IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i12p2272-d1300175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimizing Sustainability in Malting Barley: A Practical Approach to Nitrogen Management for Enhanced Environmental, Agronomic, and Economic Benefits

Author

Listed:
  • Petros Vahamidis

    (Directorate of Plant Production Protection, Hellenic Ministry of Rural Development and Food, 150 Syngrou Avenue, 176 71 Kallithea, Greece)

  • Angeliki Stefopoulou

    (Financial Audit Committee, General Accounting Office, Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance, 57 Panepistimiou Avenue, 105 64 Athens, Greece)

  • Vassilis Kotoulas

    (Athenian Brewery S.A, 102 Kifissos Avenue, 102 10 Athens, Greece)

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) fertilisers used in barley production serve as the primary contributors to total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Consequently, to lower the carbon footprint (CF) and GHG emissions, it is imperative to either reduce N fertiliser rates or enhance grain yield and improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). To address this challenge, we combined two strategies related to N: (1) a 34% reduction in the total N rate compared to the control (total N rate 108–110 kg N ha −1 ), and (2) testing two types of N fertilisers for topdressing against the control (common sulfur urea). These types included (a) a mixture comprising controlled-release fertiliser (CRF) combined with ammonium sulfate nitrate fertiliser in a 40:60 ratio (CRF + Nitro) and (b) ammonium sulfate nitrate (Nitro). Experiments were conducted in two distinct areas of Greece specialising in cereal production, aiming to unveil the effects of these strategies on all sustainability aspects of malting barley production. The results showed that although a 34% reduction in N rate did not result in yield penalties or a decrease in grain size, it did have a negative impact on grain protein content (GPC). CRF + Nitro not only reduced CF by approximately 30% compared to the control but also increased N agronomic efficiency by 51.5% and net profit by 7.1%. Additionally, it was demonstrated that the maximum achievable reduction in total GHG emissions and CF, by excluding N fertilisation from the crop system, ranged from 68.5% to 74.3% for GHG emissions and 53.8% to 67.1% for CF.

Suggested Citation

  • Petros Vahamidis & Angeliki Stefopoulou & Vassilis Kotoulas, 2023. "Optimizing Sustainability in Malting Barley: A Practical Approach to Nitrogen Management for Enhanced Environmental, Agronomic, and Economic Benefits," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-24, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:12:p:2272-:d:1300175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/12/2272/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/12/2272/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Qixia Wu & Yue Qiao & Qianshun Zhou & Jinping Chen & Guangshuai Wang, 2023. "Controlled-Release Blended Fertilizer Combined with Urea Reduces Nitrogen Losses by Runoff and Improves Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Yield of Wet Direct-Seeded Rice in Central China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-16, August.
    2. Zahra Payandeh & Ahmad Jahanbakhshi & Tarahom Mesri-Gundoshmian & Sean Clark, 2021. "Improving Energy Efficiency of Barley Production Using Joint Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Optimization Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Liang, Hao & Chen, Qing & Liang, Bin & Hu, Kelin, 2020. "Modeling the effects of long-term reduced N application on soil N losses and yield in a greenhouse tomato production system," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong Anh Thi Nguyen & Shabbir H. Gheewala & Kritana Prueksakorn & Supatsara Khunsri & Jutarat Thaweechot & Pornpimol Raksa, 2023. "Operational Efficiency and Environmental Impacts of Food Service Establishments in Phuket, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Sun, Mengyuan & Chen, Wen & Lapen, David R. & Ma, Bin & Lu, Peina & Liu, Jinghui, 2023. "Effects of ridge-furrow with plastic film mulching combining with various urea types on water productivity and yield of potato in a dryland farming system," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    3. Hessampour, Reza & Bastani, Aboubakr & Hassani, Mehrdad & Failla, Sabina & Vaverková, Magdalena Daria & Halog, Anthony, 2023. "Joint life cycle assessment and data envelopment analysis for the benchmarking of energy, exergy, environmental effects, and water footprint in the canned apple supply chain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    4. Guo, Jinjin & Fan, Junliang & Xiang, Youzhen & Zhang, Fucang & Yan, Shicheng & Zhang, Xueyan & Zheng, Jing & Li, Yuepeng & Tang, Zijun & Li, Zhijun, 2022. "Coupling effects of irrigation amount and nitrogen fertilizer type on grain yield, water productivity and nitrogen use efficiency of drip-irrigated maize," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    5. Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos & Georgios Kleftodimos & George Vlontzos & Panos M. Pardalos, 2023. "A systematic literature review of data envelopment analysis implementation in agriculture under the prism of sustainability," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-38, March.
    6. Guo, Jinjin & Fan, Junliang & Xiang, Youzhen & Zhang, Fucang & Yan, Shicheng & Zhang, Xueyan & Zheng, Jing & Hou, Xianghao & Tang, Zijun & Li, Zhijun, 2022. "Maize leaf functional responses to blending urea and slow-release nitrogen fertilizer under various drip irrigation regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    7. Xu, Xiangying & Wang, Chao & Wang, Hongjiang & Zhang, Yonglong & Cao, Zhuangzhuang & Zhang, Zhiping & Dai, Haibo & Miao, Minmin, 2023. "Development and performance evaluation of an APP for vegetable fertilization and irrigation management originated from EU-Rotate_N," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    8. Huang, Zhenyu & Zhang, Junxiao & Ren, Dongyang & Hu, Jiaqi & Xia, Guimin & Pan, Baozhu, 2022. "Modeling and assessing water and nitrogen use and crop growth of peanut in semi-arid areas of Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    9. Elahi, Ehsan & Khalid, Zainab, 2022. "Estimating smart energy inputs packages using hybrid optimisation technique to mitigate environmental emissions of commercial fish farms," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    10. Ali Mohammadi & G. Venkatesh & Samieh Eskandari & Shahin Rafiee, 2022. "Eco-Efficiency Analysis to Improve Environmental Performance of Wheat Production," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, July.
    11. Wu, You & Yan, Shicheng & Fan, Junliang & Zhang, Fucang & Zhao, Wenju & Zheng, Jing & Guo, Jinjin & Xiang, Youzhen & Wu, Lifeng, 2022. "Combined effects of irrigation level and fertilization practice on yield, economic benefit and water-nitrogen use efficiency of drip-irrigated greenhouse tomato," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    12. Mousavi, Masoumeh & Taki, Morteza & Raeini, Mahmoud Ghaseminejd & Soheilifard, Farshad, 2023. "Evaluation of energy consumption and environmental impacts of strawberry production in different greenhouse structures using life cycle assessment (LCA) approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:12:p:2272-:d:1300175. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.