Environmental impacts of farm scenarios according to five assessment methods

Werf, Hayo M.G. van der; Tzilivakis, John; Lewis, Kathleen; Basset-Mens, Claudine

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2006.06.005

Cited by 124 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…(Wackernagel and Rees, 1997). In their paper, Wackernagel and Rees (1997) emphasise that the use of mass-based functional units alone may well lead to a preference for high input-high output systems, which, when concentrated at regional level, have been shown to cause major pollution problems (van der Werf et al, 2007). In our case study this problem is highlighted by the EF results for the hazelnut system: the hazelnut has the highest EF product , because of the small amount of fruit mass produced in comparison to other fruit systems, but it also has the second best summary ranking.…”

Section: Discussion Of Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multifunctional Ecological Footprint Analysis for assessing eco-efficiency: a case study of fruit production systems in Northern Italy

Cerutti

Beccaro

Bagliani

et al. 2013

Journal of Cleaner Production

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sustainable farming in the fruit production systems of the Piemonte Region of Northern Italy was examined using a multifunctional Ecological Footprint based method. The analysis is based on the quantification of four different ecological footprint applications related to different functional units:tons of product, nutrient content in the fruit produced, hectare of crop and 1000 € of revenue. Of the major fruit production in the region, apricot and nectarine show the best overall performance from an ecological and economic point of view. This result is mainly due to the low input requirements of the cultivation processes, combined with a good product mass and the high market value of the fruit.Kiwifruit production had the worst overall ranking due to the high requirement of agronomical inputs and a low market value of the final product. The problems and the key aspects of a multifunctional assessment are discussed from a methodological point of view. Results highlight that standard Ecological Footprint Analysis alone would not allowed to evaluate the complete environmental profile of the different production systems.

show abstract

Section: Discussion Of Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is the common process based EFA and several researchers applied this approach (e.g. Thomassen et al, 2009;van der Werf et al, 2007;Wada, 1993). In agricultural systems, mass units are most commonly used, such as 1 tonne of produced food at the farm gate or 1 kg of produced food at the beginning of the consumer phase.…”

Section: Ecological Footprint Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional Ecological Footprint Analysis for assessing eco-efficiency: a case study of fruit production systems in Northern Italy

Cerutti

Beccaro

Bagliani

et al. 2013

Journal of Cleaner Production

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the stocking rate in France ranges from 0.1 to 2.5 livestock unit (LU) per hectare Benoit and Laignel depending on the region. Van der Werf et al (2007) and Payraudeau and Van der Werf (2005) considered that there is complementarity between the two criteria (net energy per unit produced and net energy per hectare). Net energy per hectare is preferred in studies dealing with land use and focuses on the least productive systems, whereas net energy per unit produced focuses on the production function of agricultural activity.…”

Section: Farms Referencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy consumption in mixed crop-sheep farming systems: what factors of variation and how to decrease?

Benoît

Laignel

2010

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Prompted by current concerns about energy resources and greenhouse gas emissions, we sought to assess the impact of certain key factors on energy efficiency in sheep-for-meat production and to evaluate the main directions for improvement. We used a modelling approach to simulate the functioning and performances of sheep-for-meat production systems integrating an energy balance calculation module. In the first step of this study, we reconstructed system functions and technical and economic results of four typological groups of farms in plainland areas. This served as a basis for calculating their energy efficiency in order to focus on the main factors of energy efficiency, such as high levels of fodder self-sufficiency (low concentrate consumption) and high ewe productivity. The Graze system presented the highest energy efficiency (EE) for sheep unit (EEs 5 0.62) with the lowest consumption of equivalent fuel litres requirements (FuReq) per kilogram of lamb carcass produced (1.47), while the 'sheep and cash crop' system had the lowest EEs (0.36) and the highest FuReq per kg carcass (2.54). We then took the 'mixed-farming system' (a 130 ha farm, including 610 ewes and 40 ha of cropland) and studied three adaptations designed to increase the EEs: improvement of feed self-sufficiency (increased proportion of concentrate produced on-farm), introduction of legumes into the rotation (removal of bought-in nitrogen fertilisers), and production of fuel-oil (from rapeseed) with the flock using oil cakes. The most effective adaptation was the removal of the nitrogen fertilisers. The successive adaptations make it possible to cut energy consumption from 2.2 FuReq/kg carcass down to 0.98 after the optimisations, thereby increasing EEs from 0.42 to 0.93. Finally, we went on to study the energy impact of four factors influencing flock functioning and farm structure, i.e. ewe productivity, lamb weight, distances between plots, and flock size. Ewe productivity and lamb weight had a strong positive impact on EEs. When ewe productivity switched from 0.80 to 1.70, EEs increased from 0.29 to 0.48 while FuReq per kilogram carcass dropped from 3.39 to 1.88. When flock size was increased to over 1000 ewes, there were little or no energy-related economies of scale, as farm area also increased and most of the systems required more equipment.

show abstract

“…Then the mass-based FU was employed in the main LCA model to analyze the result based on kg dry barley yield. Application of two or more FUs can better clarify environmental performance ( Van der Werf et al, 2007).…”

Section: Inputs and Outputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of irrigated and rain-fed barley production in Iran using life cycle assessment (LCA)

Houshyar

2017

Span. j. agric. res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Current intensive grain crops production is often associated with environmental burdens. However, very few studies deal with the environmental performance of both current and alternative systems of barley production. This study was undertaken to evaluate energy consumption and environmental impacts of irrigated and rain-fed barley production. Additionally, three alternative scenarios were examined for irrigated barley fields including conservation tillage and biomass utilization policies. The findings showed that around 25 GJ/ha energy is needed in order to produce 2300 kg/ha irrigated barley and 13 GJ/ha for 1100 kg/ha rain-fed barley. Life cycle assessment (LCA) results indicated that irrigated farms had more environmental impacts than rain-fed farms. Electricity generation and consumption had the highest effect on the abiotic depletion potential, human toxicity potential, freshwater and marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential. However, alternative scenarios revealed that using soil conservation tillage systems and biomass consumption vs. gas for electricity generation at power plants can significantly mitigate environmental impacts of irrigated barley production similar to the rain-fed conditions while higher yield is obtained.Additional keywords: Hordeum vulgare L.; energy use efficiency; energy productivity; global warming potential.

show abstract

Environmental impacts of farm scenarios according to five assessment methods

Cited by 124 publications

References 22 publications

Multifunctional Ecological Footprint Analysis for assessing eco-efficiency: a case study of fruit production systems in Northern Italy

Multifunctional Ecological Footprint Analysis for assessing eco-efficiency: a case study of fruit production systems in Northern Italy

Energy consumption in mixed crop-sheep farming systems: what factors of variation and how to decrease?

Environmental impacts of irrigated and rain-fed barley production in Iran using life cycle assessment (LCA)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About