Environmental and economic assessment of CO2 emissions from soils under different levels of anthropogenic pressure

• Main Author: Anatoliy Kucher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Eastern European Research and Consulting 2016-03-01
• Series: Agricultural and Resource Economics
• Subjects: environmental and economic assessment; CO2 emissions from soils; anthropogenic pressure; humus; potential and effective soil fertility; effect.
• Online Access: http://are-journal.com/are/article/view/21

It is proposed author’s scientific and methodical approach to quantitative economic (monetary) evaluation of the environmental effect from preventing carbon dioxide emissions from the soil of agricultural lands under different levels of anthropogenic pressure. This approach is based on the principles of the theory of natural capital, physical economy theory, methodology of basic (fundamental) monetary evaluation of arable soil, reflecting their potential fertility as a component of natural capital. It is carried out the economic assessment of losses of carbon from chernozems by various methods of the basic soil tillage, fertilization systems and farming systems by influence the potential and effective fertility of the soil and the environment. Comprehensive assessment of different methods of basic soil tillage shows that most cumulative emissions CO2-equivalents with chernozems and from the combustion of diesel fuel causes plowing – 693 kg/ha, second place takes disking – 645 kg/ha, then – cultivation (638 kg/ha), direct seeding has the least emission capacity (634 kg CO2-equivalents/ha) among the studied ways.