Environmental impact assessment of dryland winter wheat cultivation in different tillage systems

Abstract

Tillage operations account for the major of energy consumption in agricultural operation and reducing non-renewable energy use in tillage has important results for decreasing greenhouse gases emissions. So, the purpose of present study was to survey the energy consumption and environmental effects of two tillage systems in dryland winter wheat cultivation. The required data were collected using oral questionnaire and direct visiting from farmers in the west of Iran. Life cycle assessment was used by ReCiPe2016 method for survey wheat production environmental impacts under two tillage systems. The results indicated that the conservation system consumes about 16% less energy compared to the conventional system. The energy ratio of conservation system was about 19% higher than that of conventional system. The CO₂ emission amounts due to the use of diesel fuel were calculated about 297 and 186 kg ha⁻¹ in conventional and conservation tillage systems, respectively. Life cycle assessment results showed that all the investigated environmental indicators in the conservation system are better than the conventional system. Also direct emissions were the main hotspots of environmental damages in two systems. It was concluded that in conservation system, dryland wheat can be produced with lower environmental impacts than conventional systems