Emergy analysis of crop and integrated production systems of Boland Sistan village

Analysis of agricultural ecosystems' sustainability is crucial for decision-making and management. Quantifying the sustainability of agroecosystems can provide solutions to achieve positive economic and environmental results. In order to meet the expanding human need for food, agricultural production techniques have become increasingly specialized. In recent years, the integration of agricultural and animal operations has been examined in order to address the challenges generated by intensive production systems. Crop and livestock production are intimately linked in integrated crop-livestock systems, resulting in favorable economic and environmental results.Emergy analysis can be used to examine the sustainability of ecological and economic systems. By adopting this strategy, we can acquire a deeper knowledge of the linkages between ecological and economic systems. Environmental and economic costs involved with achieving sustainability are quantified using Emergy analysis, allowing for the integrated control of ecological and economic issues. Emergy analysis is now utilized in agriculture to examine the viability of production systems at various scales.The goal of this study was to compare the productivity and ecological sustainability of an integrated crop and animal production system to that of a single crop production system using an emergy analysis technique.

This study was conducted in 2019 using data collected from smallholder agricultural land and livestock systems in the village of Boland, Sistan, Iran. Boland village is situated in Teymurabad village, approximately 17 kilometers north of Zabol city in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan. The agricultural composition of a Boland village includes crop production and animal husbandry.Environmental renewable and nonrenewable resources, as well as purchased resources, were used as inputs. During the study period, these data were collected via a database of agricultural organizations, verbal estimates, field measurements, and researcher observations. First, the system's boundaries are analyzed, and an energy diagram is drawn to classify the system's inputs. The second step of emergy analysis is the creation of emergy evaluation tables. After determining each system's input flow in joules, grams, or Rials, the inputs were multiplied by their transformaties to calculate the solar emjoule (sej). This study utilized specific emergy, unit emergy value, percentage of renewable emergy, emergy investment ratio, emergy yield ratio, environmental loading ratio, environmental sustainability index, emergy exchange ratio, and emergy feedback ratio.

Both the agricultural and integrated production systems in Boland Sistan village required a total of 4.41E+18 and 9.43E+18 sej/year of emergy, respectively, to maintain their functionality. Specific emergy (SpE), emergy yield ratio (EYR), emergy investment ratio (EIR), environmental loading ratio (ELR), emergy exchange ratio (EER), net profit density (NBD), and output to output ratio (O/I) all demonstrated that the integrated system generates a higher net profit than individual crop systems as a result of positive interactions between agricultural and livestock components as well as a high level of environmental sustainability. The area around Sistan is able to produce a wide variety of crops throughout the year as a result of its favorable climate and abundant natural resources. Additionally, there are several opportunities to combine cattle and crop production in this part of the world.

According to the findings of this research, integrating crop production and livestock production has the potential to lower economic risk and increase profitability, in addition to providing many benefits for the protection of soil and water resources and the productivity of the nutrient cycle. These benefits can be found in a variety of ways. As a result of this, an integrated crop production system is recommended as a suitable option for farmers to diversify agricultural operations in order to avoid hazards, improve crop production, and prevent environmental damage. This is because an integrated crop production system is a more comprehensive approach.