Câmara-Salim Iana, Almeida-García Fernando, Feijoo Gumersindo, Moreira Maria Teresa, González-García Sara
CRETUS, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa, S/n, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Grupo Da Cunha, 15175, Carral, Spain; Dept. of Crop Production and Engineering Projects, High Polytechnic School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 27002, Lugo, Spain.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Jun 1;287:112351. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.112351. Epub 2021 Mar 16.
Intensive agricultural farming systems have negative impacts on the ecosystem. Therefore, the use of crop rotation emerges as an opportunity to improve the environmental sustainability of agricultural systems. In the region of Galicia in north-western Spain, potato and wheat are important commodities and essential foods in the diet. Hence, it is interesting to investigate the environmental profile of these crops to improve the understanding of local agrosystems. This study evaluated three agricultural crops managed under a crop rotation system and following a conventional arable farming: the main rotation crop, which is the potato in the first year (cP), followed by a second year of commercial wheat (cW) and autochthonous Galician wheat (GcW) in the third year. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was performed using four types of functional units: in terms of productivity (kg); land management (ha∙year); a financial function (euros € of income from sales) and energetic value (MJ). The environmental indicators selected are Climate Change (CC), Particulate Matter (PM), Terrestrial Acidification (TA), Freshwater Eutrophication (FE), Marine Eutrophication (ME), Human Toxicity (HT), Land Use (LU) and Fossil Depletion (FD). The figures show that the GcW has the lowest environmental impact when the functional units refer to land management, financial function and energetic value. However, if analysed in terms of productivity, cP is presented as the best crop due to its comparatively higher yield, reaching a production ratio 10 times higher than wheat. In the specific case of wheat, compared to a previous study in the same region, the environmental impacts are lower when grown in a crop rotation system in contrast to monoculture. This article demonstrates the relevance of using LCA for diverse stakeholders (e.g., farmers, consumers and researchers) to understand the environmental impacts of regional agricultural systems. In addition, it serves as a basis for future work aimed at comparing rotational agricultural systems in this region, integrating economic and social aspects.
集约化农业种植系统对生态系统有负面影响。因此，采用轮作成为提高农业系统环境可持续性的一个契机。在西班牙西北部的加利西亚地区，土豆和小麦是重要的商品和饮食中的基本食物。因此，研究这些作物的环境概况，以增进对当地农业系统的了解很有意义。本研究评估了在轮作系统下并遵循传统耕作方式种植的三种农作物：主要轮作作物，第一年是土豆（cP），第二年是商业小麦（cW），第三年是当地的加利西亚小麦（GcW）。使用生命周期评估（LCA）方法时采用了四种功能单位：产量（千克）；土地管理（公顷·年）；财务功能（销售所得收入的欧元）和能源价值（兆焦耳）。所选的环境指标包括气候变化（CC）、颗粒物（PM）、陆地酸化（TA）、淡水富营养化（FE）、海洋富营养化（ME）、人体毒性（HT）、土地利用（LU）和化石资源枯竭（FD）。数据表明，当功能单位涉及土地管理、财务功能和能源价值时，GcW对环境的影响最小。然而，从产量方面分析，cP因其相对较高的产量而成为最佳作物，其产量比小麦高出10倍。在小麦的具体案例中，与该地区之前的一项研究相比，与单作相比，在轮作系统中种植时环境影响较低。本文证明了使用LCA对不同利益相关者（如农民、消费者和研究人员）了解区域农业系统的环境影响具有重要意义。此外，它为今后旨在比较该地区轮作农业系统、整合经济和社会方面的工作奠定了基础。
