Equipment Performance, Costs and Constraints of Packaging and Transporting Rice Straw for Alternative Uses to Burning in the “Parc Natural l’Albufera de València” (Spain)

Antonio Torregrosa, Juan Miguel Giner and Borja Velázquez-Martí
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Antonio Torregrosa: Departamento Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Juan Miguel Giner: Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y del Medio Natural, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Borja Velázquez-Martí: Departamento Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Rice straw is a residue that causes significant environmental problems, as burning it causes CO 2 and ash emissions, while buried waste can cause issues associated with eutrophication. The extraction of straw from fields for alternative uses may contribute to solving these problems, but research into its economic viability is necessary. The straw can be used for crop mulching, biofuel, bedding for livestock, and so on. In this study, we analyse the work carried out by straw harvesting machines (rakes, balers, bundlers, and loaders) and calculate the costs of packing, road-siding, and transportation of the straw from the rice fields to stockage points in the producer area, as well as to locations outside of the rice production area, in order to assess the viability. The costs of all elemental operations were calculated. The costs of all the operations included between raking and unloading in the producer area stocking point ranged between 28.1 and 51 EUR t −1 . These costs were compared with the price of rain-fed cereal straw (wheat and barley), which is the most abundant, noting that the years in which rain-fed cereal straw reached high prices, rice straw could serve as a competitive product; however, in years when the former is cheap, it would be necessary to subsidise the harvesting of rice straw.

Keywords: straw; rice; baler; transport; economy; mechanisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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