An Appraisal of Conservation Tillage on the Soil Properties and C Sequestration

An Integrated Approach for the Assessment of Environmental Sustainability in Agro-Industrial Waste Management Practices: The Case of the Tequila Industry

“…Additionally, the tequila industry in these regions generates larger volumes of agro-industrial waste compared to other industrial categories and therefore has a great influence on the environmental degradation (Montoya et al, 1997;SEMADET, 2017;Jayme-Torres and Hansen, 2018). Furthermore, these regions are located within the Santiago river basin, which is known to be highly polluted with nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter (Abrol and Sharma, 2012). The spatial identification of critical regions can be a powerful tool to identify areas that require special policies or management in order to prevent environmental degradation or health hazards to nearby populations (Delivand et al, 2015;Díaz-Vázquez et al, 2020).…”

“…Since agave is one of the most cultivated crops within both of the critical regions, a great majority of the irrigated vinasses are disposed of in agave fields. However, agave plants display higher soil erosion rates compared to other crops due to their rainfall-concentrating leaf structure, which leads to higher nutrient and solid transport in runoff coming from agave fields (Abrol and Sharma, 2012). Therefore, counterproductive effects can be seen due to excessive vinasse application on crops, as proposed in scenario A.…”

“…This needs to be taken into consideration by decision-makers in order to prevent an unnecessary treatment cost increase due to logistics (Díaz-Vázquez et al, 2020). The establishment of centralized treatment units within critical regions allows the guarantee of a constant supply of wastewater to maintain the economic viability of the treatment systems and protect the natural resources and services of sensitive regions from degradation, which is the case for most basins within Jalisco (de Anda and Shear, 2001;Martinez Rivera, 2004;Abrol and Sharma, 2012;Jayme-Torres and Hansen, 2018). This is not only applicable to tequila vinasses but for most primary production wastes and byproducts generated in the state, as is the case of livestock production waste and dairy processing wastewater (Díaz-Vázquez et al, 2020).…”

“…The high agricultural and agro-industrial activities of the state of Jalisco have led to increased exploitation and pollution of its water resources (Montoya et al, 1997;Abrol and Sharma, 2012). Eutrophic conditions caused by high nutrient and organic matter loads have been reported for multiple waterbodies across the state.…”

“…This is mainly due to excessive uncontrolled solid waste and wastewater discharges by agro-industrial activities, leading to anoxic conditions and toxic cyanobacterial blooms, which can damage wildlife and even pose a threat to nearby settlements (de Anda et al, 2019;Díaz-Torres et al, 2020;Gradilla-Hernández et al, 2020). In order to reduce this eutrophication, the management practices of both solid waste and wastewater must be improved to decrease the amounts of organic matter and nutrient discharge going into Jalisco's hydrographic systems (Montoya et al, 1997;Abrol and Sharma, 2012;Jayme-Torres and Hansen, 2018). Additionally, Jalisco has officially declared an aim for the year 2030 to reduce its current GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by 22%, of which 14% have been attributed to waste and wastewater management (INECC, 2018;SEMADET, 2018).…”