Abstract Many recent studies on soil and crop management practices have demonstrated their possibility in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from cropland. The response of GHG emissions to management practices can be quantitatively simulated using biophysics-based agricultural system models. However, the economic feasibilities of such management adoption are yet to be evaluated, especially when the producers have to adopt only one profitable management plan. This paper presents a field-scale economic analysis software that is capable of estimating the net benefits under various greenhouse gas mitigating management practices. The calculated net benefits are based on the benefit-cost analysis (BCA), where GHG emissions are converted to the CO2 equivalent and priced using the information from the current carbon trade market. GHG emissions and crop yield are simulated using the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2), an agricultural system model coupled with the BCA software. A case study for a cornfield at the Saint Emmanuel site near Montreal, Canada, from 2012 to 2015 under two water table management practices, i.e., free-drainage (FD) and controlled drainage (CD), results showed that FD was more profitable than CD. Although fewer greenhouse gases were emitted under CD than under FD, the potential benefit under current carbon credit payment from GHG reduction under CD was far less than the additional cost from installing new instruments and excessive maintenance fees. This study suggests that the government subsidy is needed to provide further incentives for producers to adopt new greenhouse gas emission mitigating management practices.

中文翻译：

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一种经济分析软件，用于评估减少农田温室气体排放的最佳管理实践

摘要 最近许多关于土壤和作物管理实践的研究已经证明了它们在减少农田温室气体排放 (GHG) 方面的可能性。温室气体排放对管理实践的响应可以使用基于生物物理学的农业系统模型进行定量模拟。然而，这种管理采用的经济可行性还有待评估，特别是当生产者只需要采用一种有利可图的管理计划时。本文介绍了一种现场规模的经济分析软件，该软件能够估计各种温室气体减排管理实践下的净收益。计算的净收益基于收益成本分析 (BCA)，其中温室气体排放量转换为二氧化碳当量，并使用当前碳交易市场的信息定价。使用根区水质模型 (RZWQM2) 模拟温室气体排放和作物产量，这是一种结合 BCA 软件的农业系统模型。2012 年至 2015 年在加拿大蒙特利尔附近的 Saint Emmanuel 场地的玉米田的案例研究，采用两种地下水位管理实践，即自由排水 (FD) 和控制排水 (CD)，结果表明，FD 比光盘。尽管 CD 下的温室气体排放量少于 FD，但 CD 下温室气体减排的当前碳信用支付的潜在收益远低于安装新仪器和过度维护费用的额外成本。本研究表明，需要政府补贴为生产商采用新的温室气体减排管理实践提供进一步的激励。