Author(s): MATSUURA, M. I. da S. F.; DIAS, F. R. T.; POCOLI, J. F.; LUCAS, K. R. G.; CASTRO, C. de; HIRAKURI, M. H.

Summary: Sunflower is an important crop in Parecis region of the Brazilian Cerrado. In 2014, the region produced 232.700 tons of sunflower grains, 45% ofthe national production. Sunflower production comes mostly from a system that has soybean as the main crop. The association of soybean and sunflower can reduce environmental impacts due to shared use of resources. This study performed a ?cradle to gate? Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the soybean-sunflower production system used in Parecis region and compared its environmental profile to that of the monoculture of these two crops. We evaluated the impacts related to the use of soil (land use change emissions and liming) for each crop according to three allocation criteria: time of soil occupation, yield and gross margin. Although performance on ?Climate Change? and some other impact categories had varied according to the allocation criteria used, the soybean-sunflower rotation crop system presented lower environmental impacts on every category when compared to soybean and sunflower monocultures with the same yield. Important impact reductionswere observed on ?Climate change? (43%), ?Terrestrial acidification? (26%) and ?Particulate matter formation? (20%) categories.

Publication year: 2015

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Environment

Keywords: Allocation Criteria, Avaliação do ciclo de vida, Cerrado, Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental Modeling, Girassol, Helianthus Annuus, Impacto ambiental, Rotation Crop Systems, Savanna, Soja