Life cycle assessment of shallot farming in Food Estate Hutajulu, North Sumatra, Indonesia
¹Universitas Sumatera Utara, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Prof. A. Sofyan No.3, 20155, Indonesia
²Universitas Sumatera Utara, Faculty of Agriculture, Laboratory of Energy and Electrification, Prof. A. Sofyan No.3, 20155, Indonesia
³Universitas Sumatera Utara, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agrotechnology, Prof. A. Sofyan No.3, 20155, Indonesia
⁴Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Sumatera Utara, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Food Science and Technology, Jl. H. A. Manaf Lubis No. 2 Helvetia, Medan, Indonesia
*Correspondence: riswanti@usu.ac.id
Abstract:
Food Estate is a government program as a solution to meeting food demand. However, in order to meet food needs, environmental impacts must be considered. The study objective was to investigate the impacts of shallot production in Food Estate Hutajulu, Indonesia. The study was conducted with the first stage determining the functional unit, namely an area of 0.2 hectares with a gate-to-gate scope. The second is the inventory data analysis by grouping the categories of nursery, tillage, maintenance, harvesting, and transportation. The third is life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) according to the ISO 14044 standard. Every data obtained from each process was processed using the software OpenLCA 1.11.0; the following is the workflow and use of the software. Processes were made based on the five categories of data (soil processing, planting, maintenance, harvesting and transportation), which had been determined to be connected to flow. The product system was adjusted according to the data in each process and then calculated, and the results of calculation data and graph models appear from each processed data category. Fourth is the interpretation that considers the highest environmental impact, namely acidification in the transportation process of 1.8974 kg SO2 eq, global warming potential in the transportation process of 415.3188 kg CO2 eq, eutrophication in the transportation process of 0.4364 kg PO4 eq, and human toxicity in the maintenance process of 1,409.07377 kg 1,4-DB eq. To minimize the impact on subsequent production, reducing diesel fuel, chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers are recommended.
Key words:
crops cultivation, environmental impact, global warming, LCA, sustainability