The influence of fertiliser and pesticide emissions model on life cycle assessment of agricultural products: The case of Danish and Italian barley

Rivera, Ximena C. Schmidt; Bacenetti, Jacopo; Fusi, Alessandra; Niero, Monia

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.183

Cited by 82 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(77 reference statements)

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“…Each experiment was treated as a separate farm, functioning in a specific environment. Literature reports lots of data related to the calculation of the life cycle for agriculture in a broader perspective, both spatial and temporal [5,14,29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intensified production very quickly led to environmental degradation of large areas, especially in developed countries, with the most intensive agriculture. The transformation of natural ecosystems into monocultural agrocenosis is also associated with landscape changes that have a multidirectional, negative impact on the human environment [5]. The implementation and development of quality management systems in food production were somewhat the consumer market's reaction to the presence of poor quality products on the market [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of a Controlled-Release Fertilizer on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Efficiency of the Production of Chinese Cabbage

et al. 2020

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Optimization of plant fertilization is an important element of all quality systems in primary production, such as Integrated Production, GLOBAL G.A.P. (Good Agriculture Practice) or SAI (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative). Fertilization is the most important element of agricultural treatments, affecting the quantity and quality of crops. The aim of the study was to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the cultivation of Chinese cabbage, depending on the technological variant. The factor modifying the production technology was the use of fertilizers with a slow release of nutrients. One tonne of marketable Chinese cabbage crop was selected as the functional unit. To achieve the research goal, a strict field experiment was carried out. Calculation of the total amount of GHG emitted from the crop was made in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The system boundaries included the production and use of fertilizers and pesticides, energy consumption for agricultural practices and the emission of gases from soil resources and harvesting residue. The use of slow-release fertilizers resulted in a greater marketable yield of cabbage compared to conventional fertilizers. The results of the research indicate a significant potential for the use of slow-release fertilizers in reducing agricultural emissions. From the environmental and production point of view, the most favourable variant is the one with 108 kg N·ha−1 slow-release fertilizers. At a higher dose of this element, no increase in crop yield was observed. At this nitrogen dose, a 30% reduction in total GHG emissions and a 50% reduction in fertilizer emissions from the use of per product functional unit were observed. The reference object was fertilization in accordance with production practice in the test area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of a Controlled-Release Fertilizer on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Efficiency of the Production of Chinese Cabbage

et al. 2020

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“…The consensus effort on the delimitation between pesticide emission inventory and impact assessment for LCA already provides guidelines on what should be quantified in those LCA steps but explicitly exclude how to do it avoiding recommendations on specific models (Rosenbaum et al, 2015). The implications of choosing different emission models in the LCA of crop production have been discussed for some agricultural systems (Goglio et al, 2018;Schmidt Rivera et al, 2017;van Zelm et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Freshwater ecotoxicity assessment of pesticide use in crop production: Testing the influence of modeling choices

Peña

Knudsen

Fantke

et al. 2019

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Pesticides help to control weeds, pests and diseases contributing, therefore, to food availability. However, pesticide fractions not reaching the intended target may have adverse effects on the environment and the field ecosystems. Modeling pesticide emissions and the alignment with characterizing associated impacts is currently one of the main challenges in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of agricultural systems. To address this challenge, this study takes advantage of the latest recommendations for pesticide emission inventory and impact assessment and frames a suitable interface for those LCA stages and the related mass distribution of pesticide avoiding a temporal overlapping. Here, freshwater ecotoxicity impacts in the production of feed crops (maize, grass, winter wheat, spring barley, rapeseed and peas) in Denmark are evaluated during a 3-year period, testing the effects of inventory modelling choice and recent updates of the characterization method (USEtox). Potential freshwater ecotoxicity impacts were calculated in two functional units to consider crop impact profiles and cultivation intensity. According to the results, ecotoxicity impacts decreased over the period, mainly because of the reduction of insecticide active ingredients (e.g., cypermethrine). Three different emission modelling choices were tested; they differ on the underlining assumptions and data requirements. The median results for the resulting emission fractions vary ~4 orders of magnitude for the different models. Main aspects influencing impact results are the interface between inventory estimates and impact assessment, and the consideration of intermedia processes, such as crop growth development and pesticide application method. Statistical differences were found in the impact results with 2 of emission model tested, thereby indicating the influence of modelling choices on ecotoxicity impact assessment.

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“…Over the past decades, conventional farming practice that mainly relies on agrochemical inputs has significantly increased the global per capita agricultural production (Pretty, 2008). However, this effort not only raises production costs but also causes serious problems to the environment including soil contamination and degradation, emission of fertilizers and pesticides, loss of biodiversity, and several negative impacts on human health (Rivera et al, 2017). Therefore, alternative methods are needed for improving agricultural outputs or reducing dependency on agrochemicals and equilibrating productivity with sustainability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Metagenomics Reveals Microbial Signatures of Sugarcane Phyllosphere in Organic Management

et al. 2021

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Converting conventional farms to organic systems to improve ecosystem health is an emerging trend in recent decades, yet little is explored to what extent and how this process drives the taxonomic diversity and functional capacity of above-ground microbes. This study was, therefore, conducted to investigate the effects of agricultural management, i.e., organic, transition, and conventional, on the structure and function of sugarcane phyllosphere microbial community using the shotgun metagenomics approach. Comparative metagenome analysis exhibited that farming practices strongly influenced taxonomic and functional diversities, as well as co-occurrence interactions of phyllosphere microbes. A complex microbial network with the highest connectivity was observed in organic farming, indicating strong resilient capabilities of its microbial community to cope with the dynamic environmental stressors. Organic farming also harbored genus Streptomyces as the potential keystone species and plant growth-promoting bacteria as microbial signatures, including Mesorhizobium loti, Bradyrhizobium sp. SG09, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Bacillus cellulosilyticus. Interestingly, numerous toxic compound-degrading species were specifically enriched in transition farming, which might suggest their essential roles in the transformation of conventional to organic farming. Moreover, conventional practice diminished the abundance of genes related to cell motility and energy metabolism of phyllosphere microbes, which could negatively contribute to lower microbial diversity in this habitat. Altogether, our results demonstrated the response of sugarcane-associated phyllosphere microbiota to specific agricultural managements that played vital roles in sustainable sugarcane production.

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The influence of fertiliser and pesticide emissions model on life cycle assessment of agricultural products: The case of Danish and Italian barley

Cited by 82 publications

References 82 publications

The Impact of a Controlled-Release Fertilizer on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Efficiency of the Production of Chinese Cabbage

The Impact of a Controlled-Release Fertilizer on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Efficiency of the Production of Chinese Cabbage

Freshwater ecotoxicity assessment of pesticide use in crop production: Testing the influence of modeling choices

Comparative Metagenomics Reveals Microbial Signatures of Sugarcane Phyllosphere in Organic Management

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