Life cycle assessment of Colombian greenhouse tomato production based on farmer-level survey data

Bojacá, Carlos Ricardo; Wyckhuys, Kris A. G.; Schrevens, Eddie

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.01.078

Cited by 77 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Soilless culture systems are commonly integrated in controlled environment agriculture, i.e., heated greenhouses, that in turn are associated with environmental concerns and the production of high amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Indeed, major studies conducted showed that from an environmental point of view, plants cultivated directly in soil in tunnels or greenhouses without using auxiliary systems perform better than those with heating in SCS [32][33][34]. However, even if the heated protected cultivation systems present a good opportunity to move from soil to SCS, we do not have to associate SCS only with heated greenhouses.…”

Section: Soilless Culture and Growing Media: Pros And Consmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Sustainability of Growing Media Constituents and Stand-Alone Substrates in Soilless Culture Systems

2019

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Decreasing arable land, rising urbanization, water scarcity, and climate change exert pressure on agricultural producers. Moving from soil to soilless culture systems can improve water use efficiency, especially in closed-loop systems with a recirculating water/nutrient solution that recaptures the drain water for reuse. However, the question of alternative materials to peat and rockwool, as horticultural substrates, has become increasingly important, due to the despoiling of ecologically important peat bog areas and a pervasive waste problem. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive critical review of current developments in soilless culture, growing media, and future options of using different materials other than peat and rockwool. Apart from growing media properties and their performance from the point of view of plant production, economic and environmental factors are also important. Climate change, CO 2 emissions, and other ecological issues will determine and drive the development of soilless culture systems and the choice of growing media in the near future. Bioresources, e.g., treated and untreated waste, as well as renewable raw materials, have great potential to be used as growing media constituents and stand-alone substrates. A waste management strategy aimed at reducing, reusing, and recycling should be further and stronger applied in soilless culture systems. We concluded that the growing media of the future must be available, affordable, and sustainable and meet both quality and environmental requirements from growers and society, respectively.

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Section: Soilless Culture and Growing Media: Pros And Consmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Sustainability of Growing Media Constituents and Stand-Alone Substrates in Soilless Culture Systems

2019

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“…Worldwide, LCA methodology has been used to evaluate a variety of policy scenarios that cover the adoption of transportation initiatives (Vedrenne, Pérez, Lumbreras, & Rodríguez, 2014), solid waste management systems (Liamsanguan & Gheewala, 2008;Wanichpongpan & Gheewala, 2007), and Ecolabelling Regulations and Green Product Procurement (European Commission, 2015;Schau & Fet, 2008). In Latin America, LCA studies have been mostly focused on the agricultural sector aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of the environmental impacts of that sector (Bojacá, Wyckhuys, & Schrevens, 2014;Perez Neira, 2016;Quispe, Vázquez-Rowe, Kahhat, Arena, & Suppen, 2017;Vazquez-Rowe, Kahhat, Quispe, & Bentín, 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment and socioeconomic evaluation of the illicit crop substitution policy in Colombia

Barrera‐Ramírez

Prado²,

Solheim

2019

J of Industrial Ecology

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The peace treaty of Colombia contemplates a crop substitution policy seeking to replace coca crops with legal alternatives. Although crop substitution diverts funding of illegal activities and provides an income to farmers, it is important to understand how the change to a variety of legal crops (coffee, sugarcane, and cacao) affects the income of farmers, and whether there is an environmental advantage of a crop over another. This study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) coupled with socioeconomic indicators to two regions, Putumayo and Catatumbo, over different policy scenarios. LCA results show that a policy success does not ensure a lower environmental impact across the board. Legal crops consume less fuel than coca crops, which reduce fuel‐related impacts, but the use of fertilizer in coffee and pesticide use in sugarcane increase toxicity‐related impacts. The results, however, are affected by a lack of characterization factors of agrochemicals, but once these are replaced by proxies, coca crops appear to have greater toxicity impacts. In terms of individual crops, cacao crops have a lower environmental impact than coffee and sugarcane, but it also takes the longest to harvest, which may pose a financial risk to farmers. The socioeconomic analysis reveals that for Catatumbo farmers, a policy success reduces the income, whereas for Putumayo farmers, a policy success increases income and job generation. In general, it was observed that the dynamics of the illegal supply chain vary for each region, influencing the environmental and socioeconomic outcome of the substitution policy.

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“…standard deviation divided by the mean, of each environmental impact category. This value was used as a measure of the uncertainty of the impact category (Bojacá et al, 2014), reported in Table 5 and the distribution and confidence intervals of the results of each impact category in Fig. 5.…”

Section: Figure 4 Normalized Midpoint Results With Individualist Cultmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parameter uncertainty analysis by the means of Monte Carlo simulation is a well-defined technique in the context of agricultural LCA, see e.g. (Basset-Mens et al, 2009;Bojacá et al, 2014;Fedele et al, 2014). However, we are aware that other methods for parameter uncertainty analysis can be applied (Lloyd and Ries, 2007), but the one recommended can be easily implemented without further data collection.…”

Section: Recommended Approach To Develop Lca Scenarios Of Future Cropmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to manage uncertainty in future Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) scenarios addressing the effect of climate change in crop production

Niero

Ingvordsen

Jørgensen

et al. 2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Life cycle assessment of Colombian greenhouse tomato production based on farmer-level survey data

Cited by 77 publications

References 25 publications

Increasing Sustainability of Growing Media Constituents and Stand-Alone Substrates in Soilless Culture Systems

Increasing Sustainability of Growing Media Constituents and Stand-Alone Substrates in Soilless Culture Systems

Life cycle assessment and socioeconomic evaluation of the illicit crop substitution policy in Colombia

How to manage uncertainty in future Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) scenarios addressing the effect of climate change in crop production

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