Environmental impacts of the cultivation-phase associated with agricultural crops for feed production

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used to estimate the environmental impacts and identify the most critical stages (hotspots) of cultivation of three cereal crops typically used for animal feed purposes - barley, rye and sorghum - in the Lombardy region, the most productive crop and livestock area in Northern Italy. The crop variety (out of 3 and 4 varieties of barley and rye, respectively) and cultivation regime (single vs. double cropping of sorghum) with the lowest impacts per kg of crude protein (mass-based functional unit) were identified. Environmental impact categories reported by ReCiPe method were used. According to the results, both Reni and Dank Nowe were the varieties with the lowest environmental impacts for barley and rye varieties, respectively; single cropping of sorghum had lower impacts than double cropping. Impact hotspots included field emissions, agricultural activities and agrochemical (fertilisers and herbicides) production regardless the cropping system considered. Moreover, among the cereals studies, rye was identified as the best environmental alternative. Use of land-based and economic functional units did not change the ranking of systems according to their impacts.