Enhancing the Sustainability of Apple Farming Utilizing Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) Practices

The main scope of the present study is to assess the environmental and economic outcomes of applying distinct Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices in apple cultivation. Thus, four different CSA practices, including organic farming, cover crops, floral bands, and grazing, were selected, and their environmental and economic performance was evaluated and compared to that of a conventional apple orchard system (baseline). Specifically, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodologies were applied to assess the environmental and economic sustainability of the studied systems, respectively. Among the studied practices, grazing exhibited the best environmental performance among the modeled scenarios (approximately 25% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the baseline under the assumed conditions), followed by organic farming that significantly decreased eutrophication- and ecotoxicity-related impacts. Similarly, organic farming and grazing exhibited the best economic performance in the concept of the present study, with the total profit per hectare rising to approximately 5300 € and 4300 €, respectively, compared to the value of 3700 € of the conventional apple orchard. The results suggest that the implementation of CSA practices has the potential to improve the environmental and economic performance of apple orchards under the modeled conditions.