Sustainability evaluation of an integrated ecological system for dragon fruit cultivation using emergy accounting

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of an integrated ecological system for dragon fruit cultivation by farming households. A closed ecological system based on material and energy circulation was proposed and implemented for dragon fruit farming households, utilising waste from dragon fruit biomass combined with livestock waste to generate valuable new products. In addition, emergy accounting analysis was applied for sustainability evaluation of an integrated ecological system. The results show that the emergy yield ratio (EYR) of the system is 0.99, indicating that no free environmental resource can be obtained for each unit of input invested in the integrated system. The emergy loading ratio (ELR) of the system is 0.35, which indicates a relatively low environmental loading, with renewable inputs outweighing non-renewable ones. Furthermore, the environmental sustainability index (EmSI) of the integrated system is 2.8, which is higher than that of conventional agricultural systems.