Does crop rotation with legumes provide an efficient means to reduce nutrient loads and GHG emissions?

Sanna Lötjönen () and Markku Ollikainen
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Sanna Lötjönen: Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27,FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Markku Ollikainen: Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27,FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland

Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, 2017, vol. 98, issue 4, 283-312

Abstract: We investigate crop rotation with legumes from economic and envi-ronmental perspectives by asking how effective they are at providing profitsand reducing nutrient runoff and greenhouse gas emissions compared withmonoculture cultivation. We study this effectiveness in three alternative policyregimes: the free market optimum, the Finnish agri-environmental scheme, andsocially optimal cultivation, and also design policy instruments to achieve thesocially optimal outcomes in land use and fertilization. We first develop ananalytical model to describe crop rotation and the role of legumes, and examineits implications for water and climate policies. Drawing on Finnish agriculturaldata, we then use numerical simulations and show that shifting from monocul-ture cultivation to crop rotation with legumes provides economically and envi-ronmentally better outcomes. Crop rotation with legumes also reduces thevariability in profits caused by stochastic weather. The optimal instrumentsimplementing the social optimum depend on nutrient and climate damage(nitrogen tax), as well as carbon sequestration and nutrient reduction benefits(buffer strip subsidy).

Keywords: Crop; rotation.Greenhouse; gas; emissions.Legumes.Nutrient; loads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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