Investigating the need to replace the conventional method of sugar beet production in lorestan province, iran based on the arguments obtained from emergy calculations

Abstract

Emergy analysis provided us with an opportunity to compare the sustainability of three different sugar beet production systems in Lorestan Province, Iran in 2019–2020. Emergy allows us to quantify the qualitative characteristics of sustainability by analyzing the production structure and calculating emergy indices. The total inputs of emergy for sugar beet production related to the spring direct seeding system were, respectively, 24% and 69% higher than the systems used for summer seedling and autumn direct seeding. In other words, the Emergy Flow Density (EFD) sej m − 2 was highest in the spring direct seeding system, indicating the higher stress exerted by this system on the environment and its lower sustainability. All the emergy indices, except for the Emergy Index of Product Safety, revealed more favorable sustainability of the autumn seeding system, because of its lower EFD compared with the other two systems. According to the economic-ecological index, Environmental Benefit Density, the autumn direct cultivation system provided more than twice the environmental benefits per unit area. Therefore, replacing the spring direct seeding and summer seedling systems with the autumn direct seeding system is recommended, for suitable climates. In future studies, the sustainability of the autumn sugar beet seedling system should be evaluated.