Planting and mowing cover crops as livestock feed to synergistically optimize soil properties, economic profit, and environmental burden on pear orchards in the Yangtze River Basin.

Background: Pears, as an important cash crop, are currently facing great issues due to unsustainable management practices. Cover cropping is a sustainable management strategy that can improve soil fertility and increase fruit yield, while it may also stimulate greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, synergizing multiple indicators to achieve sustainable development is critical. This study introduces a new management system, namely the planting and mowing of ryegrass as a livestock feed system (PRSS), and analyzes its impact on soil quality, economic benefits, and environmental burdens.

Results: Our results indicated that PRSS could increase soil pH from 5.08 to 5.48 and decrease the content of soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, total phosphate, and available phosphate (26.96-59.89%) while also enhancing yield (+38.51%) compared with the traditional natural grass management system (TMS). The average soil methane fluxes in PRSS were 72.67 μg m  day , higher than those of TMS (61.28 μg m  day ). However, the gross primary production was lower than TMS (-37.24%), and no significant difference was observed in soil nitrous oxide fluxes. In different scenarios, the total profit of PRSS mode 1 (mowing ryegrass and selling to a livestock company) and PRSS mode 2 (mowing ryegrass and feeding own sheep) were 10 706.21 $ ha and 26 592.87 $ ha respectively. These values are respectively2.36 times and 5.85 times higher than that of TMS. The total global warming potential of TMS (18.19 t CO -eq ha ) was 1.29 t CO -eq ha higher and 2.89 t CO -eq ha lower than that of PRSS mode 1 and mode 2 respectively.

Conclusion: Compared with traditional natural grass, planting and mowing ryegrass in pear orchards can optimize soil properties, increase fruit yield, and reduce global warming potential. Different modes can greatly increase revenue but have varying impacts on environmental burdens. These findings can help rebuild the links between farmland and specialized livestock production, contributing to sustainable development in the pear industries. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.