Life cycle assessment in coffee systems in Veracruz
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29312/remexca.v17i6.4238Keywords:
agroforestry systems, climate change, environmental impactAbstract
Coffee production is an important economic activity worldwide, as it generates employment for more than 20 million people engaged in growing, transforming, processing and marketing the product. This research evaluated and compared the environmental performance of agricultural production in three coffee (Coffea arabica) production systems in La Tinaja, Veracruz -coffee with banana (Musa paradisiaca), coffee with mango (Mangifera indica), and full-sun coffee- in 2024. Using the life cycle assessment methodology and the ReCiPe 2016 method (H), the impacts per functional unit of 1 kg of cherry coffee were analyzed, considering the stages of establishment, development, and agricultural management. The results indicated that producing 1 kg of coffee generates global warming of 0.79, 1.05 and 0.44 kg of CO2eq in the full-sun coffee, coffee-banana, and coffee-mango systems, respectively. Direct soil emissions from fertilizer application contributed to most of the categories assessed. The coffee-banana system registered the highest environmental loads, followed by the full-sun coffee system. The coffee-mango system presented the lowest environmental impacts in all categories, proving to be the system with the best environmental performance compared to the systems studied.
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