Monitoring and accounting the sustainability of tomato greenhouse production systems of Mirjaveh district, Iran based on emergetic indicators

Abstract

The application of the emergy approach to analyzing the sustainability of greenhouse systems has resulted in the deployment of adequate management in order to boost the production sustainability of these systems. The goal of this study was to apply the emergy approach to assess the sustainability of greenhouse tomato production systems. The data for this study was collected from greenhouse owners through face-to-face referrals and the completion of a questionnaire. Sixty three tomato greenhouses were chosen for this purpose in Mirjaveh district, Zahedan, Iran. In tomato greenhouse systems, the average total emergy supporting output was 1.06E+16 sej/1000 m2 of greenhouse area. The unit emergy value of economic product (unit emergy value) was calculated to be 9.94E+03 sej/J, indicating that greenhouse systems outperform open field systems of various crops by at least 100 times. The significant proportion of purchased non-renewable resources affected the tomato production system's sustainability in this study. As a result, using productive renewable local environmental inputs, more efficient labor, and technologies to reduce greenhouse building inputs and acquire non-renewable inputs will make the greenhouse tomato production system more sustainable.

Keywords

• Intensive agricultural systems
• Emergetic indicators
• Environmental load
• Sustainability assessment
• Greenhouse systems
• Emergy synthesis