Economic and environmental comparison of conventional and conservation agriculture in South African wheat production

IF 1.6 4区经济学 Q2 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY

Agrekon Pub Date : 2023-02-13 DOI:10.1080/03031853.2023.2169481

W. Mulimbi, L. Nalley, J. Strauss, Kristiina Ala-Kokko

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Global wheat yields must increase to meet current and rising global demand despite the increasing threats to production resulting from climate change. One climate change adaptation strategy in wheat production in the Western Cape of South Africa is conservation agriculture (CA). Using a data set of 1,043 plot-level wheat observations collected at Langgewens and Tygerhoek research farms from 2002 to 2020, this study conducts a stepwise Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental and economic impacts of switching from conventional wheat production to CA’s zero tillage (zero-till) and no-tillage (no-till) systems. The results indicate that CA is more profitable and has a higher environmental efficiency, than conventional tillage wheat production. In Langgewens, zero-till and no-till are respectively 113% and 55% more efficient than conventional tillage when comparing the environmental impact of producing one kg of wheat. Findings also suggest that, compared to 100% conventional tillage wheat production, the adoption of CA systems has led to reductions in environmental damage valued between R269.2 and R402.5 million in the Western Cape.

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南非小麦生产中传统农业和保护性农业的经济和环境比较

摘要：尽管气候变化对生产的威胁越来越大，但全球小麦产量必须提高，以满足当前和不断增长的全球需求。南非西开普省小麦生产中的一项气候变化适应战略是保护性农业。本研究使用2002年至2020年在Langgewens和Tygerhoek研究农场收集的1043个地块级小麦观测数据集，进行了逐步生命周期评估（LCA），以评估从传统小麦生产转向CA的免耕（免耕）和免耕（免耕）系统对环境和经济的影响。结果表明，与传统的小麦耕作生产相比，CA更有利可图，环境效率更高。在Langgewens，当比较生产一公斤小麦的环境影响时，免耕和免耕的效率分别比传统耕作高113%和55%。研究结果还表明，与100%的传统耕作小麦生产相比，CA系统的采用减少了西开普省6.92亿至4.025亿兰特的环境破坏。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Agrekon AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY-

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

7.70%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Agrekon publishes scholarly articles that contribute to the existing literature in the domain of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics as it applies to Southern Africa. The editors of Agrekon therefore invite contributions in this context that provide new insights, either through the problems they address, the methods they employ or the theoretical and practical insights gained from the results. The quarterly journal serves as the official publication of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) and is published by Taylor & Francis.