Environmental and economic assessment of sustainability in Mediterranean wheat production
¹Department of Agriculture, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, IT89100 Reggio Calabria, Italy
²Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria - Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Bari, Italy
*Correspondence: anna.deluca@unirc.it
Abstract:
This study proposes the application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and economic evaluations conducted on different cereal production systems in semi-arid environments. Two different crop management systems of durum wheat were analysed by distinguishing Continuous Cropping (CC) and Crop Rotation (CR) with vetch, that are conducted through two different levels of crop intensification (in terms of tillage and fertilization strategies): Conventional (Conv) and Conservative (Cons). The resulting four scenarios were examined using LCA methodology to assess the environmental impacts, and the Production Cost (PC) analysis to estimate the economic results. Overall, the findings of this research provide an opportunity to identify sustainable crops management strategies.
Key words:
cost production analysis, crop management systems, life cycle assessment (LCA)