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Abstract
Black polyethylene (PE) is the most common mulching material used in horticultural crops in the world but its use represents a very serious environmental problem. Biodegradable films and paper mulches are available alternatives but farmers are reluctant to adopt them because of their high market prices. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the economic profitability of eight biodegradable mulching materials available for open-air pepper production. The economic evaluation is based on a four-year trial located in a semi-arid region of Spain. Three scenarios of PE waste management are examined: (i) absence of residues management, (ii) landfill accumulation, and (iii) total recycling. The inclusion of the costs of waste management and recycling under the current Spanish legislation only reduced the final net margin by 0.2%. The results show that an increase in subsidy rates of up to 50.1% on the market price would allow all biodegradable films to be economic alternatives to PE. The study supports the mandatory measures for the farmers to assume the costs of waste management and recycling. Despite savings in field conditioning costs, high market prices of biodegradable materials and papers are not compensated by the current level of subsidies, hampering their adoption in the fields.
Highlights
Mulching materials have demonstrated many advantages in controlling weeds, [1,2] increasing soil temperature [3] and moisture [4] and reducing soil degradation [3]
The extensive use of PE mulching materials owes to their lower market prices compared to biodegradable materials
Our results show that the inclusion of the costs of waste management and recycling is crucial for a proper evaluation of the economic profitability of different options in the short-term
Summary
Mulching materials have demonstrated many advantages in controlling weeds, [1,2] increasing soil temperature [3] and moisture [4] and reducing soil degradation [3]. These features influence in increasing crop yields [5]. The literature recognizes that all these effects have positive outcomes on economic profitability because of water savings (up to 25%) and reduced labor costs for weed and pest control. [13] reported that plant growth and yield of tomato crop were affected significantly when residual plastic mulch in soils reaches 160 kg ha−1
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