De Boni, A.; D’Amico, A.; Acciani, C.; Roma, R. Crop Diversification and Resilience of Drought-Resistant Species in Semi-Arid Areas: An Economic and Environmental Analysis. Sustainability2022, 14, 9552.
De Boni, A.; D’Amico, A.; Acciani, C.; Roma, R. Crop Diversification and Resilience of Drought-Resistant Species in Semi-Arid Areas: An Economic and Environmental Analysis. Sustainability 2022, 14, 9552.
De Boni, A.; D’Amico, A.; Acciani, C.; Roma, R. Crop Diversification and Resilience of Drought-Resistant Species in Semi-Arid Areas: An Economic and Environmental Analysis. Sustainability2022, 14, 9552.
De Boni, A.; D’Amico, A.; Acciani, C.; Roma, R. Crop Diversification and Resilience of Drought-Resistant Species in Semi-Arid Areas: An Economic and Environmental Analysis. Sustainability 2022, 14, 9552.
Abstract
The specialisation and intensification in agriculture have increased the productivity but have also led to the spread of monocultural systems, simplifying production and reducing genetic diversity. The purpose of this study was to propose crop diversification as a tool to increase biodiversity and achieve sustainable and resilient intensive agriculture, particularly in areas with water scarcity. In this paper, a combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) was applied to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability of a differentiated system of cultivation (pomegranate, almond and olive), according to modern intensive and superintensive cropping systems. Based upon the results obtained, it is deduced that pomegranate cultivation generated the highest environmental load, followed by almond and olive. From the financial analysis, it emerged that almond is the most profitable, followed by pomegranate and olive.
Keywords
crop diversification; resilience; water management; water efficiency
Subject
Business, Economics and Management, Economics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
