Circular agriculture increases food production and can reduce N fertilizer use of commercial farms for tropical environments

Silvino G Moreira; Gerrit Hoogenboom; Marcio R Nunes; Ana D Martin-Ryals; Pedro A Sanchez

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163031

Circular agriculture increases food production and can reduce N fertilizer use of commercial farms for tropical environments

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jun 25:879:163031. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163031. Epub 2023 Mar 25.

Authors

Silvino G Moreira¹, Gerrit Hoogenboom², Marcio R Nunes³, Ana D Martin-Ryals⁴, Pedro A Sanchez³

Affiliations

¹ Departamento de Agricultura, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Av. Doutor Silvio Menicucci 1001, CEP 37200-000 Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil; University of Florida, Global Food Systems Institute, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Electronic address: silvinomoreira@ufla.br.
² University of Florida, Global Food Systems Institute, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; University of Florida, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
³ University of Florida, Global Food Systems Institute, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; University of Florida, Department of Soil, Water and Ecosystem Sciences, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
⁴ University of Florida, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

PMID: 36972885
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163031

Abstract

World food production must increase in the coming years with minimal environmental impact for food and nutrition security. Circular Agriculture has emerged as an approach to minimize non-renewable resource depletion and encourage by-product reuse. The goal of this study was to evaluate Circular Agriculture as a tool to increase food production and N recovery. The assessment was conducted for two Brazilian farms (Farm 1; Farm 2) with Oxisols under no-till and a diversified cropping system, including five species of grain, three cover crop species, and sweet potato. Both farms implemented an annual two-crop rotation and an integrated crop-livestock system with beef cattle confined for 2-years. Grain and forage from the fields, leftovers from silos, and crop residues were used as cattle feed. Grain yield was 4.8 and 4.5 t ha^-1 for soybean, 12.5 and 12.1 t ha^-1 for maize, and 2.6 and 2.4 t ha^-1 for common bean, for Farm 1 and Farm 2, respectively, which is higher than the national average. The animals gained 1.2 kg day^-1 of live weight. Farm 1 exported 246 kg ha^-1 year^-1 of N in grains, tubers, and animals, while 216 kg ha^-1 year^-1 was added as fertilizer and N to cattle. Farm 2 exported 224 kg ha^-1 year^-1 in grain and animals, while 215 kg ha^-1 year^-1 was added as fertilizer and N to cattle. Circular practices, i.e., no-till, crop rotation, year-round soil covered, maize intercropped with brachiaria ruziziensis, biological N fixation, and crop-livestock integration, increased crop yield and decreased N application by 14.7 % (Farm 1) and 4.3 % (Farm 2). 85 % of the N consumed by the confined animals was excreted and converted into organic compost. Overall, circular practices associated with adequate crop management allowed recovering high rate of applied N, reducing environmental impacts, and increasing food production with lower production costs.

Keywords: Beef cattle; Circular bioeconomy; Crop rotation; Diversification; Livestock; No-till.

MeSH terms

Agriculture*
Animals
Cattle
Crops, Agricultural
Environment
Farms
Fertilizers*
Soil
Zea mays

Substances

Fertilizers
Soil