Modeling study demonstrates that solar power, drip irrigation, and waste recycling optimize resource efficiency in Egyptian crops, highlighting pathways for sustainable intensification.
Key Points
To develop and evaluate a quadruple-bottom-line framework assessing technical, environmental, economic, and social dimensions of the energy-water-waste nexus in Egyptian irrigated agriculture.
Designed an integrated assessment framework incorporating a food affordability metric and context-specific weighting for Egypt.
Modeled conventional and optimized management scenarios for wheat and maize production using crop-specific benchmarks.
Evaluated the farm-scale impacts of targeted interventions, including drip irrigation, solar energy adoption, and organic waste recycling.
Baseline agricultural production systems attained approximately 52% of their total technical sustainability potential.
Implementing drip irrigation increased technical performance by up to 31%, while solar-powered systems achieved 85% to 100% decarbonization of operational energy.
Agricultural waste recycling provided the most balanced performance across sustainability metrics by improving resource circularity.