Assessment of the environmental sustainability of citrus production in Uruguay using life cycle analysis

Abstract

Citrus is the most important fruit crop in Uruguay in terms of production, area, and economy. Considering the great contribution of agri-food systems to environmental impacts, evaluating those associated with citrus production in the country becomes highly relevant to move towards sustainable food systems. In this line, the goal of this dissertation is to evaluate these environmental impacts using life cycle assessment (LCA) and to study key methodological aspects of its application to citrus production. Literature on citrus LCA is critically reviewed and four case studies are developed in representative agricultural holdings of the region, specifically, the production of lemons, mandarins and oranges, and the production of seedlings in nurseries. Impacts are assessed from cradle to gate, using both mass and area functional units and primary data for several growing seasons. The main environmental hotspots detected are on-field emissions from fertiliser application, irrigation, and copper oxides production. As to methodology, the relevance of using different functional units and addressing temporal variability and site-specificity of inventory data is highlighted, as well as using regionalised impact characterisation methods. It is observed that the contribution of the first stages of the crop to the environmental impacts of citrus production is low.