Heliyon (Oct 2024)
A thermodynamic approach to evaluating the ecological health and sustainability of integrated production systems in Goharkuh Taftan agro-industrial complex and sensitivity analysis of the results
Abstract
In recent times, the increasing influx of energy inputs into farming systems has led to a significant enhancement in their overall efficiency. However, this has happened at the expense of endangering the sustainability of these systems and degrading the environment. Therefore, it is crucial to develop a methodology to evaluate the resilience of agricultural systems. This study utilised the Steinborn and Svirezhev methodology to assess five different production systems (wheat, barley, alfalfa, cotton, and Pistachio) within the Goharkuh Taftan agro-industrial complex. The approach measures the excessive production of entropy, which acts as an indicator of the system's departure from sustainability. The study focuses on four components: overproduction of entropy, limit energy load, maximum crop yield for sustainable agriculture, and deviation from sustainable agriculture. The results indicated that the production systems analysed in this study produce surplus entropy, thus rendering them in an unstable condition. Among all the products, alfalfa had the lowest entropy overproduction, while pistachio had the highest. The three agricultural commodities, namely wheat, barley, and cotton, are situated at a point equidistant from the two opposite ends. Alfalfa has shown greater energy use efficiency compared to pistachios. It surpasses the maximum crop yield for sustainable agriculture and has less deviation from sustainable agriculture than other integrated production systems. The differences in the intensity of energy flow and the structural characteristics of the integrated production systems were responsible for the variations in the values of the examined components. Nevertheless, none of these solutions are sustainable in the long term. An analysis of the energy inputs and components of the harvest index revealed the importance of implementing management techniques that decrease the intensity of energy flows into these systems and enhance the harvest index to attain a sustainable state. Integrating supplementary renewable energy sources will bolster the long-term sustainability of production systems.
