Environmental Impact Assessment of Strawberry Production in Two Conventional and 0rganic Production Systems: (Case Study: Kurdistan Province)

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

         Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the environmental impact assessment methods that has been developed on the basis of the production process. In the life cycle assessment, the imposed effects resulting from the production of a product, process or an activity have been investigated by identifying and quantifying energy, materials used and emissions into the environment. In this study, the environmental impacts of cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for the conventional and organic cultivation methods of strawberry in Kurdistan province of Iran have been estimated. The preliminary data were collected from the farmers of the studied region during the growing season.   The resulting impacts consisted of the following: Abiotic  Depletion  potential,  Acidification  potential,  Eutrophication  potential,  Global Warming  potential,  Ozone  Depletion  potential,  Human  Toxicity potential,  Freshwater  and  Marine  Aquatic  Ecotoxicity  potential,  Terrestrial  Ecotoxicity  potential,  and  Photochemical  Oxidation  potential, all of which were selected  based  on  CML2baseline 2000  V2/world,  1995/characterization  method. The functional unit in the present study revolved around one ton of strawberry. Assessing the impacts of the two scenarios indicated that in all impact categories, the environmental impacts of the Conventional cultivation method of strawberry are more than those of organic production system. The results signified that in the Conventional cultivation method, fertilizers and electricity had the most detrimental impacts on the environment. 
 

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References

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JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
Volume 27, Issue 2
July 2017
Pages 197-208

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