Comparative life cycle assessment of conventional and organic chickpea cultivation in southern Italy

Legumes combine a high protein intake with reduced environmental impact and are suitable for application in rotational cropping systems, with the twofold function of producing grains and fixing N into the soil. By doing so, whether put in combination with low-input systems, they can contribute to implementing sustainable agriculture paths. Chickpea is the third most consumed grain legume in the world, and it can fix around 90 kg N per hectare, which can be beneficial for the next crops as it allows: - for improving soil fertility, structure, and water retention capacity; and - for reducing chemical fertilizer production and application. Despite the aforementioned benefits, it is however needed to explore the relevant environmental sustainability issues associated with chickpea cultivation. To that end, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a valid methodology to compare cropping system alternatives, to identify the “best” ones or a set of good alternatives. Under this perspective, was aimed at comparing conventional vs. organic cultivation of 1kg chickpea grains in Southern Italy in the period 2020-2022, through LCA application with a cradle-to-gate approach. The impact assessment phase was focused upon three impact categories, as considered to be representative of the main environmental burdens associated with the system investigated; those were: Global warming potential, Resource use, fossil, and Land use. This assessment showed better results in terms of environmental impact for the organic cultivation compared to conventional cultivation in term of sustainability, while in terms of productivity the conventional system has better results, due to the lower yield of organic agriculture.