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Life Cycle Assessment comparison between brow parboiled rice produced under organic and minimal tillage cultivation systems

2017; Elsevier BV; Volume: 161; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.05.098

1879-1786

Flávia Aparecida Nunes, Marcus Seferin, Vinícius Gonçalves Maciel, Marco Antônio Záchia Ayub,

Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability

We investigated the environmental performance of white and brown parboiled rice types produced under two alternative cultivation systems, namely minimal tillage and organic farming, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The study was carried out in the most important rice production region of Latin America, the south of Brazil. The functional unit for analysis was defined as 1 kg of protein based on dry bases of grain. Results showed that the cultivation stage was the hotspot of the cycle for both cultivation systems, with the highest environmental impacts resulting from emissions on the field, the input of fertilizers, and the inputs of diesel and natural gas. The use of fertilizers by the minimal tillage system further increased the impact of this system. This research shows that the organic production contributes less to local ecosystem degradation compared to minimum tillage, but it may contribute to exacerbate global trends in GHG emissions and land occupation with further market-mediated impacts. The results in this work might help assessing rice production inventories and provide reliable information towards more sustainable products and processes.