Environmental Sustainability Of The Clementine Production Systems In Italy And Spain:. An Approach Based On Life Cycle Assessment

The first step towards a sustainable agriculture is to know the impacts that it generates. Although this is a complex task, since the environmental impact of agriculture depends not only on the production system. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of clementine production farming systems in Italy and Spain through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The functional unit to which the results were referred was 1 hectare (ha-1). The system boundaries considered were from "farm gate to farm gate", which included the production of the machinery, fertilizers and pesticides and also the field operations. The study is based on one year of primary data, collected from surveys of 19 Italian and 23 Spanish farmers. In general, the impacts generated by OFS are lower than for CFS. The LCA results of this study allow identifying those agricultural practices that can help to reach a more environmentally sustainable agriculture.