LCA OF QUEENSLAND CANE SUGAR LESSONS FOR THE APPLICATION OF LCA TO CROPPING SYSTEMS

This paper will present the findings of an LCA of sugarcane production in Queensland and discuss the lessons learnt in relation to the application of LCA to cropping systems in Australia. Aspects discussed include: Aspects of crop production that should be the focus of data collection; The impact of variability in crop production; The importance of field emissions and the use of agricultural simulation models obtain better data for this aspect. The paper highlights the fact that many of the dominant environmental impacts from cropping systems are associated with dynamic processes taking place in agricultural soils, which is a challenge for LCA. It flags the benefit of tapping into agricultural modeling techniques used by agricultural scientists to model these complexities