Field Crop 2024, Vol.7, No.1, 17-26 http://cropscipublisher.com/index.php/fc 22 As mechanization increases, knowledge of the use of data management and decision support systems becomes increasingly important. Modern agriculture is not only about the management of land and machinery, but also involves data analysis and real-time information processing, which can help farmers better understand crop growth patterns and optimize decisions such as fertilization and irrigation. Promoting the success of sugarcane harvesting mechanization requires not only advanced technology and equipment, but also efforts at technology acceptance and education. By improving farmers' technical capabilities and acceptance of new technologies, we can ensure that the benefits of mechanization can be fully utilized, while also promoting the sustainable development of agricultural production. 5 Case Studies Mexico is the sixth largest sugarcane producer in the world, with sugarcane planting areas spread across 15 states, of which San Luis Potosi is part of the northeastern sugarcane region. During the 2021-2022 harvest, San Luis Potosi produced 5 million 620 thousand tons of sugar cane on 103 thousand hectares of land. The state ranks fourth in the country in sugarcane production in terms of harvested area and second in terms of value. These data not only highlight the importance of the sugarcane industry in Mexico's economy and society, but also highlight its impact on Mexico's GDP (Bherwani et al., 2020). Based on CONADESUCA's production statistics, sugarcane production costs were estimated for San Luis Potosí and the state's four sugar mills during the last sugarcane harvest (2021-2022). It is estimated that, taking into account the price of $646.50 per ton of sugarcane, the environmental costs for San Luis Potosi are approximately $642,000, accounting for more than 16% of producers' income. The mill with the highest cost is San Miguel del Naranjo (27%), although the difference between it and the mill with the lowest cost, Alianza Pop, is no more than 4% (Figure 1) (Medina et al., 2023). But the sugarcane industry is a long chain of activities, many of which have a great impact on the environment. These activities include land clearing, use of machinery and equipment in farming, pesticide use, and unfair payment and treatment of labor. Due to ongoing discussions about the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the sugarcane sector, competition between sugarcane and food crops for land use threatens global food production, coupled with the negative impacts of land-use change on biodiversity and endemic species. Negative environmental externalities such as greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses due to changes in soil physical, chemical and biological properties, acidification and eutrophication potential are among the multiple impacts of sugarcane cultivation. Figure 1 Costs of ecosystem services affected by sugarcane production in San Luis Potosí, proportion by sugar mill (Medina et al., 2023) The goal of this study is to determine the impact of the sugarcane industry on ecosystem services and develop two focuses to quantify this impact in an economic manner, using the sugarcane region of San Luis Potosí state in Mexico as an example (El Chami et al., 2020 ). The study aims to uncover the potential environmental impacts of sugarcane growing and processing, and how these impact the health and sustainability of local communities and ecosystems.
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