LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

GROUP 4, SESSION B: CROP PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
115. Environmental and economic life cycle assessment of organic and
conventional olive systems
Ramez Mohamad 1,* , Annalisa De Boni 2 , Gianluigi Cardone 1 , Marie Reine Bteich 1 , Michele Moretti 2 , Rocco
Roma 2 , Vincenzo Verrastro 1
1 Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Italy, 2 Dep. Agro-environmental and territorial Sciences, Bari
University, Italy, Corresponding author. E-mail: ramez_19777@yahoo.com
The environmental awareness of the agricultural sector has been increasing during the last decades. Covering
the environmental impacts of any agricultural product or service became a fundamental trend towards the
optimal selection between different alternatives to improve the production. Organic farming has been reported
to be an innovative system that contributes to the reduction of environmental impacts of agricultural
practices. This study will investigate this assumption through a comparison of the environmental impact and
the economic performance between two production systems of olive cultivation in Apulia region-Italy.
Based on a survey for farms selection, two olive farms have been selected for a case study of organic and
conventional management systems. The criteria of farms selection was based on the similarity of general
characteristics (location, olive variety, trees age, irrigated, planting system) and the dissimilarity of agricultural
practices management, particularly fertilisation, soil management, pest and weed control.
LCA based methodology, adopting the Eco-indicator 99 method, has been used for assessing the environmental
impact. Data collection has been analysed by SimaPro software considering 1 hectare as a functional
unit with a system boundary limited to olive production (cradle to farm gate).
The olive life cycle was assumed to extend over 50 years and was divided into three phases: juvenility phase
(4 years), growing phase (13 years) and productive phase (33 years). The environmental impacts were
roughly similar during the juvenility and growing phases due to the likeness of the conventional managements
in both case studies. Environmental results below are associated to the productive phase when the
organic farm was certified organic and the conventional farm changed into no-tillage conventional system.
Fertilisation and soil management activities resulted in a higher environmental impact in the organic system
compared to the conventional one, in terms of both single impact category and damage categories (damage to
the human health, ecosystem quality and resources). This is due to the emissions induced by the transportation
and application of animal manure as well as the higher fuel consumption for managing the soil in the
organic system compared to no-tillage conventional one. Nevertheless, the total environmental impact of
agricultural practices was lower in the organic system compared to the conventional one, mainly the lower
impact on the fossil fuel depletion as a result of the more recurrent weed and pest control activities in conventional
system. In fact, the total environmental impact caused by pest control activity was higher in the
conventional system even if carcinogenic effects, ecotoxicity and minerals depletion impact categories were
higher in the organic system, as a result of copper products uses for pest control.
LCC methodology has been used for assessing the economic performance of both systems by calculating all
costs and revenues over the life cycle. No large differences were registered between the farms in terms of
costs and revenues in juvenility and growing phases, while bulk differences were recorded in the productive
phase. The organic system resulted in higher total costs and lower yield compared to the conventional one.
However, it showed higher revenue and consequently higher net income thanks to the higher selling price.
Both systems had a positive Net Present Value (NPV), showing a positive investment. Furthermore, the Internal
Rate of Return (IRR) resulted, in both farms, higher than the bank interest rate (1.25%). The organic
system resulted to have a higher NPV and IRR than the conventional one. Therefore, according to the farming
price system and based on the profitability and financial analyses, the organic system can be considered a
more profitable investment system than the conventional one.
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