Life Cycle Assessment of Variable Rate Fertilizer Application in a Pear Orchard

Anna Vatsanidou, Spyros Fountas, Vasileios Liakos, George Nanos, Nikolaos Katsoulas and Theofanis Gemtos
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Anna Vatsanidou: Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece
Spyros Fountas: Department of Natural Resources Management and Rural Environment, Agricultural University of Athens, 11855 Athens, Greece
Vasileios Liakos: Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
George Nanos: Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece
Nikolaos Katsoulas: Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece
Theofanis Gemtos: Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-25

Abstract: Precision Agriculture (PA) is a crop site-specific management system that aims for sustainability, adopting agricultural practices more friendly to the environment, like the variable rate application (VRA) technique. Many studies have dealt with the effectiveness of VRA to reduce nitrogen (N) fertilizer, while achieving increased profit and productivity. However, only limited attention was given to VRA’s environmental impact. In this study an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed to identify the environmental effects of N VRA on a small pear orchard, compared to the conventional uniform application. A Cradle to Gate system with a functional unit (FU) of 1 kg of pears was analyzed including high quality primary data of two productive years, including also the non-productive years, as well as all the emissions during pear growing and the supply chains of all inputs, projecting them to the lifespan of the orchard. A methodology was adopted, modelling individual years and averaging over the orchard’s lifetime. Results showed that Climate change, Water scarcity, Fossil fuels and Particulate formation were the most contributing impact categories to the overall environmental impact of the pear orchard lifespan, where climate change and particulates were largely determined by CO 2 , N 2 O, and NH 3 emissions to the air from fertilizer production and application, and as CO 2 from tractor use. Concerning fertilization practice, when VRA was combined with a high yield year, this resulted in significantly reduced environmental impact. LCA evaluating an alternative fertilizer management system in a Greek pear orchard revealed the environmental impact reduction potential of that system.

Keywords: site specific input management; nitrogen variable rate application; life cycle assessment of pear orchard; environmental impact of precision agriculture; Pyrus communis L. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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