Assessing the Economic Performance and Environmental Impact of Farming Systems Based on Different Organic Conservation Practices in Processing Tomato Cultivation

Conservation Agriculture practices in Organic Farming can enhance the sustainability of these farming systems. However, these practices have economic and environmental implications for farmers, which must be considered. In the present study, eight technical itineraries were compared in tomato cultivation. These differed in how reduced and no-tillage practices were used to manage four soil cover types and to control weeds. The itinerary’s gross salable production (GSP), gross income (GI), and CO2 emissions were evaluated. In the second growing season, the no-tillage itinerary values of both GSP and GI were lower than those based on reduced tillage (34,681.03 and 71,891.58 EUR ha−1, respectively). The use of cover crops tendentially resulted in an increase in GSP in both growing seasons compared to cultivation on bare soil (8190.00 and 41,959.89 EUR ha−1 in 2020 and 2021, respectively), particularly with clover monoculture and a clover–rye mix in 2020 (25,326.60 and 25,818.97 EUR ha−1, respectively) and with clover monoculture in 2021 (69,310.18 EUR ha−1). A similar trend was also observed for GI. Cover crop adoption was related to a higher CO2 emissions (642.73 and 234.84 kg ha−1 in 2020 and 353.23 and 213.30 kg ha−1 in 2021, for itineraries based on reduced-tillage and no-tillage, respectively). Further studies could focus on the economic and environmental evaluation of these systems in the same pedoclimatic conditions but over the long term, quantifying the various environmental benefits of cover crops.