Assessing maize production systems in Mexico from an energy, exergy, and greenhouse-gas emissions perspective

Sergio Juárez-Hernández, Sergio Usón and Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

Energy, 2019, vol. 170, issue C, 199-211

Abstract: Maize is the most important staple crop in Mexico and is cultivated under varied agro-climatic and socio-economic conditions. The aim of this study is to estimate energy use, cumulative exergy consumption (CExC), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of different maize production systems as proxies to compare their resource use and environmental performance. Based on average values, per-hectare energy use, energy intensity (EI), energy output-input ratio (ER), and net energy (NE) are in the range of 2.3–40.2 GJ ha−1, 1.8–8.5 MJ kg−1, 1.7–12.0, and 16.3–73.1 GJ ha−1, respectively. Per-hectare CExC, exergy intensity (ExI), exergy output-input ratio (ExR), and net exergy (NEx) are in the range of 2.5–52.1 GJ ha−1, 1.9–10.7 MJ kg−1, 1.6–14.1, and 19.6–86.8 GJ ha−1, respectively. Per-hectare GHG emissions, GHG intensity (GHGI), and GHG per unit energy input (GHGEi) are in the range of 152.9–3475.8 kg CO2e ha−1, 116.5–601.9 kg CO2e Mg−1, and 63.1–117.2 kg CO2e GJ−1, respectively. Low-input rain-fed production systems perform better in EI, ER, ExI, ExR, GHGI, and GHGEi though, they also show the lowest NE and NEx due to poor yields. High-input surface irrigated production systems have the highest NE and NEx coupled with medium values of EI, ExI, and GHGI due to high productivity.

Keywords: Rain-fed maize; Irrigated maize; Cumulative exergy consumption; Global warming; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218325350
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:170:y:2019:i:c:p:199-211

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.12.161

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().