IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agrhuv/v21y2004i4p347-353.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of plant nutrient management strategies: Conventional and alternative approaches

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Gareau

Abstract

During times of economic uncertainty, such as the current period, all costs of agricultural production become important and worthy of close scrutiny if the threat of farm foreclosures is to be minimized. This concern particularly applies to the cost of plant nutrients, which, under conventional approaches, typically represents 24%–30% (or more) of the total variable costs of production [Lu et al. (2000) Food Reviews International 16(2): 121–157; Bullen and Brown (2001) Economic Evaluation of UNR Cotton, NC State University, Raleigh, North Carolina]. The purpose of this paper is to examine, via a review of the literature, the economics and profitability of various plant nutrient management strategies–both conventional and alternative ones–in an attempt to identify those strategies that can lead to financial resource optimization and, ultimately, maximum profits for farm enterprises. The results of this analysis are as follows: In a meta-analysis of 120 studies, conventional nutrient management systems, using commercial fertilizers, showed higher profit for most grain crops (with the exception of corn and sorghum), than organic nutrient management systems. Both cover crop and animal manure-based systems show considerable promise as alternative nutrient management strategies for increasing farm profitability. A cover crop system produced the highest average corn yield and gross margin per hectare with the smallest coefficient of variation compared to no-tillage conventional, manure-based, or crownvetch systems. Manure-based systems that do not require purchase or transport of the manure (as in combined animal and crop production systems) can be considerably more profitable than conventional systems. Both manure-based and cover crop systems that do not include the use of commercial fertilizers (i.e., organic systems), hold particular promise due to the output price premiums typically garnered by the organic crops grown under such conditions. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Gareau, 2004. "Analysis of plant nutrient management strategies: Conventional and alternative approaches," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 21(4), pages 347-353, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:21:y:2004:i:4:p:347-353
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-003-1221-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10460-003-1221-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10460-003-1221-7?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Kshirsagar, K. G., 2008. "Impact of organic sugercane farming on economics and water use efficiency in Maharashtra," Conference Papers h042300, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Kshirsagar, K. G., 2008. "Impact of organic sugarcane farming on economics and water use efficiency in maharashtra," Conference Papers h043609, International Water Management Institute.
    3. Kshirsagar K G, 2008. "Impact of Organic Farming on Economics of Sugarcane Cultivation in Maharashtra," Working Papers id:1554, eSocialSciences.
    4. Unknown, 2008. "Managing water in the face of growing scarcity, inequity and declining returns: exploring fresh approaches," IWMI Conference Proceedings 138984, International Water Management Institute.
    5. Goeringer, L. Paul & Goodwin, Harold L., Jr. & Dixon, Bruce L. & Popp, Michael P., 2013. "EnVesting in an Agricultural Legacy: Design and Implementation of a Targeted Young and Beginning Farmer Loan Program in Arkansas," 2013 Annual Meeting, February 2-5, 2013, Orlando, Florida 143037, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

    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:spr:agrhuv:v:21:y:2004:i:4:p:347-353. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.