Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is an environmental accounting system, in physical unit, able to quantify the total amount of ecosystem resources required by a region or by a production process. This methodology is both scientifically robust and widely diffused for territorial and productive analysis. The application of EFA to agricultural systems are still uncommon and examples in the fruit sector rare. In this work a detailed application of EFA to an experimental trial in a commercial nectarine orchard in Piedmont (Italy) is presented. The field trial is focused on the evaluation of agronomical benefit of various kinds of swine manure for fertilizing orchards. Four productive systems were established from 2008: liquid slurry (LS), covered slurry (CS), solid fraction (SF), mineral nutrition (MN). All the environmental impacts of the four systems were quantified both directly on field and with extrapolations from farmer knowledge. As previous studies suggested, we considered not only the one-year field operations, but also the whole lifetime of the orchard. The environmental costs of each system are presented and related to each other on the basis of their relative footprint value. Results highlight almost the same ecological footprint for the three manure fertilized systems (LS, CS and SF) with average of 0.96 gha t1) and the highest ecological footprint can be found in the MN system (1.14 gha t1). Interesting remarks can be done comparing the contributions to the ecological footprint of the field operations related to fertilization in the four systems. In the manure fertilized systems the fertilizer contribution goes from 0.9% to 1.2% of the total ecological footprint; but in the MN system the fertilizer contribution is 6.6% of the total ecological footprint. Results support the hypothesis that internal recycle and connections among different systems increasingly resulted in high system benefit and sustainability.

Evaluation of the sustainability of swine manure fertilization in orchard through Ecological Foootprint Analysis: results from a case study in Italy

CERUTTI, ALESSANDRO KIM;BAGLIANI, Marco Maria;BECCARO, GABRIELE LORIS;GIOELLI, Fabrizio Stefano;BALSARI, Paolo;BOUNOUS, Giancarlo
2011-01-01

Abstract

Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is an environmental accounting system, in physical unit, able to quantify the total amount of ecosystem resources required by a region or by a production process. This methodology is both scientifically robust and widely diffused for territorial and productive analysis. The application of EFA to agricultural systems are still uncommon and examples in the fruit sector rare. In this work a detailed application of EFA to an experimental trial in a commercial nectarine orchard in Piedmont (Italy) is presented. The field trial is focused on the evaluation of agronomical benefit of various kinds of swine manure for fertilizing orchards. Four productive systems were established from 2008: liquid slurry (LS), covered slurry (CS), solid fraction (SF), mineral nutrition (MN). All the environmental impacts of the four systems were quantified both directly on field and with extrapolations from farmer knowledge. As previous studies suggested, we considered not only the one-year field operations, but also the whole lifetime of the orchard. The environmental costs of each system are presented and related to each other on the basis of their relative footprint value. Results highlight almost the same ecological footprint for the three manure fertilized systems (LS, CS and SF) with average of 0.96 gha t1) and the highest ecological footprint can be found in the MN system (1.14 gha t1). Interesting remarks can be done comparing the contributions to the ecological footprint of the field operations related to fertilization in the four systems. In the manure fertilized systems the fertilizer contribution goes from 0.9% to 1.2% of the total ecological footprint; but in the MN system the fertilizer contribution is 6.6% of the total ecological footprint. Results support the hypothesis that internal recycle and connections among different systems increasingly resulted in high system benefit and sustainability.
2011
Inglese
Esperti anonimi
19
319
324
6
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652610004373
Fruit production; Sustainable farming; Environmental accounting; Slurry management
262
6
Cerutti A. K; Bagliani M.; Beccaro G. L.; Gioelli F.; Balsari P.; Bounous G
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
partially_open
03-CONTRIBUTO IN RIVISTA::03A-Articolo su Rivista
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Cerutti_4.pdf

Open Access dal 02/04/2013

Tipo di file: POSTPRINT (VERSIONE FINALE DELL’AUTORE)
Dimensione 389.81 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
389.81 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
11 Cerutti - Journal of Cleaner Production.pdf

Accesso riservato

Tipo di file: PDF EDITORIALE
Dimensione 267.81 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
267.81 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/132508
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 25
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 27
social impact