Cleantech options in agriculture how to choose the best ones?

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Evangeline Myra Goodwin
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1 Cleantech options in agriculture how to choose the best ones? Deborah Scharfy, Matthias Stucki, Norman Boccali Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland / deborah.scharfy@zhaw.ch

2 Clean technologies in agriculture are booming Renewable energy technologies: wind energy, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, biomass energy, biofuels Energy saving: heat or electricity Emission reducing Precision farming techniques: Nutrient management Water use reduction, water reuse Pesticide application Farmers time reduction Waste recycling (animal or crop engineering) Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

CH-ZA Research project 2014-2016: «Applying Life Cycle Assessment for the mitigation of environmental impacts of South African agri food

dairy, maize, fruits Modelling of mitigation potentials by application of clean technologies Recommendations for sustainable action

3 CH-ZA Research project : «Applying Life Cycle Assessment for the mitigation of environmental impacts of South African agri food products» Selection of agri-food value chains for LCA of South Africa Data collection and LCA of selected agrofood value chains: dairy, maize, fruits Modelling of mitigation potentials by application of clean technologies Recommendations for sustainable action Which of the hundreds of clean technologies should be modelled? Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

4 We need a decision model before modelling cleantech mitigation potentials! Listing of relevant clean technologies in agriculture Cleantech selection MCDA & AHP Multi-criteria decision analysis Analytic hierarchy process Sustainability ranking of clean technologies Cleantech choice Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

5 Cleantech list for MCDA Renewable energy and energy saving: Precision farming and resource efficiency: 1 Biofuel from plant oil 2 Biogas heat and electricity 3 Photovoltaic electricity 4 Solar hay ventilation 5 Wind power 6 Solar collector for warmwater production 7 Automatic device for hay ventilation 8 Frequency converter irrigation pump 9 Frequency converter stable climatisation 10 Frequency converter vacuum pump for milking systems 11 Heat recovery in milk cooling systems 12 Dropleg plant protection 13 Electrostatical application plant protection 14 Precision farming with drones 15 GPS steering assistance 16 Genetical engineering 17 Drip irrigation 18 Wireless sensor irrigation networks 19 Drag hose manure application Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

6 Define weighting of sustainability criteria with AHP Sustainability criteria Economical criteria 0.55 Ecological criteria 0.29 Social criteria 0.17 Weighting level 1 Subcriteria Weighting level 2 Saving energy (max) Investment (min) Life cycle cost (min) Amortisation time (min) Biodiversity (max) Soil quality (max) Air pollution (min) Saving water (max) Water quality (max) Acceptance Broad utility Worker relief (physical, psychological) Future potential Following guidelines of Geldermann & Lerche (2014), and Wang et al (2009) Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

7 MCDA: Define importance of contribution of a clean technology towards individual sustainability criteria Main question: How much does clean technology X contribute to economical, ecological and social criteria? Scale: 1-10 points (1 = marginal contribution, 10 = very high contribution) Give points on the basis of Literature Expert interviews: Urs Hohl, School of Engineering, ZHAW Armin Hartlieb, Swiss Farmer Association Simon Gisler, AgroCleantech Monika Gisler, Swiss Federal Office of Energy Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

8 Overall results and sustainability ranking of clean technologies Clean technologies Overall Score Overall Ranking Drip irrigation Wireless sensor irrigation networks Frequency converter vacuum pump for milking systems Photovoltaic electricity Frequency converter stable climatisation Biofuel from plant oil Solar hay ventilation Solar collector for warmwater production Frequency converter irrigation pump Biogas heat and electricity Wind power Heat recovery in milk cooling systems Precision farming with drones Genetical engineering Automatic device for hay ventilation Electrostatical application plant protection Dropleg plant protection GPS steering assistance Drag hose manure application Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

9 When coming back to food value chains, e.g. dairy Clean technologies Overall Score Overall Ranking Drip irrigation Product ranking Wireless sensor irrigation networks Frequency converter vacuum pump for milking systems Photovoltaic electricity Frequency converter stable climatisation Biofuel from plant oil Solar hay ventilation Solar collector for warmwater production Frequency converter irrigation pump Biogas heat and electricity Wind power Heat recovery in milk cooling systems Precision farming with drones Genetical engineering Automatic device for hay ventilation Electrostatical application plant protection Dropleg plant protection GPS steering assistance Drag hose manure application Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

10 Why? Frequency converter vacuum pump for milking systems 72% of economy, 52% of ecology, 80% of social score Up to 60% of electricity savings, low investment (ca $), low life cycle costs, medium amortisation time (5-9 years) Photovoltaic electricity 72% of economy, 53% of ecology, 77% of social score Up to 100% of electricity saving, medium investment costs (ca $ for 3500 kwh), long amortisation (14-18 years) Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

11 Conclusions The sustainability of clean technologies needs to be carefully evaluated Some clean technologies, e.g. frequency converters and wireless sensor irrigation networks showed an overall sustainable potential for reduction of environmental impacts MCDA was a useful method to check for sustainability rankings and decide for cleantech options AHP remains subjective and needs good argumentation or consensus in expert judgements Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

12 Thank you for your attention! Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

13 Cleantech mitigation potentials in SA maize Results will be presented by S. Wettstein in Session 17 tomorrow, 30. August Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

14 References ASSAf (2014) The state of green technologies in South Africa. Pretoria: Academy of Science of South Africa. Geldermann & Lerche (2014) Leitfaden zur Anwendung von Methoden der multikriteriellen Entscheidungsunterstützung. Göttingen: Georg-August- Universität. Confronting Climate Change (2011) Growers information resource. Top 10 mitigation options through the supply chain. Wang et al (2009) Review on multi-criteria decision analysis aid in sustainabale energy decision making. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13: Institute of Natural Resource Sciences IUNR / Geography of Food

Greening Agri-food Value Chains in Emerging Economies

Greening Agri-food Value Chains in Emerging Economies Matthias Stucki and Anél Blignaut Abstract Emerging economies play an increasingly important role in global food security. They often rely on fossil