Speaker
Description
1. Introduction
Olive orchards have been a very important part of Mediterranean agriculture since ancient times. Historically a low input crop grown on rolling landscapes with shallow soils, olive growing is experiencing an intensification process that carries along some radical changes in its thousands-year-old agronomic practices: olive orchards are moving from low-input traditional to highly mechanized and input-demanding plantations. The rapid expansion of these new olive cropping systems raises concerns over the environmental impacts associated with an excessive use of water, fertilizers, and energy, the later potentially leading to increased CO2 emissions that contribute to global warming. Unfortunately, scientific reports providing quantitative assessments of the different environmental impacts of olive growing are still scarce and scattered. This challenges the comparison among farming alternatives and the identification of best management practices (BMPs) to meet sustainability objectives. This work introduces ‘SATDOS’, a decision support system for assessing the productive and environmental performances of different olive cropping systems and management schemes.
2. Model description
SATDOS integrates a well-established process-based simulation model of olive orchards (OliveCan, López-Bernal et al., 2018), an improved model for calculating nutrient balances and fertilizer requirements (FertiliCalc, Villalobos et al., 2020) and a new tool (CCO2E) for accounting for CO2 emissions resulting from cultural practices. The systems runs OliveCan for estimating crop evapotranspiration (ETc), net ecosystem productivity (NEP) and potential yield. The latter is used for estimating the yield gap. The water footprint is subsequently determined using a corrected procedure overcoming some of the limitations of the original formulation (Fereres et al., 2017). In short, the evapotranspiration of natural vegetation (ETnv), calculated by a simple routine, is considered as the baseline for nil footprint. On the other hand, CCO2E calculates anthropogenic CO2 emissions by quantifying direct and indirect energy requirements for inputs and operations in the farm, including all those related to tillage, fertilization, application of plant protection products, irrigation, harvest, transport of inputs and outputs and labour. By comparing NEP and CO2 emissions, the system provides an estimate of the net carbon balance of the orchard. Finally, FertiliCalc quantifies the excess or deficit of nutrients (N, P and K) and nitrogen losses associated to the fertilization plan.
3. Data requirements
Input requirements include basic information on the location of the orchard, soil characteristics, actual yield and details on the management operations and materials used by the farmer. Weather data required for running the system are gathered automatically from public Spanish databases.
4. Model applicability
SATDOS has been conceived as a tool that enables users to identify BMPs for any kind of olive orchard with a holistic perspective. This may contribute to the digital transition of the olive industry, supporting decision-making. Furthermore, the software may provide relevant information to guide policies in the context of climate change mitigation, the sustainable use of resources, and pollution prevention and control.
5. Funding
This work has been developed under the framework of the project TED2021-132217A-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union “NextGenerationUE”/Recovery and Resilience Facility.
6. References
- Fereres, E., Villalobos, F.J., Minguez, M.I., van Halsema, G., Perry, C.J. (2017) Commentary: On the water footprint as an indicator of water use in food production. Irrig Sci. 35, 83–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00271-017-0535-y
- López-Bernal, Á., Morales, A., García-Tejera, O., Testi L., Orgaz, F., De Melo-Abreu, J.P., Villalobos, F.J. (2018) OliveCan: A Process-Based Model of Development, Growth and Yield of Olive Orchards. Front. Plant Sci. 9, 632 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2018.00632
- Villalobos, F.J., Delgado, A., López-Bernal, Á., Quemada, M. (2020) FertiliCalc: A Decision Support System for Fertilizer Management. Int. J. Plant Prod. 14, 299–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42106-019-00085-1
| Keywords | Carbon exchange; FertiliCalc; Olea europaea L.; OliveCan; Water footprint |
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