Combined application of Artificial Neural Networks and life cycle assessment in lentil farming in Iran

In this study,an Artificial Neural Network(ANN)was applied to model yield and environmental emissions from lentil cultivation in Esfahan province of Iran.Data was gathered from lentil farmers using face to face questionnaire method during 2014–2015 cropping season.Life cycle assessment(LCA)was applied to investigate the environmental impact categories associated with lentil production.Based on the results,total energy input,energy output to input ratio and energy productivity were determined to be 32,970.10 MJ ha
1,0.902 and 0.06 kg MJ
1,respectively.The greatest amount of energy consumption was attributed to chemical fertilizer(42.76%).Environmental analysis indicated that the acidification potential was higher than other environmental impact categories in lentil production system.Also results showed that the production of agricultural machinery was the main hotspot in abiotic depletion,eutrophication,global warming,human toxicity,fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity,marine aquatic ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity impact categories,while direct emissions associated with lentil cultivation was the main hotspot in acidification potential and photochemical oxidation potential.In addition,diesel fuel was the main hotspot only in ozone layer depletion.The ANN model with 9-10-6-11 structure was identified as the most appropriate network for predicting yield and related environmental impact categories of lentil cultivation.Overall,the results of sensitivity analysis revealed that farmyard manure had the greatest effect on the most of the environmental impacts,while machinery was the most affecting parameter on the yield of the crop.

Optimization of energy consumption and environmental impacts of chickpea production using data envelopment analysis(DEA)and multi objective genetic algorithm(MOGA)approaches

Energy consumption in agricultural products and its environmental damages has increased in recent centuries.Life cycle assessment(LCA)has been introduced as a suitable tool for evaluation environmental impacts related to a product over its life cycle.In this study,optimization of energy consumption and environmental impacts of chickpea production was conducted using data envelopment analysis(DEA)and multi objective genetic algorithm(MOGA)techniques.Data were collected from 110 chickpea production enterprises using a face to face questionnaire in the cropping season of 2014-2015.The results of optimization revealed that,when applying MOGA,optimum energy requirement for chickpea production was significantly lower compared to application of DEA technique;so that,total energy requirement in optimum situation was found to be 31511.72 and 27570.61 MJ ha^-1 by using DEA and MOGA techniques,respectively;showing a reduction by 5.11%and 17%relative to current situation of energy consumption.Optimization of environmental impacts by application of MOGA resulted in reduction of acidification potential(ACP),eutrophication potential(EUP),global warming potential(GWP),human toxicity potential(HTP)and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential(TEP)by 29%,23%,10%,6%and 36%,respectively.MOGAwas capable of reducing the energy consumption from machinery,farmyard manure(FYM)diesel fuel and nitrogen fertilizer(the mostly contributed inputs to the environmental emissions)by 59%,28.5%,24.58%and 11.24%,respectively.Overall,the MOGA technique showed a superior performance relative to DEA approach for optimizing energy inputs and reducing environmental impacts of chickpea production system.

Environmental impact assessment of chicken meat production using life cycle assessment

The present study was conducted in Varamin city of Tehran province,Iran.The environmental impact of broiler production at farm gate and chicken meat production at slaughterhouse gate per mass-based functional unit in summer and winter seasons were evaluated using life-cycle assessment(LCA)methodology.Environmental impact categories including abiotic depletion potential,acidification potential,eutrophication potential,global warming potential,ozone depletion potential,human toxicity potential,freshwater and marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential,terrestrial ecotoxicity potential,and photochemical oxidation potential were assessed via CML 2 baseline 2000 v2.04/world,1990 method.According to the results,the global warming potential,acidification and eutrophication for production of 1 ton packed meat were estimated to be 2931.91 kg CO2-eq,41.75 kg SO2-eq and 14.69 kg PO4-eq,in summer and 5357.61 kg CO2-eq,61.9 kg SO2-eq and 19.34 kg PO4-eq in winter,respectively.The evaluations revealed that the broiler production stage was the main source of environmental impacts principally due to production and transportation of feed and on-farmemissions in the life cycle of chicken meat production.Broiler production farms,slaughterhouse and transportation account for 56%,31%and 13%of total energy consumption,respectively.