employment, and emissions of greenhouse gases, NOx, and SO2 of organic and conventional farming in Australia. A hybrid input-output-based life-cycle technique is employed in order to ensure a complete coverage of indirect requirements originating from all upstream production stages. Using data from a detailed survey of organic farms, the results show that direct energy use, energy related emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions are higher for the organic farming sample than for a comparable conventional farm sample. Direct water use and employment are significantly lower for the organic farms than for the conventional farms. However, the indirect contributions for all factors are much higher for the conventional farms, leading to their total impacts being substantially higher. This shows that indirect effects must be taken into account in the consideration of the environmental consequences of farming, in particular for energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, where the majority of impacts usually occur off-farm. Subject to yield uncertainties for organic versus conventional farming, from the sample here we can conclude that in addition to their local benefits, organic farming approaches can reduce the total water, energy and greenhouse gases involved in food production.
Growing global trade with organic products has increased the demand for environmental impact assessments during both production and transport. Environmental hotspots of organic soybeans produced in China and imported to Denmark were identified in a case study using a life cycle assessment approach. Furthermore, environmental impacts of organic and conventional soybeans at farm gate were compared in the case study. The total global warming potential (GWP) per ton organic soybeans imported to Denmark revealed that 51% came from transportation and 35% from the farm level. Comparing organic and conventional soybean at farm gate showed that GWP, non-renewable energy use, acidification and eutrophication was lower per ton organic soybeans, whereas land use was slightly higher.
Production of milk causes environmental side effects, such as emission of greenhouse gases and nutrient enrichment in surface water. Scientific evidence that shows differences in integral environmental impact between milk production systems in the Netherlands was underexposed. In this paper, two Dutch milk production systems, i.e. a conventional and an organic, were compared on their integral environmental impact and hotspots were identified in the conventional and organic milk production chains. Identification of a hotspot provides insight into mitigation options for conventional and organic milk production. Data of commercial farms that participated in two pilot-studies were used and refer to the year 2003. For each farm, a detailed cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment, including on and off farm pollution was performed. Results showed better environmental performance concerning energy use and eutrophication potential per kilogram of milk for organic farms than for conventional farms. Furthermore, higher on-farm acidification potential and global warming potential per kilogram organic milk implies that higher ammonia, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions occur on farm per kilogram organic milk than for conventional milk. Total acidification potential and global warming potential per kilogram milk did not differ between the selected conventional and organic farms. In addition, results showed lower land use per kilogram conventional milk compared with organic milk. In the selected conventional farms, purchased concentrates was found to be the hotspot in off farm and total impact for all impact categories, whereas in the selected organic farms, both purchased concentrates and roughage were found to be the hotspots in off farm impact.
Different types of assessment tools have been developed in Europe with the purpose of determining the environmental impact of various livestock production systems at farm level. The assessment tools differ in terms of which environmental objectives are included and how indicators are constructed and interpreted. The paper compares typical tools for environmental assessment of livestock production systems, and recommends selected indicators suitable for benchmarking. The assessment tools used very different types of indicators ranging from descriptions of farm management and quantification of input to estimates of emissions of, e.g., nitrate and ammonia. The indicators should be useful in a benchmarking process where farmers may improve their practices through learning from farms with better agri-environmental performance. An example of this is given using data on P-surplus on pig farms. Some indicators used the area of the farm as the basis of the indicator—e.g. nitrogen surplus per hectare—while others were expressed per unit produced, e.g. emission of greenhouse gasses per kilogram milk. The paper demonstrates that a comparison of organic vs. conventional milk production and comparison of three pig production systems give different results, depending on the basis of the indicators (i.e. per hectare or per kilogram product). Indicators linked to environmental objectives with a local or regional geographical target should be area-based—while indicators with a global focus should be product-based. It is argued that the choice of indicators should be linked with the definition of the system boundaries, in the sense that area-based indicators should include emissions on the farm only, whereas product-based indicators should preferably include emissions from production of farm inputs, as well as the inputs on the actual farm. The paper ends with recommendations for choice of agri-environmental indicators taking into account the geographical scale, system boundary and method of interpretation.
The intensification and expansion of modern agriculture is amongst the greatest current threats to worldwide biodiversity. Over the last quarter of the 20th century, dramatic declines in both range and abundance of many species associated with farmland have been reported in Europe, leading to growing concern over the sustainability of current intensive farming practices. Purportedly ‘sustainable’ farming systems such as organic farming are now seen by many as a potential solution to this continued loss of biodiversity and receive substantial support in the form of subsidy payments through EU and national government legislation.
Soybean production and its supply chain are highly dependent on inputs such as land, fertilizer, fuel, machines, pesticides and electricity. The expansion of this crop in Brazil in recent decades has generated concerns about its environmental impacts. To assess these impacts, two representative chains supplying soybeans to Europe were identified: Center West (CW) and Southern (SO) Brazil. Each supply chain was analyzed using Life Cycle Assessment methodology. We considered different levels of use of chemical and organic fertilizers, pesticides and machinery, different distances for transportation of inputs and different yield levels. Because transportation contributed strongly to environmental impacts, a detailed study was performed to identify the routes used to transport soybeans to seaports. Additionally, we considered different levels of land occupation and land transformation to represent the impact of deforestation in the CW region. Environmental impacts were calculated for 1000 kg of soybean up to and including the delivery to Europe at the seaport in Rotterdam, at 13% humidity. Overall results showed that the impacts are greater for CW than for SO for all impact categories studied, including acidification (7.7 and 5.3 kg SO(2) eq., respectively), climate change (959 and 510 kg CO(2) eq.), cumulative energy demand (12,634 and 6,999 MJ) and terrestrial ecotoxicity (4.9 and 3.1 kg 1,4-DCB eq.), except eutrophication and land occupation. The same trend was observed for the crop-production stage. Efforts to reduce chemical fertilizers and diesel consumption can reduce CO(2) emissions. Although deforestation for crop production has decreased in recent years, the contribution of deforestation to climate change and cumulative energy demand remains significant. In the CW scenario deforestation contributed 29% to climate change and 20% to cumulative energy demand. Results also showed that although there are different transportation options in Brazil, the current predominance of road transport causes severe environmental impacts. In CW, road transport contributed 19% to climate change and 24% to cumulative energy demand, while in SO it contributed 12% and 15% to these impacts, respectively. Improvements in the logistics of transportation, giving priority to rail and river transports over road transport, can contribute significantly to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing energy use. Future studies involving Brazilian soybeans should take into account the region of origin as different levels of environmental impact are predicted.
A la cabeza del título: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Conselho Nacional de Estatística
This study begins with a review of the concept of sustainability and sustainability indicators in the context of the pig and poultry industries in Santa Catarina State (SC), in Southern Brazil, and proposes an approach to the development of sustainability indicators for these industries. A review of the background and current situation of the pig and poultry industries in SC revealed that they are well organised into vertically integrated production systems and are regarded as being very competitive in world markets from technical and economic points of view. In 2002, SC produced 24% of total pork and 20% of total chicken production in Brazil in 2002, but this State has an area of only 95,000 km2, which amounts to just 1.1% of the country. SC also contributed 66% of pork exports and 54% of poultry exports from Brazil in 2002. So far the pig and poultry industries in SC have developed successfully, but recent changes towards more intensive production methods have resulted in much concern being expressed by the community, as the environmental impact of waste produced in the region has increased. The review of literature showed that in order to be sustainable, the pig and poultry industries in SC should acknowledge the concept of the triple bottom line and the principles of ecologically sustainable development. These include (i) biophysical or environmental sustainability, (ii) economic viability and (iii) social sustainability as criteria to guide industry development. The sustainability of the pig and poultry industries is influenced by local, regional, national and global factors which operate on several scales, and which in turn, indicate the need to use a multi-dimensional approach, combining environmental, economic, and social attributes. This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and was completed in four phases. In the first phase, an electronic survey of 205 stakeholders (complemented by 60 interviews with farmers) was undertaken to identify their views and perceptions of what sustainability meant to them. The survey was also designed to obtain stakeholders views on a suggested list of sustainability indicators. In Phase 2, the findings of the e-survey were discussed with panels of key industry stakeholders in 4 focus group discussions with of 47 participants to develop the list of indicators. In the third phase, a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was conducted, to quantify the flows of materials, energy and of natural resource uses and to assess environmental impact. Finally, in Phase 4, stakeholder feedback was sought in 9 meetings to discuss and refine preliminary results and conclusions from the previous three phases of work. In the LCA the environmental burdens produced by typical intensive pig and poultry production systems were quantified and the contribution to each of nine selected environmental effects was estimated. The functional units (FU) were 1 tonne of live weight (LW) of pigs and 1 tonne of LW of chickens delivered to the gate of the abattoir. The boundaries of the systems analysed included the processes of producing fertilisers, feed products (maize and soybeans), energy, fuel, pesticides, production of rations, production of pigs and chickens and transportation required during all stages until the pigs and chickens are delivered to the abattoir. Data were collected from a variety of sources, including pig and poultry industry operators, research institutions, and agribusiness analysts from SC, as well as publicly available databases. Identified environmental hotspots in pig production were greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, and eutrophication, particularly from ration production and waste management. Environmental hotspots for poultry production reflect the high use of energy and pesticides, particularly associated with ration production from soybeans. The study concluded that although economic performance is competitive in world markets, most producers were operating outside the boundaries of sustainability because of inadequate waste management and excessive waste produced in a small geographical area, beyond the assimilation capacity of the local environment. This also causes other environmental effects (such as offensive odours, and increased numbers of blackflies, and houseflies), which were not quantified in the LCA study, but which were regarded as very important issues by stakeholders in the survey and focus group discussions. While comparing the overall environmental impact of producing 1 FU of pigs and poultry, this study concluded that under current production systems, pigs cause 68% greater impact than chickens. The key indicators proposed to assess the sustainability of the pig and poultry industries in SC were grouped into physical or environmental, economic, and social indicators. For physical and environmental indicators, monitoring the natural resource condition is the key indicator and requires measurement of attributes such as manure load per area of land and nutrient balance (P and K), soil condition, water use and water quality, agricultural plant species diversity, impact on native vegetation, and chemical residues in products. Among the economic indicators, long-term real net farm income and the industries overall competitiveness in national and international markets are key indicators. Attributes to measure these indicators are real net farm income, cost of production, farmers terms of trade, total factor productivity, and disposable income per farm household. Other farm level technical indicators which influence the economic outcome, such as feed conversion and productivity indices for pigs and poultry, also need to be monitored. For social indicators, the age structure and gender balance of the agricultural workforce, farmers managerial skills and level of training, as well as access to basic services, such as health, education, communications, and electricity in rural communities, are the key sustainability indicators. This study made four main contributions to knowledge: (a) the views and perceptions about sustainability among pig and poultry stakeholders were identified; (b) the environmental impacts of pig and poultry production were quantified and compared; (c) a set of key sustainability indicators for the pig and poultry industries was developed and validated; and (d) a framework for change towards sustainability and policy guidelines were suggested. The overall conclusion of the study is that, to be sustainable, the pig and poultry industries need to adjust their management practices, policies, and development strategies to incorporate the principles of ecologically sustainable development. Feeding strategies and methods of grain production have much influence on the key points of environmental impact, such as global warming, pesticides, and energy consumption. Waste management, however, has the greatest local impact, because of water and soil pollution and reduction in the quality of life due to offensive odours, blackflies, and houseflies. Sustainability indicators can thus assist to drive the industries to adopt improvements in the production systems to achieve better environmental performance. Although the findings of this study are confined to SC, the principles are generally applicable to other similar livestock industries in other places. The main justification for conducting this study rests on the increasing demands by the government, community and industry stakeholders for initiatives to reduce the impact of the pig and poultry production on the environment, while maintaining and enhancing its economic competitiveness in global markets and continuing to deliver important social benefits.
Since two decades ago, when the first GM crops were introduced, there have increasingly been hot debates on the applications of gene manipulation. Currently, the development of GM crop varieties has raised a wide range of new legal, ethical and economic questions in agriculture. There is a growing body of literature reflecting the socio-economic and environmental impacts of GM crops which aims to criticize their value for farming systems. While organic crops are promoted as environmentally-friendly products in developed countries, they have provoked great controversy in developing countries facing food security and a low agricultural productivity. Discussion has been especially vigorous when organic farming was introduced as an alternative method. There are in fact, a few tradeoffs in developing countries. On the one hand, farmers are encouraged to accept and implement GM crops because of their higher productivity, while on the other hand, organic farming is encouraged because of socio-economic and environmental considerations. A crucial question facing such countries is therefore, whether GM crops can co-exist with organic farming. This paper aims to review the main considerations and tradeoffs.
1. In this study, we compared a conventional broiler production system keeping fast growing broilers with an organic broiler production system keeping slow growing broilers in the Netherlands, both managed by one person working a full time year (Full Time Equivalent, FTE). This comparison was based on a quantification of economic, ecological and social indicators. Indicators were quantified using scientific literature and national data sets. 2. The organic system performed better for the economic indicator net farm income per FTE than the conventional system. 3. Regarding ecological indicators, calculations showed a higher on-farm emission of ammonia per kg live weight for the organic system. Moreover, an organic system includes a higher risk for eutrophication per ha due to outdoor access. Emission of green house gasses, use of fossil fuels and use of land required for the production of one kg of live weight is higher for an organic than for a conventional system. This is mainly due to a lower feed conversion in organic production and use of organic feed. 4. The organic system performed better than the conventional system for the social indicators related to animal welfare time spent on walking, footpad lesions, mortality, and sound legs. Regarding the social indicator food safety was found that meat from an organic system contained less antibiotic residues and Salmonella contaminations but more Campylobacter contaminations than meat from a conventional system. 5. Changing from a conventional to an organic broiler production system, therefore, not only affects animal welfare, but also affects economic, ecological and other social issues. In this study, we ran into the situation that some information needed was lacking in literature and quantifications had to be based upon several sources. Therefore, an integrated on-farm assessment is needed, which can be used to develop a broiler production system that is economically profitable, ecologically sound, and acceptable for society.
This paper analyses the impact of adopting or rejecting genetically modified GM crops in the EU, taking into account the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In this paper the productivity impact of GMs differs across crops, as it takes factor biased technology change into account. The transfer of knowledge across countries is modelled as a process of endogenous knowledge spillovers. Analyses with a multi-region applied general equilibrium model shows that the CAP protects farm income and production from not adopting GM crops in the EU but has costs in terms of welfare. The EU will forgo substantial benefits if it banned GM imports.
Glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)-glycine] is a broad-spectrum, non-selective, post-emergence herbicide that is widely used in agricultural. We studied, in vitro, changes in the microbial activity of typical Hapludult and Hapludox Brazilian soils, with and without applied glyphosate. Glyphosate was applied at a rate of 2.16 mg glyphosate kg(-1) of soil and microbial activity was measured by soil respiration (evolution of CO(2)) and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis over a period of 32 days. We found an increase of 10-15% in the CO(2) evolved and a 9-19% increase in FDA hydrolyses in the presence of glyphosate compared with the same type of soil which had never received glyphosate. Soil which had been exposed to glyphosate for several years had the strongest response in microbial activity. Most probable number (MPN) counts showed that after 32 days incubation the number of actinomycetes and fungi had increased while the number of bacteria showed a slight reduction. After the incubation period, high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) detected the glyphosate metabolite aminomethyl phosphonic acid (AMPA), indicating glyphosate degradation by soil microorganisms.
1. On-farm quantification of sustainability indicators (SI) is an effective way to make sustainable development measurable. The egg production sector was used as a case study to illustrate this approach. 2. The objective was to select SI for economic, ecological and societal issues, and to analyse the performance on selected SI of different production systems. 3. For the case study, we compared 4 egg production systems, characterised by differences in the housing systems which are most common in the Netherlands: the battery-cage system, the deep-litter system with and without outdoor run, and the aviary system with outdoor run. 4. Based on a clear set of criteria, we selected SI for animal welfare, economics, environmental impact, ergonomics and product quality. 5. We showed that on-farm quantification of SI was an appropriate method to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different systems. 6. From this analysis it appears that the aviary system with outdoor run is a good alternative for the battery-cage system, with better scores for the aviary system on animal welfare and economics, but with worse scores on environmental impact.
The growing importance of economic factors in farmers' decisions to go organic has raised interest in characterizing the economic behavior of organic versus conventional farms. In general, published analyses so far have not considered differential uncertainties, abilities to control production risk, and farmers' risk preferences between conventional and organic practices when comparing these techniques. Our article attempts to assess this issue. We use a model of farmer decision under risk to analyze the differential values between organic and conventional Spanish arable crop farms and to assess the incentives for adoption of organic practices. Results show that organic and conventional farms do have different production risks as well as different aversions to risk. Organic price premiums and subsidies are found to be powerful instruments to motivate adoption of organic techniques. Copyright (c)2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
GMO Myths and Truths: an Evidencebased Examination of the Claims made for the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Crops
- M Antoniou
- C Robinson
- J Fagan
Antoniou, M., Robinson, C., Fagan, J., 2012. GMO Myths and Truths: an Evidencebased Examination of the Claims made for the Safety and Efficacy of Genetically Modified Crops. Earth Open Source, London, UK.
A Whole-Farm Profitability Analysis of Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems
- T A Delbridge
- C Fernholz
- W Lazarus
- R P King
Delbridge, T.A., Fernholz, C., Lazarus, W., King, R.P., 2011. A Whole-Farm Profitability
Analysis of Organic and Conventional Cropping Systems. In: Agricultural &
Applied Economics Association's 2011 AAEA & NAREA Joint Annual Meeting,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Ecoinvent Data v3.0 Final Reports Ecoinvent 2013 Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dubendorf, Switzerland. Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nation (FAO) Organic Agriculture certification costs and managerial skills under different organic certification schemes-Selected Case Studies
- Ecoinvent
Ecoinvent, 2013. Ecoinvent Data v3.0 Final Reports Ecoinvent 2013. Swiss Centre for
Life Cycle Inventories, Dubendorf, Switzerland.
Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nation (FAO), 2007. Organic Agriculture certification costs and managerial skills under different organic certification schemes-Selected Case Studies. http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oafaq5/en/ (accessed online, 2014 September).
Agricultural Biotechnology Meeting the Needs of the Poor? Rome
- Agriculture Food
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2004. Agricultural
Biotechnology Meeting the Needs of the Poor? Rome, ISBN 92-5-105079-1.
The Physical Science Basis
- T F Stocker
- G Qin
- G K Plattner
- M Tignor
- D K Allen
- J Boschung
- A Nauels
- Y Xia
- V Bex
- P M Midgley
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Stocker, T.F., Qin, G., Plattner, G.K.,
Tignor, M., Allen, D.K., Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., Midgley, P.M., 2013.
The Physical Science Basis. In: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA.
The Environmental Impacts of Organic Farming in Europe
- M Stolze
- A Priorr
- A Haring
- S Dabbert
Stolze, M., Priorr, A., Haring, A., Dabbert, S., 2000. The Environmental Impacts of
Organic Farming in Europe. University of Hohenheim, Germany.
International diffusion of gains from biotechnology and the European Union's common agricultural policy Exploring variability in methods and data sensitivity in carbon footprints of feed ingredients
- J Environ
- H Manag
- F C E Van Tongeren
- Ch Cederberg
- T V Vellinga
- H M G Van Der Werf
- I J M De Boer
J. Environ. Manag. 112, 309e320.
van Meijl, H., van Tongeren, F., 2004. International diffusion of gains from
biotechnology and the European Union's common agricultural policy. Agric.
Econ. 31, 307e316.
van Middelaar, C.E., Cederberg, Ch., Vellinga, T.V., van der Werf, H.M.G., de
Boer, I.J.M., 2013. Exploring variability in methods and data sensitivity in carbon
footprints of feed ingredients. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 18, 768e782.
Emergy, nutrients balance, and economic assessment of soybean production and industrialization in Brazil. J. Clean. Prod. 17, 762e771. Committee on Decision Making Under Uncertainty (CDMUU); Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine
- O Cavalett
- E Ortega
Cavalett, O., Ortega, E., 2009. Emergy, nutrients balance, and economic assessment
of soybean production and industrialization in Brazil. J. Clean. Prod. 17,
762e771.
Committee on Decision Making Under Uncertainty (CDMUU); Board on Population
Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine, 2013. Incorporating
Uncertainty into Decision Making Environmental Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty. National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC), ISBN 978-0-309-13034-9, p. 260.
Organic Agriculture certification costs and managerial skills under different organic certification schemes -Selected Case Studies
- Ecoinvent
Ecoinvent, 2013. Ecoinvent Data v3.0 Final Reports Ecoinvent 2013. Swiss Centre for
Life Cycle Inventories, Dubendorf, Switzerland.
Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nation (FAO), 2007. Organic Agriculture certification costs and managerial skills under different organic certification schemes -Selected Case Studies. http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq5/en/ (accessed online, 2014 September).