The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
| Autor: | Bryan C. Runck, Patrick M. Ewing, Colin K. Khoury, Michael B. Kantar |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Crops
Agricultural 0106 biological sciences Cost-Benefit Analysis Yield (finance) Supply chain Medicine (miscellaneous) 01 natural sciences General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology 03 medical and health sciences Sustainable agriculture Production (economics) Biomass Cover crop Agroecology lcsh:QH301-705.5 Environmental Restoration and Remediation 030304 developmental biology 0303 health sciences Production area Land use business.industry Agroforestry Agriculture Crop Production United States lcsh:Biology (General) Perspective Environmental science General Agricultural and Biological Sciences business 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Communications Biology Communications Biology, Vol 3, Iss 1, Pp 1-4 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2399-3642 |
| Popis: | Cover cropping is considered a cornerstone practice in sustainable agriculture; however, little attention has been paid to the cover crop production supply chain. In this Perspective, we estimate land use requirements to supply the United States maize production area with cover crop seed, finding that across 18 cover crops, on average 3.8% (median 2.0%) of current production area would be required, with the popular cover crops rye and hairy vetch requiring as much as 4.5% and 11.9%, respectively. The latter land requirement is comparable to the annual amount of maize grain lost to disease in the U.S. We highlight avenues for reducing these high land use costs. In this Perspective, Bryan Runck and colleagues discuss an often-overlooked consequence of scaling up cover cropping – a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture. Using published seed yield data from common cover crops, they demonstrate the potentially large land use cost and discuss ways for reducing this cost. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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