The US needs to decarbonize agriculture in order to reach net zero emissions by the year 2050. Data-driven approaches look at practices that are good for the environment and profitable for farmers.
American farmers do a lot more than set the tables. American farmers produce food for people and animals, too.
The agricultural industry contributes 10% of the US's greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers need to find more ways to operate efficiently, sustainable and profitable because the amount of land dedicated for agriculture is limited. Farmers can make their farms net sinks of CO 2 with new practices.
There is a two-pronged approach to sustainable intensification. At the same time it tries to minimize environmental impact, it tries to maximize farmland productivity. Finding the right balance between objectives is the trick.
In a recent study of corn and soy farming, scientists from Colorado State University and the US Department of Energy took a new approach to the issue. They wrote an article in the June 20 issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production.
The concept of sustainable intensification of farming was applied into more broadscale landscape application according to one of the article's co- authors. We looked at productivity and GHG emissions, tried to improve land management tactics, and looked at different trade-offs that improve land productivity.
A percentage of stover can remain in the soil for valuable nutrients and carbon sources for future crops, but farmers can clear and reuse corn crop waste for biofuel. Farmers can plant cover crops during the winter to make up for lost stover. The net benefits of stover removal and cover crop planting were taken into account by the authors. Farmers can reduce the amount of land they till after a growing season by reducing the amount of CO 2 that comes from the soil. The farmer needs to till some of the land to be ready for the next season.
A better understanding of the impact of these practices will motivate more farmers to follow them.
"Our approach gives aholistic perspective and looks at the perspective of the farmer: what are all the products that can be produced on the land and what are the sustainable benefits?" said co-author Troy Hawkins. Farming can be risky and low margin. The main focus will always be profitability. It is possible that the value of sustainable is unrecognized. Changes to land management practices can help make farming more sustainable.
In a real world scenario, the scientists looked at the trade-offs and synergies between sustainable intensification and carbon-sequestering. The farming area upstream of Des Moines, Iowa was evaluated using two models.
The DayCent model shows the daily flows of carbon, nitrogen and water in the environment. It was used by the scientists to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions in corn ethanol production.
GREET was used to account for emissions associated with farm operations and the use of corn stover as a source of fuel. GREET can be used to evaluate energy consumption, GHG emissions, air pollutant emissions and water consumption. Michael Wang is the interim division director for energy systems and Infrastructure.
Harvesting 30% of the corn stover would increase farm revenues, double net profitability and increase overall biofuel production from the landscape by up to 20%. The removal of the stover would reduce the amount of good carbon in the soil. Integrated approaches would increase carbon in the soil, improve farm profitability and mitigate more GHGs.
"Our approach could be extended to other crops but we focused on corn and soy at the moment." Many large industrial farms rely on high resolution data and are high tech. We want to give farmers and others a tool to calculate how to use land in a sustainable way. Profitability and environmental goals will be furthered by this.
More information: Trung H. Nguyen et al, A multi-product landscape life-cycle assessment approach for evaluating local climate mitigation potential, Journal of Cleaner Production (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131691 Journal information: Journal of Cleaner Production
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