The relative profitability of sustainable grain cropping systems: a meta-analytic comparison

Studies of the profitability of organic and no-till grain cropping systems relative to that of conventional systems were compared and analyzed. In all , enough information was collected from the literature for 321 separate pro fitability results including 120 direct comparisons of organic production t o conventional and 144 no-till vs. conventional direct comparisons for Nort h American grains for a metaanalysis. The first part of the analysis was a standard, descriptive summary of the data. This showed that the relative pr ofitability of organic production was, on average, higher for corn and grai n sorghum and if the research was conducted at a research experiment statio n. No-till averaged higher profitability in on-farm trials and with oilseed s, corn and grain sorghum in the descriptive analysis. Then the study proce eded with a meta-analysis of the economic comparisons. The meta-analysis re sults indicated that study location (Eastern, Central or Western North Amer ica) was a key factor in explaining the relative profitability of each alte rnative cropping system relative to the conventional system. In addition, s tudy type (on-farm or research station experiment) and type of grain crop ( small grain, oilseed, other) were important in explaining the relative prof itability of both systems.