Impactos ambientais da produção agrícola do tabaco orgânico e convencional no sul do Brasil.

Abstract

In the present study, a life cycle analysis of organic and conventional tobacco production was carried out in the south of Brazil, with the objective of evaluating the environmental impacts associated to the production stages of seedlings, plowing, harvesting and transportation. The data used for the characterization of conventional tobacco production were obtained through the application of specific questionnaires to 250 producers. In addition to these data, data were also used for the production of twelve thousand tobacco producers, made available by a company that benefits the region. Regarding the organic production data, the data were provided by the same company, considering the information collected as its plant of 150 organic producers. Impact assessment was carried out using a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), using the SimaPro Release 8.5.0.0 PhD Version (PReConsultants, 2018) software with the Ecoinvent® 3.4 database. Impacts were calculated using the ReCiPe 2016 methodology. The reference unit was the production of one ton of dry tobacco. Seven categories of environmental impact were analyzed: Global Warming Potential, Terrestrial Acidification, Human Toxicity, Freshwater Eutrophication, Terrestrial Ecotoxicity, Land Use and Scarcity of fossil resources. The results of the ACV, were able to show the stages of greater impact in the two forms of production. The main contributors to these impacts were the use of organic and synthetic fertilizers, agrochemicals, fossil fuels and electricity in these stages. In the comparison of results between the planting systems in each impact category, it was possible to verify that the organic plantation presents bigger impacts for the categories of terrestrial acidification (PA), global warming potential (PAG) and land use in due to the volatilization of ammonia, CO2, N2O and CH4 emissions during biomass burning in drying ovens and also because organic tobacco requires more land areas for the production of the same amount of tobacco conventional. Conventional tobacco planting had higher total environmental impact values for the categories of human toxicity (TH-C), terrestrial ecotoxicity (EcoT), freshwater eutrophication potential (PE), and fossil resource scarcity (FRS ) due to the release of compounds harmful to human health during the burning of biomass in the kilns, the use and production of agrochemicals and synthetic fertilizers in the fields, also causing the phosphate emission.