Life cycle assessment of Sicilian durum wheat: A comparative study of conventional and organic systems

Durum wheat production plays an indispensable role in sustaining populations, and it occupies an estimated area of 18 million hectares worldwide. This crop production requires a large amount of material and energy inputs, affecting the environment in different ways including the emissions of greenhouse gases. In the context of global climate change is urgent to mitigate the impact of agricultural activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of conventional and organic durum wheat grain production systems in Sicily, involving, for the first time, a considerable number of farms, using the Life Cycle Assessment method. Primary data were collected from 21 Sicilian farms and a ton was used as functional unit. A "cradle to farm gate" system boundary was adopted, encompassing both backgrounds activities and all inputs for wheat cultivation. Secondary data were used when the primary information was not available; the analysis was carried out using SimaPro 9.5.0.1. The impact was calculated through CML-IA baseline method, considering 11 impact categories and land use from Recipe midpoint (H) 2016. The results showed that all impact categories conventional farming had higher impacts than organic. Furthermore, in most categories for conventional system, the main affecting factors were fuel, transport, fertilisers and pesticides, while in organic only fuel and seeds. Normalized results suggested that marine aquatic ecotoxicity showed the highest values, followed by freshwater ecotoxicity. The results of this study are relevant for evaluating strategies to reduce the environmental impacts associated with durum wheat production. • Impact of conventional and organic systems was assessed through LCA method • Conventional systems have the highest impact in all impact categories • Environmental impacts were mainly linked to transport, pesticides and fertilizers in the conventional system, and to fuel in both • Optimizing mechanization and using modern technologies could be a solution to reduce the impact of durum wheat production