Assessment of the environmental impact of three types of fertilizers on the cultivation of coffee at the Las Delicias indigenous reservation (Cauca) starting from the life cycle assessment/Evaluación del impacto ambiental de tres tipos de fertilizantes en el cultivo de café del resguardo indígena Las Delicias (Cauca) a partir del análisis de ciclo de vida

• Published in: Revista Facultad de Ingeniería 2016-12 (81), p.93
• Main Authors: Vera-Acevedo, Luz Dinora, Vélez-Henao, Johan Andrés, Marulanda-Grisales, Natalia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; Climate change; Coffee industry; Environmental impact; Farms; Fertilizers; Life cycles; Manures; Poultry; Quality management; Quality standards; Society
• ISSN: 0120-6230; 2422-2844
• DOI: 10.17533/udea.redin.n81a09

This paper aims to assess and to compare the environmentat performance of three different types of fertitizers in the production of coffee using the methodotogy of Life Cycte Assessment )LCA) in the Las Deticias indigenous reservation Rocated in the northern area of the State of Cauca) in order to standardize the process. In this sense, some coffee producers used chemica~ fertiUzers; others used pou~try manure, and most coffee producers, used compost. They a~so appUed artisana~ techniques whfte conserving their ancestra~ traditions and cu~tures in the coffee production chain. Using the LCA, we found that of three types of fertiUzers )chemica~ fertiUzer, pou~try manure, and compost), the use of compost shows the minimum environmenta~ impact on the category of cUmate change and acidification, meanwhfte the use of chemica~ fertiUzers is better in the category of terrestria~ ecotoxicity and rand use. Finally, the use of pou~try manure obtained a better performance in the categories of human toxicity and eutrophication. Therefore, the best decision adjusted according to the resu~ts woufti be to fertiUze with compost, due to its ~esser impact on soft acid if ication.