Environmental Impact Assessment of Strawberry Production in Two Conventional and 0rganic Production Systems: (Case Study: Kurdistan Province)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the environmental impact assessment methods that has been developed on the basis of the production process. In the life cycle assessment, the imposed effects resulting from the production of a product, process or an activity have been investigated by identifying and quantifying energy, materials used and emissions into the environment. In this study, the environmental impacts of cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) for the conventional and organic cultivation methods of strawberry in Kurdistan province of Iran have been estimated. The preliminary data were collected from the farmers of the studied region during the growing season. The resulting impacts consisted of the following: Abiotic Depletion potential, Acidification potential, Eutrophication potential, Global Warming potential, Ozone Depletion potential, Human Toxicity potential, Freshwater and Marine Aquatic Ecotoxicity potential, Terrestrial Ecotoxicity potential, and Photochemical Oxidation potential, all of which were selected based on CML2baseline 2000 V2/world, 1995/characterization method. The functional unit in the present study revolved around one ton of strawberry. Assessing the impacts of the two scenarios indicated that in all impact categories, the environmental impacts of the Conventional cultivation method of strawberry are more than those of organic production system. The results signified that in the Conventional cultivation method, fertilizers and electricity had the most detrimental impacts on the environment.