Economic analysis integration to life cycle assessment: agricultural case from Turkey

Abstract

The scope of LCA studies and its components are highly diverse. One of the most important fields for LCA studies is agriculture that needs research on different agricultural activity subjects. In spite of restrictions in working with agricultural data, it’s hopeful to use some devices that will enable further studies. Greenhouse tomato production has been increasing for the last decade in Turkey which is the fourth biggest tomato producer country. Beside advantages of greenhouse systems, it causes landscape changes, ecosystem flux variations, rise in energy inputs and residue generation. Also, this production system is often perceived as artificial, characterized with low nutritional quality and high chemical inputs usage. The objective of the study relies on LCA application in agriculture with respect to greenhouse tomato production in Turkey. With LCA analysis, environmental effects and differences of production systems are introduced. After examining ecological effects of different tomato production systems, relation of results and agriculture establishment variables is tested.