Economic gains from crop-livestock integration in relation to conventional systems

Abstract

The objective with this study was to calculate the total cost of maize production and beef cattle in permanent pasture activities in separate production systems (conventional) and integrated systems (maize production plus beef cattle), as well as to verify economic gains explained by the economy of scope. The first step for the development of the research was to obtain field experimental data. Six experimental treatments were studied: corn grain production, beef cattle in permanent pasture, and four integrated systems based on different crop and pasture sowings. The second step consisted in the collection, calculation, and allocation of variable and fixed costs to estimate costs of production in the systems. The crop-livestock integration showed economic gains in relation to conventional systems, which can be explained by the dilution of fixed costs and the presence of shareable inputs, resulting in economy of scope. It was also possible to demonstrate that total unit costs of both crop and livestock were lower in crop-livestock integration, showing that integrated systems resulted in economic benefits as compared with conventional ones.

The Economic Value of Sustainability of the Integrated Crop-Livestock System in Tropical Regions

“…This is the first to analyze the effects of diversifying the production of the Integrated Crop-Livestock System on production risk compared to the Conventional System. This methodological approach expands on recent results obtained in other studies (Reis et al, 2020;Mendonça et al, 2020), indicating not only the economic benefits, but in which conditions of production systems are viable.…”

“…Variable costs for meat production included expenses for the purchase of animals, veterinary care and medicines. Fixed costs values included labour, administration, insurance, maintenance of machines and taxes were included (a guide to the breakdown of these costs can be found in Mendonça et al, 2020). For all analytical economic criteria, it was necessary to determine the annual cash flow (ACF) of each production system, allowing for the DCF determined by the two years of experiment results.…”

“…However, when facing the challenges of a growing demand for food post-World War II, a search began for means of improving productivity. This resulted in a trend towards specialization of plant and animal systems, and the implementation of monocultures (FAO, 1955;Dumont et al, 2013;Gameiro et al, 2016;Mendonça et al, 2020).…”

“…A Conventional System (CS) is based on the intense use of agricultural machines and implements, chemicals for applying nutrients and fighting pests, and non-renewable energy sources, with the aim of high crop productivity (Mendonça et al, 2020).…”

A New Approach for the Production of Selenium-Enriched and Probiotic Yeast Biomass from Agro-Industrial by-Products in a Stirred-Tank Bioreactor

“…Even though the Se-enrichment of yeasts has been studied over the years, the use of agro-industrial wastes as feedstock brings a new option especially for developing countries such as Brazil, one of the main producers of protein sources with large area occupied by agriculture. The use of crop by-products represents an important technological advance since most technologies are focused on the development of integrated crop-livestock systems to optimize the yields [ 55 ]. Thus, crop wastes are produced in large amounts due to the improvement of agriculture activities and represent important sources of nutrients that can be used for microbial growth [ 33 ].…”