Life Cycle Assessment of wheat production in France: impact of mineral and organic fertilizers

Wheat is an important cereal with many applications, not only in the food sector. In the growing context of biobased products, a good understanding of the contribution of the fertilizers to the environmental impact of agricultural products is essential. In this study, the production of wheat in France has been considered. The first part of the presentation will underline the contribution of organic and mineral fertilizers to the environmental impact with traditional agricultural practices combining mineral and organic fertilizers. Especially, when possible the field emissions will be separated between those due to organic and mineral fertilizers, to have a complete picture of their impact. After that, this first case will be compared with 3 case studies, leading to 4 scenarios to analyze: 1) Scenario 1: "Traditional": mix between livestock manure and mineral fertilizer supplement 2) Scenario 2 100% organic fertilizers and conventional agriculture 3) Scenario 3: 100% mineral fertilizers and conventional agriculture 4) Scenario 4: 100% mineral fertilizers with some inhibitors and conventional agriculture To isolate the contribution of the fertilizers, the idea is to conduct the study with no other change that the nature of the fertilizers and/or the use of the inhibitor. This means that the amount of fertilizer used is calculated so that the wheat always receives the same amount of nutriment; the phytosanitary products applied stays equal in all cases, etc. Therefore, the hypothesis is that the yield will be similar for all the scenarios. The results for these four case studies will be analyzed with the ILCD recommended methods, including all the categories that are relevant for biobased products (climate change, eutrophication, acidification, toxicity, etc.)