Lifecycle Assessment of Tomato Production in Open Field and Greenhouse in Dharmapuri District of Tamilnadu

Aim: Tomatoes are commercially cultivated in open- field (OF) and greenhouse (GH) in Dharmapuri district of Tamilnadu. The main aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of selected categories in open-field and greenhouse tomato cultivation using the lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodology.

Methodology: The primary data was gathered from 30 open field and 30 greenhouse farmers in Dharmapuri district. The system boundary selected for the study is ‘cradle to farm gate’ approach and the functional unit based on mass is one ton of tomato production. The Openlca software was used for the impact assessment in which the CML- IA baseline method was used to calculate the impact categories.

Findings: The results indicated that the environmental impact of greenhouse is lower than the open-field due to high yield and less energy inputs. Field emissions of ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide due to the incorporation of large amount of manure and the usage of fertilizers were the main contributor of the impact categories.