Purpose

The assessment of the carbon and water footprints of agricultural products is important for fruit producers because it enables improvements in environmental management along the production chain as well as the opening of new markets. This study analyses the carbon and water footprints of green coconut produced in seven farms located at the main producing States in Brazil (Ceará, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia), investigating opportunities for reducing these footprints.

Methods

The carbon footprint was calculated based on ISO 14067 and the water footprint, on ISO 14046. Primary data were collected from orchards with dwarf coconut trees, located in the states of Ceará (CE1, CE2, CE3 and CE4 farms), Alagoas (AL farm), Sergipe (SE farm) and Bahia (BA farm). The impact categories considered and their assessment models were as follows: (i) for the carbon footprint, climate change impact was assessed (ILCD midpoint); (ii) for the water footprint, water scarcity (AWARE), human toxicity, cancer, non-cancer, and freshwater ecotoxicity and marine and freshwater eutrophication (ILCD midpoint) were assessed. Sensitivity analysis was performed for variations in emissions from land use change (LUC) and water scarcity characterization factors. Uncertainty analysis was applied to identify best performing farms and their practices.

Results and discussion

The farms that resulted in lower footprints (AL and CE4) caused less carbon losses in LUC and used less nitrogen fertilizers and irrigation water. LUC emissions answered for one third of coconut carbon footprint when orchards were installed in areas with Caatinga vegetation. However, if coconut orchards replaced annual crops, carbon footprint may reduce up to 61%. Regarding water scarcity, in the case of applying monthly AWARE factors, the impact increased as much as 95% in relation to impacts calculated using annual factors. The use of regionalized annual or monthly AWARE factors increased impact up to 97% in relation to when annual and monthly AWARE were used.

Conclusions

The analysis of alternatives for footprint reduction showed that both footprints can be reduced in all regions with changes in orchard lifespan, irrigation and fertilization. Increasing the useful life of the orchard results in a reduction of up to 38% in footprints, adjusting irrigation, up to 49%, and the amount of fertilizer, up to 70% of the carbon footprint and up to 82% of water footprint profile. Regionalized factors were more accurate for identifying critical watersheds for coconut production.

中文翻译：

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减少巴西绿色椰子的碳和水足迹

目的

对农产品的碳和水足迹的评估对水果生产者来说很重要，因为它可以改善整个生产链中的环境管理以及新市场的开放。这项研究分析了位于巴西主要生产国（塞阿拉，阿拉戈斯，塞尔希培州和巴伊亚州）的七个农场生产的绿色椰子的碳和水足迹，并研究了减少这些足迹的机会。

方法

碳足迹是根据ISO 14067和水足迹（根据ISO 14046）计算的。主要数据来自位于塞阿拉州（CE1，CE2，CE3和CE4农场），阿拉戈阿州（AL农场）的带有矮椰子树的果园。 ），塞尔希培州（SE农场）和巴伊亚州（BA农场）。所考虑的影响类别及其评估模型如下：（i）对碳足迹，气候变化影响进行了评估（ILCD中点）；（ii）对于水足迹，评估了水资源短缺（AWARE），人类毒性，癌症，非癌症和淡水生态毒性以及海洋和淡水富营养化（ILCD中点）。进行了敏感性分析，以分析土地利用变化（LUC）和缺水特征因子造成的排放变化。应用不确定性分析来确定表现最佳的农场及其做法。

结果与讨论

减少足迹（AL和CE4）的农场在LUC中减少了碳损失，并减少了氮肥和灌溉水的使用。当果园安装在Caatinga植被区时，LUC排放量占椰子碳足迹的三分之一。但是，如果椰子园取代了一年生作物，碳足迹可能减少多达61％。关于水资源短缺，在使用每月预警因素的情况下，与使用年度因素计算的影响相比，影响增加了95％。与使用年度和每月AWARE时相比，使用区域化的年度或每月AWARE因素可将影响提高到97％。

结论

对减少足迹的替代方案的分析表明，随着果园寿命，灌溉和施肥的变化，两个区域的足迹都可以减少。果园的使用寿命增加，可减少多达38％的足迹，调整灌溉，多达49％的肥料和肥料数量，多达70％的碳足迹和多达82％的水足迹曲线。区域性因素对于确定椰子生产的关键分水岭更为准确。