IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/348189.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic and environmental comparison of conventional and conservation agriculture in South African wheat production

Author

Listed:
  • Mulimbi, Willy
  • Nalley, Lawton Lanier
  • Strauss, Johann
  • Ala-Kokko, Kristiina

Abstract

Global wheat yields must increase to meet current and rising global demand despite the increasing threats to production resulting from climate change. One climate change adaptation strategy in wheat production in the Western Cape of South Africa is conservation agriculture (CA). Using a data set of 1,043 plot-level wheat observations collected at Langgewens and Tygerhoek research farms from 2002 to 2020, this study conducts a stepwise Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental and economic impacts of switching from conventional wheat production to CA’s zero tillage (zero-till) and no-tillage (no-till) systems. The results indicate that CA is more profitable and has a higher environmental efficiency, than conventional tillage wheat production. In Langgewens, zero-till and no-till are respectively 113% and 55% more efficient than conventional tillage when comparing the environmental impact of producing one kg of wheat. Findings also suggest that, compared to 100% conventional tillage wheat production, the adoption of CA systems has led to reductions in environmental damage valued between R269.2 and R402.5 million in the Western Cape.

Suggested Citation

  • Mulimbi, Willy & Nalley, Lawton Lanier & Strauss, Johann & Ala-Kokko, Kristiina, 2023. "Economic and environmental comparison of conventional and conservation agriculture in South African wheat production," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 62(2), February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:348189
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.348189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/348189/files/Economic%20and%20environmental%20comparison%20of%20conventional%20and%20conservation%20agriculture%20in%20South%20African%20wheat%20production.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.348189?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aaron M. Shew & Jesse B. Tack & Lawton L. Nalley & Petronella Chaminuka, 2020. "Yield reduction under climate warming varies among wheat cultivars in South Africa," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Weidema, Bo Pedersen, 2009. "Using the budget constraint to monetarise impact assessment results," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1591-1598, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kamran Kheiralipour & Miguel Brandão & Malgorzata Holka & Adam Choryński, 2024. "A Review of Environmental Impacts of Wheat Production in Different Agrotechnical Systems," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marisa D.M. Vieira & Thomas C. Ponsioen & Mark J. Goedkoop & Mark A.J. Huijbregts, 2016. "Surplus Cost Potential as a Life Cycle Impact Indicator for Metal Extraction," Resources, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Anni Orola & Anna Härri & Jarkko Levänen & Ville Uusitalo & Stig Irving Olsen, 2022. "Assessing WELBY Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach through Cobalt Mining Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Xiaomeng Cui & Wei Xie, 2022. "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change through Growing Season Adjustments: Evidence from Corn in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 249-272, January.
    4. Chen, Bowen & Dennis, Elliott J. & Featherstone, Allen, 2022. "Weather Impacts the Agricultural Production Efficiency of Wheat: The Emerging Role of Precipitation Shocks," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 47(3), September.
    5. San Miguel, Guillermo, 2024. "External environmental costs of electricity generation using a life cycle approach: A case study of Spain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PD).
    6. Nguyen, Thu Lan T. & Hermansen, John E. & Mogensen, Lisbeth, 2013. "Environmental performance of crop residues as an energy source for electricity production: The case of wheat straw in Denmark," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 633-641.
    7. Vahakn Kabakian & Marcelle McManus, 2024. "From private to social cost-benefit analysis: life cycle environmental impact cost internalization in cement production fuel switching," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(10), pages 25527-25548, October.
    8. Shew, Aaron M. & Nalley, Lawton L. & Durand-Morat, Alvaro & Meredith, Kylie & Parajuli, Ranjan & Thoma, Greg & Henry, Christopher G., 2021. "Holistically valuing public investments in agricultural water conservation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    9. Algunaibet, Ibrahim M. & Pozo, Carlos & Galán-Martín, Ángel & Guillén-Gosálbez, Gonzalo, 2019. "Quantifying the cost of leaving the Paris Agreement via the integration of life cycle assessment, energy systems modeling and monetization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 588-601.
    10. Marianne Thomsen & Daina Romeo & Dario Caro & Michele Seghetta & Rong-Gang Cong, 2018. "Environmental-Economic Analysis of Integrated Organic Waste and Wastewater Management Systems: A Case Study from Aarhus City (Denmark)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Bell, David R. & Silalertruksa, Thapat & Gheewala, Shabbir H. & Kamens, Richard, 2011. "The net cost of biofuels in Thailand--An economic analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 834-843, February.
    12. Ahlroth, Sofia, 2014. "The use of valuation and weighting sets in environmental impact assessment," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 34-41.
    13. Roberta Olindo & Joost G. Vogtländer, 2019. "The Role of Hydrogen in the Ecological Benefits of Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel Production and Use: An LCA Benchmark," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, April.
    14. Rosalie Arendt & Till M. Bachmann & Masaharu Motoshita & Vanessa Bach & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2020. "Comparison of Different Monetization Methods in LCA: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-39, December.
    15. Benedetta Nucci & Fabio Iraldo & Maria Rosa De Giacomo, 2016. "The relevance of Life Cycle Costing in Green Public Procurement," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 91-109.
    16. Säll, Sarah & Gren, Ing-Marie, 2015. "Effects of an environmental tax on meat and dairy consumption in Sweden," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 41-53.
    17. Ayşe Bayazıt Subaşı & Elçin Filiz Taş, 2023. "Single Score Environmental Performances of Roof Coverings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, March.
    18. Ewelina Olba-Zięty & Mariusz Jerzy Stolarski & Michał Krzyżaniak & Kazimierz Warmiński, 2020. "Willow Cultivation as Feedstock for Bioenergy-External Production Cost," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Sara Rajabi Hamedani & Tom Kuppens & Robert Malina & Enrico Bocci & Andrea Colantoni & Mauro Villarini, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-21, June.
    20. Jørgen Dejgård Jensen & Henrik Saxe & Sigrid Denver, 2015. "Cost-Effectiveness of a New Nordic Diet as a Strategy for Health Promotion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-22, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agribusiness; Crop Production/Industries;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:348189. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.