CO₂ Emissions per Unit of Yield and Water Use for Lettuce Grown in Soil Fertilized with Manure and Irrigated at Different Intervals

Year 2025, Volume: 35 Issue: 3, 564 - 575, 30.09.2025

Galad Barre Yusuf , Ustun Sahin

Abstract

Organic fertilization plays a crucial role in enhancing crop yields and water efficiency in agriculture. Nevertheless, it is equally vital to consider how irrigation practices can impact the potential for CO2 emissions during short-term crop production. A field study was conducted on curly lettuce, comparing two doses of cattle manure (M1 and M2, with approximately 3% and 4.5% soil organic matter content, respectively) with mineral fertilization (F). Irrigation intervals were set at every two (IR1) and four days (IR2). The M2IR1 treatment had the highest seasonal average CO2 emission of 0.909 g CO2 m-2, which was 90.2% higher than in the FIR1 treatment. The emission quantities exhibited a strong linear correlation with soil organic matter and moisture contents. The M2 treatment had the highest marketable yield at 7.84 kg m-2, which was 5.7% and 12.7% higher than in the M1 and F treatments, respectively. The M2IR2 treatment had the highest emission per kg yield at 143.5 g CO2, which was 83.7% higher than the FIR1 treatment. The M2 treatment provided lower evapotranspiration values. CO2 emission per m3 of water use in the M2IR2 treatment was the highest at 8.50 kg CO2, which was 217.2% greater than in the FIR1 treatment. The study concluded that reducing water usage and increasing yields under manure-fertilized conditions may not lower CO2 emissions per unit of yield and water use for lettuce in the short-term period.

Keywords

Cattle manure , CO2 emission , irrigation , lettuce

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