Modelling soil emissions and precision agriculture in fertilization life cycle assessment - A case study of wheat production in Austria

Medel-Jiménez, Francisco; Piringer, Gerhard; Gronauer, Andreas; Barta, Norbert; Neugschwandtner, Reinhard W.; Krexner, Theresa; Kral, Iris

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.134841

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…This is echoed by Sanches et al, who find that intensifying Brazilian bioenergy (i.e., sugar cane) production with DA technologies to meet future emissions reductions and supply targets could reduce the global warming impact of sugar cane production (on a per-Mg basis) by roughly 13% compared to a business-as-usual situation, primarily due to lower use of agricultural inputs (e.g., fertilizers and agrochemicals) . Similarly, in a case examining the use of optical crop sensors for variable rate nitrogen application in Austrian wheat production, DA was linked to a global warming potential reduction of 8.6% compared to conventional fertilizer application . These types of sensors have also reduced 9,548 tons of GHGs (CO 2 e) since pilot demonstrations were first deployed in in wheat-producing regions of Mexico in 2012 .…”

Section: Results: Literature Review Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…100 Similarly, in a case examining the use of optical crop sensors for variable rate nitrogen application in Austrian wheat production, DA was linked to a global warming potential reduction of 8.6% compared to conventional fertilizer application. 101 These types of sensors have also reduced 9,548 tons of GHGs (CO 2 e) since pilot demonstrations were first deployed in in wheat-producing regions of Mexico in 2012. 102 In a study assessing the relationship between digital technologies and the carbon intensity of dairy farms in China, results found that precision feeding, followed by manure management technologies, had the greatest statistical correlation to improved CO 2 emissions outcomes via optimization of feed input and effluent management on farms�which ultimately helped to improve carbon emission efficiency by nearly 12% in adopting farms compared to nonusers.…”

Section: Ivi Environmental Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Decarbonization of Agriculture: The Greenhouse Gas Impacts and Economics of Existing and Emerging Climate-Smart Practices

Kazimierczuk,

Barrows,

Olarte

et al. 2023

ACS Eng. Au

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The worldwide emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has increased focus on the potential to mitigate emissions through climate-smart agricultural practices, including regenerative, digital, and controlled environment farming systems. The effectiveness of these solutions largely depends on their ability to address environmental concerns, generate economic returns, and meet supply chain needs. In this Review, we summarize the state of knowledge on the GHG impacts and profitability of these three existing and emerging farming systems. Although we find potential for CO2 mitigation in all three approaches (depending on site-specific and climatic factors), we point to the greater level of research covering the efficacy of regenerative and digital agriculture in tackling non-CO2 emissions (i.e., N2O and CH4), which account for the majority of agriculture’s GHG footprint. Despite this greater research coverage, we still find significant methodological and data limitations in accounting for the major GHG fluxes of these practices, especially the lifetime CH4 footprint of more nascent climate-smart regenerative agriculture practices. Across the approaches explored, uncertainties remain about the overall efficacy and persistence of mitigationparticularly with respect to the offsetting of soil carbon sequestration gains by N2O emissions and the lifecycle emissions of controlled environment agriculture systems compared to traditional systems. We find that the economic feasibility of these practices is also system-specific, although regenerative agriculture is generally the most accessible climate-smart approach. Robust incentives (including carbon credit considerations), investments, and policy changes would make these practices more financially accessible to farmers.

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Section: Results: Literature Review Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ivi Environmental Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decarbonization of Agriculture: The Greenhouse Gas Impacts and Economics of Existing and Emerging Climate-Smart Practices

Kazimierczuk,

Barrows,

Olarte

et al. 2023

ACS Eng. Au

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Precision agriculture can be defined as the application of modern information technologies to provide, process, and analyse multisource data of high spatial and temporal resolution for decision making and operations (Fuglie, 2016). Precision agriculture can optimize the use of agronomic inputs via geo‐spatial analysis (Manzione et al., 2021), machine (Chlingaryan et al., 2018) and deep learning approach (Kamilaris & Prenafeta‐Boldú, 2018; Schillaci et al., 2021), and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (Fellmann et al., 2021; Medel‐Jiménez et al., 2022) to reduce the impact of climate change from agriculture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil tillage reduction as a climate change mitigation strategy in Mediterranean cereal‐based cropping systems

Fiorentini,

Orsini,

Zenobi

et al. 2024

Soil Use and Management

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According to climate change projections, global temperatures would increase by 2°C by 2070, and agriculture is expected to be among the most affected sectors, particularly intensive field crops like cereals. Therefore, researchers need to investigate the most cost‐effective agricultural strategies that can prevent production losses and ensure global food security. This study aimed to identify the limiting factors of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. subsp. Durum (Desf.) Husn.) yield production under Mediterranean conditions. Durum wheat yield data of over 5 years (2017–2022), from a 30‐year rainfed long‐term experiment conducted in the ‘Pasquale Rosati’ experimental farm of the Polytechnic University of Marche in Agugliano, Italy (43°32’ N, 13°22′ E, 100 a.s.l.) on Calcaric Gleyic Cambisols with a silt‐clay texture, were analysed and compared with the recorded thermo‐pluviometric trend. The field trial included two soil managements (no tillage vs. conventional tillage) and three Nitrogen (N) fertilization levels (0, 90, and 180 kg N ha−1). The most important driver for durum wheat production was N fertilization. However, in the absence of N fertilization, no tillage showed a higher yield (+1.2 t ha−1) than conventional tillage due to the accumulation of organic matter in the soil. When wheat was fertilized with 90 kg N ha−1, no tillage resulted in 25% yield more than conventional tillage (+1.2 t ha−1), but this occurred only when the increase in temperatures was constant from January until harvest (this happened in 3 of 5 years of monitoring). The non‐constant increase in temperature from January to wheat harvest may hamper crop phenological development and reduce the potential yield. The highest fertilization rate (180 Kg N ha−1) resulted in the highest wheat yields regardless of soil management and thermo‐pluviometric trends (5.78 t ha−1). After N fertilization and soil management, the minimum and maximum temperature in February and the maximum temperature in April were crucial for durum wheat production under Mediterranean condition. When there is non‐constant increase in temperature from January to wheat harvest no‐tillage should be preferred over conventional tillage because wheat yields did not reduce under no tillage. Thus, agricultural policies that support the switch from conventional tillage to no‐tillage management should be promoted to enable food security in Mediterranean environments.

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“…Currently, precision fertilization is probably the most widely studied technological process that allows for the reduction of the use of chemical fertilizers and their environmental impact [9]. However, other technological operations in agricultural production that affect wheat productivity and have an impact on the environment are equally important.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Winter Wheat Production Using Precision and Conventional Seeding Technologies

Kazlauskas,

Bručienė,

Savickas

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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Sustainable and responsible agricultural production is one of the keys to keeping people, animals, soil, and the environment healthy. Precision seeding technologies for winter wheat, exploiting the variability of soil properties and adapting the technological processes of variable rate seeding and variable seeding depths, are essential not only to improving plant productivity and economic benefits but also to cleaner agricultural production. This work aimed to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA) of winter wheat production and determine the environmental impact of different precision seeding technologies in terms of individual impact categories compared to conventional seeding technology. Experimental studies were carried out between 2020 and 2022 using conventional uniform seeding rate (URS) and several precision seeding technologies: in the first year—VRS for variable seeding rate and VRS + VRF for variable seeding rate and fertilizer rate, and in the second year—VRS and VRSD for variable seeding rate and variable depth, and VRSD + VRF for variable seeding rate, variable depth, and variable fertilizer rate. The results obtained for winter wheat grain yield showed that the effect of precision seeding technology on the increase of grain yield was not significant compared to the URS. A greater influence on grain yield was found in individual soil management zones, especially in the zone with the worst soil fertility. The LCA did not show any significant differences between precision seeding technology and conventional technology in any of the environmental impact categories. The GWP values (0.200–0.236 kg CO2eq kg−1) were most dependent on grain yield, as precision seeding technology had small changes in the amount of inputs (seeds and fertilizers), while all other technological operations were the same as under the URS technology. The amounts of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers decreased by 1.4 and 7.9%, respectively, and the amounts of winter wheat seeds and nitrogen fertilizers increased by 4.1 and 5.4%, respectively, compared to the URS.

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Modelling soil emissions and precision agriculture in fertilization life cycle assessment - A case study of wheat production in Austria

Cited by 18 publications

References 50 publications

Decarbonization of Agriculture: The Greenhouse Gas Impacts and Economics of Existing and Emerging Climate-Smart Practices

Decarbonization of Agriculture: The Greenhouse Gas Impacts and Economics of Existing and Emerging Climate-Smart Practices

Soil tillage reduction as a climate change mitigation strategy in Mediterranean cereal‐based cropping systems

Life Cycle Assessment of Winter Wheat Production Using Precision and Conventional Seeding Technologies

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