Life Cycle Assessment of Laser-Induced Maize Production: Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Practices

Abstract

Conventional farming practices can provide higher agricultural yields through the extensive use of fertilizers, pesticides, and other inputs. These practices have been associated with severe environmental effects, such as eutrophication, acidification, etc. Laser technology, among many other techniques, could be a viable option for environmental reduction if incorporated into agricultural production systems. However, the environmental performance of using lasers in agriculture practices needs to be investigated in order to provide sustainable management of the agriculture sector. Therefore, in this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of laser-induced maize production in bio-stimulated seeds was compared to conventional farming practices using the software SimaPro ver. 9.0. The study emphasized human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity due to their significant contributions. The results demonstrated that laser technology was an environmentally friendly system for treating maize seeds before sowing. The study further identified the mineral fertilization process as the most critical threat to the environment. Based on normalization, maize production process-related toxicity accounts for the highest environmental impacts of 8.2 and 7.3 kg 1,4-DCB/ton of grain produced by conventional practices and laser maize production, respectively, on the general environmental profile. At the endpoint level, the irradiated maize seeds performed better than their non-irradiated counterpart impacting human health at 5.46 × 10−3 DALY, ecosystems at 1.86 × 10−5 species⋅year, and resources at 60.74 USD 2013. Soil management was also identified as the conventional maize production process with the most significant environmental impacts. The greatest observed impacts were on marine ecotoxicity (19.23 kg 1,4-DCB) and freshwater ecotoxicity (12.94 kg 1,4-DCB) per ton of grain produced. The evaluation of potential human toxicity concluded that zinc contributed more than 90% in ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) and benzene contributed approximately 22% in CML 2000. The study concluded that improved environmental performance was obtained for laser-induced maize production compared to conventional farming practices. The LCA can provide information to policymakers and government agencies about shifting to more sustainable agricultural practices in arid regions, such as Iraq, prone to drought linked to water availability and soil salinity.