(cest2017_00327) Environmental assessment of organic protection products towards an agro-sustainable fruit sector

摘要

The increase of production rate in the fruit sector brings anew challenge in terms of the sustainability of theagricultural sector. Apart from the social and economicperspective, it leads to identify the environmentalchallenges across the value chain. In this vein, farmersconsider that the plant protection products are key factor toavoid fruit and vegetable losses, estimated at 78% and54%, respectively. However, the environment and humanhealth can be greatly affected because of their toxicity. Anoption to reduce this impact is the transition towards agrosustainableproduction by using organic products, so thatensuring sustainable agricultural systems. Based on thefact that organic and sustainable are not equivalentconcepts, this study is focused in one on these three pillarsthat hold the sustainable model, namely, the environmentalassessment of the application of new organic plantprotection and fertilizer products in conventional cherryfarming. To do that, the Life Cycle Assessmentmethodology has been used. First results reveal that a moreecological cultivation does not always show betterenvironmental performance in all indicators and it is verydependent on the functional unit chosen.