LCA and Cherry Tomato Production in the South of Tunisia

Abstract

Tunisia is an agricultural country known for its wide variety of products for the local and international market. Tomato is one of the country’s key products. The annual production is estimated to be about 1.2 million tons. Despite the advantages on the economic balance of Tunisia, tomato production presents an environmental pressure on the natural ecosystem. The main objective of this research is to achieve an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of a soilless geothermal conventional multi-tunnel cherry tomato production located in Chenchou (South-West of Tunisia). The LCA is an ISO 14040-44 methodology used to assess the environmental impacts of products/processes or a service. The functional unit considered is one ton of soilless cherry tomato produced. The system boundaries included: (1) nursery production, (2) greenhouse preparation and plants transplantation, (3) climate control system (Heating, CO2 injects), (4) irrigation, (5) fertilization, (6) phytosanitary treatments, (7) conditioning, (8) transportation and (9) waste management. The inventory data were collected from the farm exploitation. Nine impacts categories were computed using mainly the International reference Life cycle Data system (ILCD) impact assessment methodology: climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, non-renewable energy use, land use, toxicity and ecotoxicity and effects on human health. The results obtained show that the system considered detains good environmental performances.