life cycle assessment of potato production semi-mechanized method in iran: a case study of markazi province

in recent years, the debate over the environmental sustainability of agricultural productions is widely increased. in this context, environmental impacts of potato production by semi-mechanized method were studied in markazi province of iran. in this research, life cycle assessment approach was used to identify and reduce environmental impacts. the environmental impacts of potato production in markazi province in categories of effect abiotic depletion, global warming, acidity, eutrophication and ozone layer depletion were investigated. the results showed that direct emissions from farms, use of chemical fertilizers and electricity had the biggest share of environmental degradation. in this regard, the index for category effect of abiotic depletion, global warming, acidity, eutrophication and ozone layer depletion was obtained 1.11, 152.89, 1.90, 0.87 and 0.00005 respectively. based on the results, the use of organic inputs, precision farming, consumption of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the use of more efficient irrigation methods and technologies in potato production was proposed.