Potential Role of Fertilizer Sources and Soil Tillage Practices to Mitigate Soil CO 2 Emissions in Mediterranean Potato Production Systems

Roberto Mancinelli, Sara Marinari, Mohamed Allam and Emanuele Radicetti
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Roberto Mancinelli: Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo de Lellis, snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Sara Marinari: Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems, Via S. Camillo de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Mohamed Allam: Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (DAFNE), University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo de Lellis, snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Emanuele Radicetti: Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Via Luigi Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-14

Abstract: Agricultural practices should be approached with environmental-friendly strategies, able to restore soil organic matter and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental benefits, in terms of CO 2 emissions and carbon balance, of some agricultural practices for potato cultivation. A randomized complete block design was adopted where the treatments were: (a) tillage systems (plowing; subsoiler and spading); (b) fertilizer sources (mineral and organic). All treatments were replicated three times. Potato yield and its carbon content, soil CO 2 emissions, temperature, and volumetric water content were measured. The CO 2 emissions were higher in organic than in mineral fertilizer (0.60 and vs. 0.77 g m −2 h −1 , respectively), while they were low in spading compared to the other soil tillage (0.64 vs. 0.72 g m −2 h −1 , respectively). Carbon input was the highest in plowing and organic fertilizer 4.76 and 5.59 Mg C ha −1 , respectively. The input/output ratio of carbon varied according to the main treatments. The findings suggest that spading tillage and organic fertilizer might result in environmental and agronomical benefits, further research should be performed to evaluate to possibility to extend the results to other environments and crops.

Keywords: soil organic matter; soil amendment; intensive agriculture; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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