Regionalized environmental damages and life cycle cost of chickpea production using LC-IMPACT assessment

Abstract

Modern intensive agriculture worldwide is generating increasing environmental and economic pressures that hinder its sustainable development. This study proposes the joint use life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) to evaluate irrigated chickpea production (ICP) and the eco-environmental situation of dry farming (DFCP). Data are collected from 625 chickpea farmers in in the Kermanshah province of Iran. The most updated approach, LC-IMPACT, is applied for the first time globally in agricultural activity LCA. Results indicate that most impact categories of ICP have higher rates than DFCP. On-Field emissions and pesticides in DFCP, and nitrogen and phosphate in ICP, are identified as the main hotspots. The LCC analysis reveals that the total emissions cost (EC) for DFCP and ICP is 130 and 53 $ per one tone of chickpea (1TCP−1), respectively. Additionally, the LCC for DFCP and ICP is computed as 837 and 666 $ 1TCP−1. The eco-efficiency rate of damage categories in DFCP shows a better situation compared to the ICP scenario. The findings indicate that the DFCP scenario exhibits a higher level of environmental friendliness compared to the ICP scenario. Finally, it can be concluded that the joint use of LC-IMPACT assessment method and LCC can contribute to achieving better eco-environmental conditions in chickpea production.