Predicting energy efficiency and greenhouse gases reduction potential under different tillage management and farm size scenarios for winter wheat production

Winter wheat is the most popular crop in Europe and at the same time a major contributor to environmental pollution, as its production process is energy-intensive and emits high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG). Therefore, tackling the pollution of agroecosystems requires development of cleaner production technologies by integrating sustainable agricultural production practices that reduce the use of machinery, diesel and chemicals. The aim of this study was to determine the main indicators of energy and carbon emissions in winter wheat production taking into account different scenarios based on tillage technologies and farm sizes. Three sizes of farms (100 ha) and three different tillage systems (conventional (CT), minimal (MT) and no tillage (NT)) were used in this study in order to build up different scenarios. The cost of fuel, time, energy and carbon emissions for the size of the farm, the area of wheat and the amount of crop harvested were analysed based on the developed scenarios. The lowest total cost of fuel and working time for the total area of winter wheat (621 032 ha) were needed under the scenario SC 3 – 65.37 million L and 3.05 million h or 105.26 L ha−1 and 4.90 h ha−1, respectively. The best energy efficiency ratio (3.84), energy productivity ratio (0.26 kg MJ−1) and specific energy ratio (3.80 MJ kg−1) for winter wheat production were found in large farms (>100 ha) under no tillage. A comparison of the tillage and the farm size scenarios showed that by applying the scenario SC 3, where CT is 30–70%, MT is 20–50%, and NT is 10–20%, the carbon emissions for the total area of winter wheat could be reduced by 12.6 kilotonnes carbon emission, compared to the scenario SC 1, where CT is 50–100%, MT is 0–40%, and NT 0–10%. In conclusion, the modelled scenarios results suggested that implementation of NT and MT technologies using [...]Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij