Life Cycle Assessment on Agricultural Production: A Mini Review on Methodology, Application, and Challenges

Abstract

Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an effective tool for the quantitative evaluation and analysis of agricultural materials production and operation activities in various stages of the agricultural system. Based on the concept of life cycle, it comprehensively summarizes the impact of agriculture on the environment, which is an effective tool to promote the sustainability and green development of agriculture. In recent years, agricultural LCA has been widely used in the agroecosystem for resource and environmental impacts analysis. However, some challenges still exist in agricultural LCA, i.e., the environmental impact assessment index system needs to be improved; its application in different production mode is limited; and combination research with other models needs more attention. This paper discusses the above-mentioned challenges and recommends research priorities for both scientific development and improvements in practical implementation. In summary, further research is needed to construct a regional heterogeneity database and develop innovated methodologies to develop more meaningful functional units for agricultural products to complement LCA by other models. These efforts will make agricultural LCA more robust and effective in environmental impacts assessment to support decision making from individual farm to regional or (inter)national for the sustainable future of agriculture.

Life Cycle Assessment in Protected Agriculture: Where Are We Now, and Where Should We Go Next?

“…The aim of interpreting LCA results is to extract valuable insights and offer a succinct summary of both inventory analysis and impact assessment outcomes [185]. Beyond mere information provision, this phase plays a crucial role in delivering practical recommendations to enhance sustainability and mitigate the environmental impact of protected agricultural systems.…”

“…The classification step entails identifying the impact assessment method, often relying on established methods such as CML (including versions like CML 2 baseline 2000 V2/world and CML 2000), ISO 14044 (2006), ISO 14040, and IPCC 2001 GWP 100 [144,185]. In the characterization phase, impact categories are selected, and the environmental impact on each category is quantified.…”

“…Recommendations and priorities to improve the applicability of LCA have been continually reported [128,146,185,202]. The reported findings thus far highlight challenges and knowledge gaps in each of the four phases of LCA development.…”

“…In this way, a more complete perspective of social, economic, and even environmental aspects converging in protected agriculture can be obtained, leading to improved effectiveness in decision making. Van der Werf et al [202] proposed integrating frameworks focused on ecosystem services, McLaren et al [128] proposed integrating frameworks focused on nutritional and dietary factors, and Fan et al [185] proposed integrating frameworks focused on agent-based modeling, data envelopment analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis. The joint use of the previous three methodologies and LCA has not been explored in protected agriculture.…”

Improving Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Small Farm Wheat Production Scenarios Using Data Envelopment Analysis

“…Since the 20th century, the imbalance between the low land productivity and the high-density population has severely hampered agricultural development. Large and intensive farming was implemented using highly chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase productivity and address the gap between food and population growth [5]. This led to negative environmental consequences such as natural resource damage, decreased land productivity, an increase in pests and diseases on the land, reduced land biodiversity, and increased energy use [6].…”