Environmental impact assessment of field mechanisation for a sustainable agriculture

For the assessment of the environmental impact of agricultural machinery operations the collection of primary data is very useful because it permits to consider the local pedo-climatic and operative variables. However, only with recent technologies installed on modern tractors this can be more easily carried out. In this study, the aim is to present a methodology that permits to improve the reliability of inventories for environmental sustainability studies carried out with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The tool ENVIAM is presented; it is characterised by the construction of an agricultural machinery operation made of single working times. In each of them, fuel consumption and engine exhaust gases are calculated and finally summed in a total value for the operation. To improve the capabilities of this tool, measurements have been carried out on field using a tractor equipped with CANbus, a data-collection software, GPS and engine exhaust gas analyser in order to measure fuel consumption and engine exhaust emissions data and to develop a prediction model for these variables. The combination of CAN-bus, GPS and engine exhaust gas analyser is very effective and results having a widespread and promising role on several points of view, among which the environmental one. In particular, monitoring the field operation permits to identify the conditions in which improvements and inputs reductions can be reached.