Assessing the environmental impacts of organic and conventional mixed vegetable production based on the life cycle assessment approach

OpenAlex İngilizce

Abstract This study aims to assess the environmental impacts and the energy efficiency of organic and conventional vegetable production in Palas Basin, Kayseri, Turkey. Three organic and three conventional farmers representing the vegetable production in the region participated in face-to-face questionnaires. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was implemented to assess the global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP), acidification potential (AP), and energy use, which were selected as environmental impact potentials. Additionally, the environmental risk assessment was conducted to understand the impact of pesticide use in the region. Six farmers were investigated individually, and it was found that all of the farmers had a common cultivation calendar, but there were differences in the application. Particularly, mineral fertilizer use and irrigation were excessive in some agricultural practices. Although the use of N- and P-based mineral fertilizers was one of the main differences between organic and conventional farming, irrigation was a common practice. Irrigation, the most influential practice, elevated not only water consumption but also EP, AP, and GWP as a result of electricity consumption by electrical pumps. Electricity consumption from irrigation contributed to the GWP most, and this value was in the range of 45%–95%. Mineral fertilizer use covered up to 40% of the EP, 31% of the GWP, and 37% of the AP for conventional farmers. Three different scenarios were developed to reduce the environmental impacts of the use of excessive mineral fertilizer and irrigation. The developed scenarios recommended the reductions by 38%, 44%, 25%, and 60% in GWP, EP, AP, and total energy inputs, respectively. This study demonstrates that LCA is beneficial in determining the environmental impact of hotspots in vegetable production and allows the development of different solutions to mitigate environmental impacts for agricultural sustainability. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1733–1746. © 2022 SETAC KEY POINTS The main difference between organic and conventional farming was determined as inorganic mineral fertilizers that mostly affected eutrophication potential and the indirect energy. Among all agricultural inputs, electricity was detected as an environmental impact hotspot contributing to the global warming potential from 45% to 95% and the direct energy up to 83.21% regardless of organic or conventional farming. It can be concluded that the prohibition of synthetic inputs for organic farming reduces environmental impacts and contributes to higher energy efficiency. The LCA approach used in the study could be used to determine the environmental impacts of mixed vegetable production and develop the different scenarios for reducing these environmental impacts by energy savings and less greenhouse gas emissions for environmental sustainability.