Economic efficient use of soilless techniques to maximize benefits for farmers

IF 1.9 Q2 AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

AIMS Agriculture and Food Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.3934/agrfood.2023056

Mohamamd I. Majdalawi, Ansam A. Ghanayem, Amani A. Alassaf, Sabine Schlueter, Mohammed A. Tabieh, Amer Z. Salman, Muhanad W. Akash, Rui C. Pedroso

{"title":"Economic efficient use of soilless techniques to maximize benefits for farmers","authors":"Mohamamd I. Majdalawi, Ansam A. Ghanayem, Amani A. Alassaf, Sabine Schlueter, Mohammed A. Tabieh, Amer Z. Salman, Muhanad W. Akash, Rui C. Pedroso","doi":"10.3934/agrfood.2023056","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<abstract> <p>The main challenge of the agricultural sector is the increasing pressure on natural resources, mainly water and arable land. Consequently, an urgent imperative arises to explore technological advancements that can boost food production in alignment with the growing demands. The Soilless Production System (SPS) emerges as a proficient approach for managing irrigation water, thereby making a significant contribution to food security. This research focuses on the efficient use of SPS and identifies the best economic use of the soilless techniques for different crops within an area characterized by limited land and water availability. The database for the study was generated through a farm survey to investigate the benefits of adopting SPSs as a sustainable agricultural practice. A linear programming approach was applied to develop an optimization model for resource allocation and crop mix selection, considering the development opportunities through the SPSs. Different scenarios were applied in the model. The results proved that adopting SPSs is a sustainable irrigation practice, since the technique promotes water use efficiency, generates profitability, and conserves the associated natural resources. The SPSs ensure sustainable use of water resources by increasing water use efficiency. The hydroponics cultivation system had 11 ± 1.7 times higher yields but required 82 ± 11 times more energy in comparison to the lettuce crop produced by the conventional production system (CPS). The result of the optimal solution shows that the total revenue of scenarios of the study is 109% of the revenue of the original value of the largest farmer. The water resources and the investment cost as constraints in the model are totally used, but the operational costs in the optimal solutions are 74% of the total operational cost in the original data. The optimal solution showed the importance of using computerized systems in which the control of the fertigation is better.</p> </abstract>","PeriodicalId":44793,"journal":{"name":"AIMS Agriculture and Food","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AIMS Agriculture and Food","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3934/agrfood.2023056","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The main challenge of the agricultural sector is the increasing pressure on natural resources, mainly water and arable land. Consequently, an urgent imperative arises to explore technological advancements that can boost food production in alignment with the growing demands. The Soilless Production System (SPS) emerges as a proficient approach for managing irrigation water, thereby making a significant contribution to food security. This research focuses on the efficient use of SPS and identifies the best economic use of the soilless techniques for different crops within an area characterized by limited land and water availability. The database for the study was generated through a farm survey to investigate the benefits of adopting SPSs as a sustainable agricultural practice. A linear programming approach was applied to develop an optimization model for resource allocation and crop mix selection, considering the development opportunities through the SPSs. Different scenarios were applied in the model. The results proved that adopting SPSs is a sustainable irrigation practice, since the technique promotes water use efficiency, generates profitability, and conserves the associated natural resources. The SPSs ensure sustainable use of water resources by increasing water use efficiency. The hydroponics cultivation system had 11 ± 1.7 times higher yields but required 82 ± 11 times more energy in comparison to the lettuce crop produced by the conventional production system (CPS). The result of the optimal solution shows that the total revenue of scenarios of the study is 109% of the revenue of the original value of the largest farmer. The water resources and the investment cost as constraints in the model are totally used, but the operational costs in the optimal solutions are 74% of the total operational cost in the original data. The optimal solution showed the importance of using computerized systems in which the control of the fertigation is better.

查看原文本刊更多论文

经济有效地使用无土技术，使农民的利益最大化

& lt; abstract>农业部门面临的主要挑战是对自然资源(主要是水和耕地)日益增加的压力。因此，迫切需要探索能够促进粮食生产的技术进步，以满足日益增长的需求。无土生产系统(SPS)作为管理灌溉用水的一种熟练方法出现，从而对粮食安全作出重大贡献。这项研究的重点是SPS的有效利用，并确定在土地和水资源有限的地区内不同作物的无土技术的最佳经济利用。该研究的数据库是通过一项农场调查生成的，该调查旨在调查采用SPSs作为可持续农业实践的好处。考虑SPSs的发展机遇，应用线性规划方法建立资源配置和作物组合选择的优化模型。模型中应用了不同的场景。结果证明，采用SPSs是一种可持续的灌溉实践，因为该技术提高了水的利用效率，产生了盈利能力，并保护了相关的自然资源。SPSs通过提高用水效率来确保水资源的可持续利用。与传统生产系统(CPS)相比，水培系统的产量提高了11±1.7倍，但所需能量增加了82±11倍。最优解的结果表明，研究情景的总收入为最大农户原值收入的109%。模型中完全使用水资源和投资成本作为约束，但最优解的运行成本为原始数据中总运行成本的74%。最优解显示了使用计算机系统对施肥控制较好的重要性。& lt; / abstract>

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

AIMS Agriculture and Food AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

8 weeks

期刊介绍： AIMS Agriculture and Food covers a broad array of topics pertaining to agriculture and food, including, but not limited to:  Agricultural and food production and utilization  Food science and technology  Agricultural and food engineering  Food chemistry and biochemistry  Food materials  Physico-chemical, structural and functional properties of agricultural and food products  Agriculture and the environment  Biorefineries in agricultural and food systems  Food security and novel alternative food sources  Traceability and regional origin of agricultural and food products  Authentication of food and agricultural products  Food safety and food microbiology  Waste reduction in agriculture and food production and processing  Animal science, aquaculture, husbandry and veterinary medicine  Resources utilization and sustainability in food and agricultural production and processing  Horticulture and plant science  Agricultural economics.