AppEcoBIO: a tool for the economic and environmental evaluation of organic farms in Umbria (Italy)

The agricultural sector is universally recognized as one of the most contributors to the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Several studies, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, have been performed to analyse the carbon footprint of agricultural products, to determine the GHG emissions from agricultural production in different areas around the world. This paper presents the AppEcoBIO software, an innovative tool that integrates the LCA and the life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies to quantify economic profitability and GHG emissions of organic crop production in Umbria (Italy). An application example of the software to the organic alfalfa cultivation is proposed using as functional units 1 ton of hay at the dry basis and 1 ha of cultivated land of alfalfa. Economic results showed a cost of production of 504 €/ha (84 €/t of hay at the dry basis) and an operative income of 396 €/ha (66 €/t of hay at the dry basis). The environmental impact was quantified in 322.66 kg CO2eq per ton and 1,935.94 kg CO2eq per ha, with the main contribution due to the emissions to air related to cattle manure fertilization (53.6%). Despite the advantage of no use of synthetic fertilizers, the organic system does not show a clear environmental benefits in comparison with the results obtained for conventional cultivation in other studies. These findings are mainly due to the lower yield of organic production and the differences in the considered LCA methodological framework.