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Environmental and Economic Sustainability Assessment of Rainfed Agro-Systems in Northern Iran

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Biosystems Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, P. O. Box: 91779-48974, Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi, Iran.

Abstract

Environmental and economic aspects are two remarkable pillars toward a sustainable agro-system. Accordingly, this study aimed to assess the sustainability of autumn rainfed agro-systems in northern Iran by the Eco-Efficiency (EF) indicator. The data of the production processes of wheat, barley, canola, and triticale were collected in the three crop years of 2016-2019. Results indicated that the canola production system with 720 kgCO2eq ha-1 had the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; however, wheat with 604 kgCO2eq ha-1 was attributed to the lowest GHG emissions. The results of the economic analysis also highlighted that the barley production system had the lowest while the canola production system had the highest production costs. The canola production system had the highest profitability, while the barley production system had the lowest in terms of net income and average benefit to cost ratio indicators. The EF indicator for wheat, barley, canola, and triticale was determined to be 1.4, 0.6, 1.8, and 1.1, respectively, indicating the highest EF value for the canola production system.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Journal of Renewable Energy and Environment
Volume 9, Issue 2
May 2022
Pages 8-17
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History
  • Receive Date: 27 June 2021
  • Revise Date: 15 November 2021
  • Accept Date: 10 September 2021
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