The Effect of Conservation Agriculture and Environmental Factors on CO 2 Emissions in a Rainfed Crop Rotation

Rosa Carbonell-Bojollo, Oscar Veroz-Gonzalez, Rafaela Ordoñez-Fernandez, Manuel Moreno-Garcia, Gottlieb Basch, Amir Kassam, Miguel A. Repullo-Ruiberriz de Torres and Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez
Additional contact information
Rosa Carbonell-Bojollo: Área de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente, Centro Ifapa “Alameda del Obispo”, Apdo 3092, 14080 Córdoba, Spain
Oscar Veroz-Gonzalez: Asociación Española Agricultura de Conservación. Suelos Vivos—European Conservation Agriculture Federation (AEAC.SV-ECAF), IFAPA Alameda del Obispo, Av. Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Córdoba, Spain
Rafaela Ordoñez-Fernandez: Área de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente, Centro Ifapa “Alameda del Obispo”, Apdo 3092, 14080 Córdoba, Spain
Manuel Moreno-Garcia: Área de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente, Centro Ifapa “Alameda del Obispo”, Apdo 3092, 14080 Córdoba, Spain
Gottlieb Basch: Institute of Mediterranean Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (ICAAM), Universidade de Évora, 7000-812 Évora, Portugal
Amir Kassam: School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AR, UK
Miguel A. Repullo-Ruiberriz de Torres: Área de Agricultura y Medio Ambiente, Centro Ifapa “Alameda del Obispo”, Apdo 3092, 14080 Córdoba, Spain
Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez: Asociación Española Agricultura de Conservación. Suelos Vivos—European Conservation Agriculture Federation (AEAC.SV-ECAF), IFAPA Alameda del Obispo, Av. Menéndez Pidal s/n, 14004 Córdoba, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 14, 1-19

Abstract: There are many factors involved in the release of CO 2 emissions from the soil, such as the type of soil management, the soil organic matter, the soil temperature and moisture conditions, crop phenological stage, weather conditions, residue management, among others. This study aimed to analyse the influence of these factors and their interactions to determine the emissions by evaluating the environmental cost expressed as the kg of CO 2 emitted per kg of production in each of the crops and seasons studied. For this purpose, a field trial was conducted on a farm in Seville (Spain). The study compared Conservation Agriculture, including its three principles (no-tillage, permanent soil cover, and crop rotations), with conventional tillage. Carbon dioxide emissions measured across the four seasons of the experiment showed an increase strongly influenced by rainfall during the vegetative period, in both soil management systems. The results of this study confirm that extreme events of precipitation away from the normal means, result in episodes of high CO 2 emissions into the atmosphere. This is very important because one of the consequences for future scenarios of climate change is precisely the increase of extreme episodes of precipitation and periods extremely dry, depending on the area considered. The total of emission values of the different plots of the study show how the soils under the conventional system (tillage) have been emitting 67% more than soils under the conventional agriculture system during the 2010/11 campaign and 25% for the last campaign where the most appreciable differences are observed.

Keywords: soil management; climate change; mitigation; conventional tillage; conservation agriculture; GHG emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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