Intensive Annual Forage Cultivation via Diversified Sowing Under a Mixed-Cropping System to Increase Production and Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Xiangyu Wei, Qin Feng, Jianqiang Deng (), Haiying Hu, Qiaoli Ma and Jian Lan
Additional contact information
Xiangyu Wei: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Qin Feng: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Jianqiang Deng: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Haiying Hu: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Qiaoli Ma: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China
Jian Lan: School of Forestry and Grassland Industry, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: Intensive annual forage cultivation via diversified sowing can increase resource-use efficiency and meet the food requirements of the growing population. However, increasing cultivation time could increase energy demands and production costs with accompanying environmental hazards, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A 2-year field experiment including three cropping systems (forage oat monoculture [O], forage oat–common vetch mixed-cropping [O/V], and common vetch monoculture [V]) and two sowing dates (spring and summer) was conducted to comprehensively assess productivity performance, energy utilization, and ecological efficiency under a cereal–legume mixed system over two sowing seasons in Northwestern China. The average system dry matter yield and economic benefit in the mixed system increased by 70.9% and 132.6%, respectively, compared to those of the monoculture system. The application of a mixed-cropping system increased energy efficiency and the ecoefficiency index (EEI) by 61.4% and 132.3%, respectively, with a decline in GHG emission intensity (GHGI) by 49.9%. Spring sowing increased average forage productivity and economic benefit by 9.3% and 18.6%, respectively, with a 23.0% decline in GHGI compared with that engendered by summer sowing. However, there was no correlation between the mixed-cropping system and single sowing date, and the average dry matter yield, economic benefit, and GHGI of the mixed-cropping system were 7.8 t ha −1 , 1478.4 USD ha −1 , and 0.3 kg CO 2 e kg −1 , respectively. Furthermore, compared with the monoculture system, the combination of spring and summer seasons under the mixed-cropping system could increase the average annual system forage productivity, economic benefit, and EEI by 37.0%, 49.9%, and 53.1%, respectively, while reducing GHGI by 48.4%. This study demonstrates that the mixed forage oat and common vetch during spring and summer was the sustainable cropping system that achieved high system productivity, good economic returns, high energy utilization, and low environmental risk in Northwestern China.

Keywords: farming system; sowing season; forage production; greenhouse gas emission intensity; ecoefficiency (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/1/32/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/1/32/ (text/html)

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:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2024:i:1:p:32-:d:1553762

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().