Papers by Bhanupong Phrommarat
Global Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2025
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The rice-soybean cropping system plays a significant role in the agric... more BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The rice-soybean cropping system plays a significant role in the agricultural landscape of northern Thailand, providing crucial food and income sources for farmers. A major challenge persists in reconciling the economic gains provided by these systems with their environmental effects. This study analyzed the compromises between economic outcomes and environmental impacts within rice-soybean cropping systems in northern Thailand. The objective was to identify farming practices that balance profit maximization with environmental impact reduction. METHODS: Data on the cropping system were collected from rice farmers in Chiang Rai province, located in the northernmost part of Thailand during the 2023 cropping year covering nine farms across nine different districts. The environmental impacts were quantified using life cycle assessment, while multi-objective linear programming was implemented to identify optimal agricultural practices. The analysis assessed baseline environmental performance and explored scenarios aimed at minimizing global warming potential and human toxicity potential and/or maximizing profitability. FINDINGS: According to the baseline analysis, rice cultivation was found to have a major environmental impact, largely attributed to fertilizer usage and emissions from the fields. In contrast, soybean cultivation demonstrated a lower environmental footprint, primarily influenced by fuel consumption and herbicide application. The total impact of global warming potential and human toxicity potential in the baseline scenario were 2,855 kilogram carbon dioxide equivalent per hectare and 585 kilograms 1,4-dichlorobenzene equivalent per hectare, respectively. Profit-maximizing practices yielded the highest net profit of 1,852 United States dollars per hectare but were associated with the greatest environmental impacts. In contrast, scenarios minimizing global warming potential and human toxicity potential achieved reduced environmental harm-20 percent reduction for global warming and a 39 percent reduction for human toxicity-but at the expense of profitability. The ecooptimal farming model provided a harmonious solution, reaching close to peak profits of 1,838 United States dollars per hectare while simultaneously minimizing environmental impacts to a reasonable extent, reducing global warming to 2,459 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent and human toxicity to 451 kilograms 1,4-dichlorobenzene equivalent per hectare). CONCLUSION: The eco-optimal farming model highlighted the trade-offs involved in optimizing these two objectives. The profit-maximizing scenario achieved the highest net profit but led to increased environmental impacts, while scenarios focused on minimizing the environmental impacts resulted in decreased profitability. The eco-optimal farming strategy presented a harmonious balance, reaching close to peak profits while simultaneously lessening environmental impacts to a reasonable extent. These findings underscored the potential of integrating sustainable practices into the rice-soybean cropping system to enhance both economic and environmental outcomes.
Environment and Natural Resources Journal/Warasan Singwaetlom lae Sappayakon Tammachat, Jul 1, 2024
Silpakorn University, Oct 7, 2020
SPIE Proceedings, 2008
Laser guide star adaptive optics and interferometry are currently revolutionizing ground-based ne... more Laser guide star adaptive optics and interferometry are currently revolutionizing ground-based near-IR astronomy, as demonstrated at various large telescopes. The Large Binocular Telescope from the beginning included adaptive optics in the telescope design. With the deformable secondary mirrors and a suite of instruments taking advantage of the AO capabilities, the LBT will play an important role in addressing major scientific questions. Extending from a natural guide star based system, towards a laser guide stars will multiply the number of targets that can be observed. In this paper we present the laser guide star and wavefront sensor program as currently being planned for the LBT. This program will provide a multi Rayleigh guide star constellation for wide field ground layer correction taking advantage of the multi object spectrograph and imager LUCIFER in a first step. The already foreseen upgrade path will deliver an on axis diffraction limited mode with LGS AO based on tomography or additional sodium guide stars to even further enhance the scientific use of the LBT including the interferometric capabilities.
Agricultural Systems, 2017
Crop production is associated with a range of potential environmental impacts, including field em... more Crop production is associated with a range of potential environmental impacts, including field emissions of greenhouse gases, loss of nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients to water and toxicity effects on humans and natural ecosystems. Farmers can mitigate these environmental impacts by changing their farming systems; however these changes have implications for production and profitability. To address these trade-offs, a farmlevel model was constructed to capture the elements of a rice-based production system in northern Thailand. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to generate environmental impacts, across a range of indicators, for all crops and associated production processes in the model. A baseline, profit maximising combination of crops and resource use was generated and compared with a greenhouse gas minimising scenario and an alternative inputs (fertilisers and insecticides) scenario. Greenhouse gas minimisation showed a reduction in global warming potential of 13%; other impact indicators also decreased. Associated profit foregone was 10% as measured by total gross margin. With the alternative farm inputs (ammonium sulphate, organic fertiliser and fipronil insecticide), results indicated that acidification, eutrophication, freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity impacts were reduced by 43, 37, 47 and 91% respectively with relatively small effects on profit.
Applied Ecology and Environmental Research
Considering the growing commitment of countries to sustainable agriculture, an integrated approac... more Considering the growing commitment of countries to sustainable agriculture, an integrated approach that considers environmental and economic performance or eco-efficiency (EE) was applied to compare two different farming systems of two pineapple cultivars, Nanglae and Phulae, produced in the northern region of Thailand. Environmental performance was assessed based on a life cycle approach. Thus, the total environmental load expressed as a single score was quantified and used as an environmental indicator of EE. Results showed that the integrated farming system of pineapple production was more sustainable than the conventional farming practice. The results of EE were then incorporated into a sustainable farm model to identify an optimal farm plan that corresponds to an objective function under available resources and constraints. In the model, income risk in terms of the variability of selling price was considered as a key factor in farmers' decision making. To maximize income and EE, the model suggested growing Phulae pineapple through integrated farming in an entire farm area to achieve the defined objective functions. However, considering risk, a new risk-efficient farm plan was recommended by replacing part of the area of the integrated Phulae with the integrated Nanglae. Diversification is an effective risk-reducing technique as a combination between the integrated Nanglae and integrated Phulae that have negative co-variances can help to stabilize farm income by lowering aggregate risk.
International Journal of Construction Management
The Environment and Natural Resources Journal
Billions of cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every year with little regard for the wide rang... more Billions of cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every year with little regard for the wide range of environmental impacts arising at different stages of its life cycle. This study aimed to assess the environmental impacts of a single cup of hot, black coffee brewed from ground organic Arabica beans produced and consumed locally in the northern region of Thailand. Environmental impacts throughout its life cycle were assessed and the influences of different brewing methods were compared. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was implemented to evaluate the environmental performance of the product system. The results found that coffee cultivation is a major contributor to ecosystem damage in all brewing scenarios, particularly on land-use related midpoint indicators. Preparing the coffee by moka pot is especially energy intensive and showed a high impact score on human health. It also demonstrated resource damage categories in the brewing stage that were directly related to fossil-based electricity consumption. For other brewing scenarios, the upstream processes such as cultivation and bean processing were major contributors to environmental harm. According to the farming scenario analysis, the application of chemical fertilizers during conventional farming can aggravate the impact from the cultivation process on human health and resources, as compared to organic farming. This study comprises an initial stage of a coffee LCA study in Thailand. Hopefully, it can add to the body of information pertaining to the life cycle environmental impacts of coffee, a popular beverage product, aid decisionmaking, and increase attention on the importance of sustainable products.
Crop production is associated with a range of potential environmental impacts, including field em... more Crop production is associated with a range of potential environmental impacts, including field emissions of greenhouse gases, loss of nitrogen and phosphorous nutrients to water and toxicity effects on humans and natural ecosystems. Farmers can mitigate these environmental impacts by changing their farming systems; however these changes have implications for production and profitability. To address these trade-offs, a farm-level model was constructed to capture the elements of a rice-based production system in northern Thailand. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to generate environmental impacts, across a range of indicators, for all crops and associated production processes in the model. A baseline, profit maximising combination of crops and resource use was generated and compared with a greenhouse gas minimising scenario and an alternative inputs (fertilisers and insecticides) scenario. Greenhouse gas minimisation showed a reduction in global warming potential of 13%; other impact indicators also decreased. Associated profit foregone was 10% as measured by total gross margin. With the alternative farm inputs (ammonium sulphate, organic fertiliser and fipronil insecticide), results indicated that acidification, eutrophication, freshwater and terrestrial ecotoxicity impacts were reduced by 43, 37, 47 and 91% respectively with relatively small effects on profit.
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Papers by Bhanupong Phrommarat