Abstract
Intensive agriculture has resulted in various environmental impacts that affect ecosystems. In some cases, the application of conventional fertilizers has deteriorated water quality, which includes the marine environment. For this reason, institutions have designed various strategies based on the principles of the circular economy and the bioeconomy. Both of these dynamics aim to reduce excessive fertilization and to inhibit the negative externalities it generates. In our work, a field trial is presented in which a 100% reduction in conventional inorganic fertilizers has been evaluated through a production methodology based on fertilization with reused plant debris in combination with other organic compounds. Based on one tomato crop, the profitability of this production technique has been analyzed in comparison with other conventional vegetable production techniques. The productivity and economic yield of the alternative crop was similar to that of the conventional crop, with a 37.2% decrease in water consumption. The reuse of biomass reduced production costs by 4.8%, while the addition of other organic amendments increased them by up to 22%. The results of our trial show that farms are more sustainable and more profitable from a circular point of view when using these strategies.
Highlights
In the last sixty years, the socio-economic structure of the province of Almeria (Spain) has undergone a metamorphosis due to the development of high-yield agriculture based on the greenhouse production of eight fruit and vegetable species [1]
Information is limited when it comes to longduration cycles. It is complemented with an economic analysis of five crop alternatives traditionally used in the Almeria model to observe the impact of some of the agricultural policies proposed by the European Union based on the bioeconomy and the circular economy, as well as the possible benefits that producers could obtain from their application. [11]
The results of this research suggest that exclusive fertilization based on organic amendments with biosolarization can be postulated as an alternative to reducing fertilizers as proposed by the European Union, maintaining similar productivity and economic crop yields versus conventional crops fertilized with inorganic fertilizers in production cycles up to 217 DAT
Summary
In the last sixty years, the socio-economic structure of the province of Almeria (Spain) has undergone a metamorphosis due to the development of high-yield agriculture based on the greenhouse production of eight fruit and vegetable species (tomato, bell pepper, watermelon, zucchini, cucumber, watermelon, melon, eggplant, and green bean) [1]. The economic benefit for farmers in Almeria has diminished in recent years, even to the point of economic losses in some of the crop rotations traditionally used [2]. Production costs have increased while the price at origin of fruits and vegetables has remained constant. There has been competition with developing countries that produce their goods at lower costs mainly because they spend less on labor [2,4]
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