Evaluation of energy consumption and environmental impacts of strawberry production in different greenhouse structures using life cycle assessment (LCA) approach

This study employed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of two types of greenhouse structures (Quonset and Spanish) used for strawberry production. The IMPACT World + method was used to quantify environmental impacts for 1 ha of greenhouse (structure and strawberry) as the functional unit. The energy results indicated that the average total energy consumption was 388,898 MJha−1 for Quonset and 658,646 MJha−1 for Spanish structures. Human labor (197,655 MJha−1) and electricity (214,922 MJha−1) were found to have the highest contribution to the total energy consumption in both types of structures. The environmental results showed that the human health index and ecosystem quality were 0.019 and 0.042 DALY.ha−1 and 4592 and 10,169 PDF.m2.yr.ha−1 for Quonset and Spanish structures, respectively. The environmental impacts of Spanish structures were found to be higher than those of Quonset structures due to their higher use of polyethylene and steel. Specifically, the values of climate change (kg CO2eq), fossil-nuclear resources (MJ deprived), and ozone layer depletion (kg CFC-11eq) per hectare were 12,818, 142,109, and 0.002 for Quonset and 30,094, 400,251, and 0.004 for Spanish structures, respectively. The environmental hotspots were identified as chemical fertilizers, electricity, and polyethylene, which had the highest environmental impacts

Chemical footprint of pesticides used in citrus orchards based on canopy deposition and off -target losses

Contains fulltext : 220234.pdf (postprint version ) (Open Access

Assessing life cycle impacts from toxic substance emissions in major crop production systems in Thailand

Toxicity-related impacts are often omitted or poorly represented in environmental performance assessments of agricultural production systems. Moreover, existing studies usually focus on selected aspects, such as pesticides, and rely on generic data and models, hampering decision support that considers trade-offs and regional characteristics. The present study comprehensively assesses life cycle toxicity impacts of major crop production systems in Thailand, considering all relevant supply chain operations, farm-level field operations, and downstream crop residue burning. Impact characterization factors for farm-level and downstream processes have been specifically parameterized for Thai conditions, and all impacts were translated into damage costs for different scenarios based on Thailand's action plans for agricultural production, air pollution control and energy consumption, to facilitate targeted decision support at the national level. Toxicity-related impacts vary considerably across Thai crop production, ranging from a few hours (cassava, sugarcane, palm oil) to 1.5 months (rice) of average individual human lifetime loss, and from 15 (sugarcane) to 147 (rice) million species fraction lost over time and water volume. Combined, these crop systems caused damage equivalent to >3.5 trillion Thai Baht in 2019, dominated by pesticide and manure/fertilizer-related farm-level emissions for human health and by fertilizer and fuel-related supply chain operations for ecosystem damage. The scenarios could substantially reduce toxicity-related impacts on humans and ecosystems substantially across almost all considered crop production systems, mainly through adopting integrated approaches, including optimal use of crop residues and swine manure, and reducing pesticide use and diesel consumption for field operations. Our results demonstrate that including all life cycle operations and regionalized impact factors is crucial to respectively identify major trade-offs across production scenarios and account for country-specific characteristics. The proposed approach is suitable to inform national strategies supporting more sustainable crop production, and can be adapted to consider other production systems and regions