Can the Carbon Dioxide Fixation of Processing Tomato Plants Compensate for the Emissions of the Tomato Industry?

Juan Ignacio Gutiérrez-Cabanillas (), Elena Ordiales Rey, Micaela Carvajal and Francisco Espinosa Borreguero
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Juan Ignacio Gutiérrez-Cabanillas: Centro Tecnológico Nacional Agroalimentario, CTAEX, Ctra. Villafranco a Balboa, km 1.2, 06195 Badajoz, Spain
Elena Ordiales Rey: Centro Tecnológico Nacional Agroalimentario, CTAEX, Ctra. Villafranco a Balboa, km 1.2, 06195 Badajoz, Spain
Micaela Carvajal: Group of Aquaporins, Department of Plant Nutrition, Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS-CSIC), Campus Universitario de Espinardo, Apdo. de Correos 4195, 30080 Murcia, Spain
Francisco Espinosa Borreguero: Plant Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences Department, Extremadura University, Av. Elvas s/n, 06071 Badajoz, Spain

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Processing tomato is one of the most important crops in Extremadura region, Spain, since the largest national agricultural production and first industrial processing of this sector is concentrated in this area. In these two production stages, greenhouse gases (GHGs) are emitted, but there is also a capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) by the plants and therefore, this study focuses on assessing the carbon balance of this activity in this specific crop area. In this work, the amount of CO 2 fixed by tomato plants is evaluated, bearing in mind the production area and tomato cultivars. Subsequently, the carbon footprint is calculated, and finally, the carbon balance is established for each location. Under the conditions of this study, each processing tomato plant annually fixes 0.6090 kg of CO 2 , and each kilogram of tomato produced allows 0.1905 kg of CO 2 to be captured. In contrast, GHG emissions average 0.0338 kg CO 2 equivalent; therefore, the carbon balance is clearly positive. Even adding the emissions from the industry to those from farming, the carbon balance of this activity is clearly positive (0.0900 kg CO 2 captured for each kg of tomato processed), indicating that processing tomato crops in this area of Spain could more than compensate for the emissions produced.

Keywords: carbon sequestration; carbon footprint; GHG emissions; carbon sink (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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