Mechanisation of organic fertiliser spreading, choice of fertiliser and crop residue management as solutions for maize environmental impact mitigation

The environmental impact of crop production is mainly related to fossil fuels consumption and to fertilisers application. Emissions arising from the spreading of organic and mineral fertilisers are important contributors for impact categories such as eutrophication and acidification. The choice of the fertilisers and of the spreading techniques as well as the crop residues management can deeply affect the environmental impact related to crop cultivation. In this study, seven scenarios describing fertilising schemes characterised by different organic and mineral fertilisers and by different mechanisation were compared. The aim is to evaluate, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, how the environmental performances of grain maize production were affected by these different fertilisers schemes. The study was carried out considering a cradle to farm gate perspective and 1 t grain maize was selected as functional unit. Inventory data were collected on a farm located in Po Valley (Northern Italy) during year 2013 and were processed using the composite method recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). The compared scenarios involved organic and mineral fertiliser distribution and were: pig slurry incorporation after >3 days after spreading (BS), fast pig slurry incorporation within 2 h from spreading (AS1), direct soil injection of pig slurry (AS2), pig slurry incorporation (after >3 days) with straw collection (AS3), digestate spreading instead of pig slurry (after >3 days) (AS4), only mineral fertilisers (i.e. urea and superphosphate) distribution (AS5) and only mineral fertilisers (i.e. calcium ammonium nitrate and superphosphate) distribution (AS6). The results were not univocal, since climate and soil conditions as well as physical and chemical fertiliser characteristics differently affected the environmental load, especially for particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification and terrestrial eutrophication impact categories. AS1 and AS2 showed the most beneficial results for these impact categories (between −67% and −73% respect to worst scenario). AS6, on the opposite, showed the highest environmental impact for those impact categories mainly affected by energy and fossil fuel consumption (climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity with carcinogenic effect, particulate matter, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity and mineral, fossil and renewable resources depletion), categories on which AS3 and AS4 were the best solutions. AS3 was the most impacting for terrestrial acidification and eutrophication A sensitivity analysis was carried out varying grain maize yield (mostly affected: marine eutrophication) and ammonia volatilisation losses due to organic fertilisers (mainly affected: terrestrial acidification and eutrophication). The achieved results can be useful for the development of “spreading rules” that drive the application of organic fertilisers in agricultural areas where there is an intense livestock activity.