A Multidisciplinary Approach Integrating Emergy Analysis and Process Modeling for Agricultural Systems Sustainable Management—Coffee Farm Validation

Abstract

Agricultural production operates via the existing relationships between nature and economy. Its sustainable development requires tools that provide a broad vision of the energy flows that intervene in these systems, to support the decision-making process in energy management. To quantify the environmental resources and economic inputs involved, emergy analysis has been used, as well as process modeling, to make a detailed record of the system inputs. The research aim is to propose a multidisciplinary approach that integrates emergy analysis and process modeling in agricultural systems, promoting their sustainable management. This approach was validated in the Los Naranjos coffee farm in Popayán, Colombia, during the years 2018–2020. The results show that the farm achieved its best energy performance and was more sustainable in 2020, producing 1693 kg/ha of green coffee, with the lowest Unit Emergy Value (UEV; 1.12 × 106 seJ/J) and the highest Emergy Sustainability Index (0.24), for the three years analyzed. In addition, natural inputs contribute approximately 27% of the total emergy, and those from the economy contribute 73%. In conclusion, this approach allows a precise and complete analysis of the system’s energy flows, significant energy uses, and energy sources at each production process stage, helping to establish the basis for an energy management system. We consider that the proposed multidisciplinary approach is a tool that would help in the sustainable management of any agricultural system, and its implementation and comparison in various contexts would be important.