Life Cycle Assessment for Highlighting Environmental Hotspots in Sicilian Peach Production Systems

This paper is based upon research designed to investigate the Sicilian red peach production systemwithin two phases. The first regarded application of Life Cycle Assessment to investigate, at the farmlevel, the red peach production system in eastern Sicily by using one ha of peach orchard as the functionalunit, while the second paper in this series will be focussed upon both environmental improvementassessment and sensitivity analysis. In this context, this paper reports on results from the first phase ofthe research and, therefore, highlights the inventory and the highest impact processes associated withthe analysed system. The topic was addressed because agriculture is responsible for major environmentalimpacts, which must be reduced. The literature review provided insights into deficiencies in environmentalassessments in the fruit production sector, especially within the peach and nectarine sectors. Theresearchers worked closely with an Eastern Sicilian red peach farmer and had access to in-depth data,which were analysed to identify and quantify hotspots that can be improved to enhance environmentaland economic sustainability of red peach production in this region. The researchers documented that thelargest impacts were due to irrigation due to large volumes of water and energy used. There are opportunitiesto reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by improving irrigation practices and in the productionand usage of agricultural machinery. Other im