AGRICULTURAL LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) AS A ROUTINE EXERCISE IN IRAN: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

To direct sustainability in agricultural sector via Life Cycle Management (LCM), an easy access to high quality environmental, social and economical data is important. In this study, we explored the possibility of performing environmental life cycle assessment in Iranian dairy sector. Main life cycle stages were examined for availability and quality of needed data. At each stage, applicable databases are introduced. To spur life cycle studies, we need legislation to encourage all parties by incentives for more sustainable products. Next step may be to review & restructure already existed databases, articles and grey publications to extract suitable data for LCI stage. However, it is now possible to assess some impact categories in dairy industry