Abstract

Wheat is the most widely cultivated crop in Southern Italy, mainly under rainfedconditions. Planning suitable irrigation and fertilization strategies is a crucial issuefor stabilizing production and thereby enhancing socio-economic developmentof farm communities. However, imposed irrigation and agronomic practices cangenerate more pressure on water resources and environmental burdens due toadditional energy and fertilizers requirements. Life cycle assessment (LCA) hasbeen recognised as a valuable tool for assessing the environmental impacts ofagricultural production and has been applied widely to winter wheat production.While LCA consider only the environmental aspects, the concept of eco-efficiency(EE) has been used as an instrument to analyze farm sustainability, i.e. to relateeconomic value of an activity and its impact on environment. The aim of this study is toanalyze the eco-efficiency of wheat cultivation under rainfed and irrigation conditionsin Apulia Region, Southern Italy. The study applies a novel approach (EcoWater,2014) based on a combination of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) following ISOprinciples and the assessment of Life Cycle Costing (LCC). LCA followed a problemoriented approach using CML-IA baseline 2000 impact assessment method. Thesystem boundaries were defined following the "cradle to grave" approach (i.e. fromthe extraction of primary resources to final use in the field). The environmentalburdens covered induced emissions through the production and use of fossil fuel,production and use of fertilizers and electricity usage for irrigation. A distinction wasmade between impacts coming from direct use of resources on-field (foreground)and resource production processes (background). Fertilizer (direct/indirect N2O andother substances) and diesel on-field emission were estimated and converted usingthe IPCC Guidelines. Emission values for production of fertilizers and power inputs(i.e diesel and electricity) were retrieved from LCA databases. Total Value Added(TVA) to the product due to water use estimated as a difference between of totaleconomic value generated from water use (substracting non-water expenses fromtotal value of products) and total financial cost related to water supply was employedto analyse the economic performance. Eco-Efficiency Indicators (EEI) were definedas ratios of the economic performance (total value added, TVA) to the environmentalperformance of the system (environmental impacts). The respective assessmentwas performed using Systemic Environmental Analysis Tool (SEAT) and theEconomic Value Analysis Tool (EVAT) modeling tools. The analysis encompassed cause-effect relations and shows whether EE improves or declines and in which respect. Obtained results showed that optimal production with water application of 2000 m3/ha and associated agronomic practices generates on average about 55% additional emissions versus rainfed condition, with t

Autore Pugliese

• Cantore Vito

Tutti gli autori

• A. Mehmeti; M. Todorovic; A. Scardigno; V. Cantore

Titolo volume/Rivista

Non Disponibile

Anno di pubblicazione

2015

ISSN

Non Disponibile

ISBN

2-85352-549-X

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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