23.5.2022
4.4.1.3.
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 144/37
A ve ra g i n g d a t a Cultivation data shall be collected over a period of time sufficient to provide an average assessment of the LCI associated with the inputs and outputs for crop growing that will offset fluctuations due to seasonal differences.
This shall be undertaken as described in the LEAP guidelines, set out below: (a) For annual crops, an assessment period of at least three years shall be used (to level out differences in crop yields related to fluctuations in growing conditions over the years such as climate, pests and diseases, etc.).
Where data covering a three-year period is not available, i.e. due to starting up a new production system (e. g. new greenhouse, newly cleared land, shift to other crop), the assessment may be conducted over a shorter period, but shall be not less than 1 year.
Crops or plants grown in greenhouses shall be considered to be annual crops/ plants, unless the growth cycle is significantly less than a year and another crop is grown consecutively within that year.
Tomatoes, peppers and other crops, which are grown and harvested over a longer period through the year, are considered to be annual crops.
(b) For perennial plants (including entire plants and edible portions of perennial plants), a steady state situation (i.e. where all development stages are proportionally represented in the studied time period) shall be assumed and a three-year period shall be used to estimate the inputs and outputs.
(c) Where the different stages in the growth cycle may be of differing durations, a correction shall be made by adjusting the crop areas allocated to different development stages, in proportion to the crop areas expected in a theoretical steady state.
The application of such corrections shall be explained and recorded in the PEF report.
The LCI of perennial plants and crops shall not be undertaken until the production system actually yields output.
(d) For crops that are grown and harvested in less than one year (e.g. lettuce produced in 2 to 4 months) data shall be gathered in relation to the specific time period for production of a single crop, from at least three recent consecutive cycles.
Averaging over three years may best be done by first gathering annual data and calculating the LCI per year and then determining the three-year average.
4.4.1.4.
Pe s t i c i d e s Pesticide emissions shall be modelled as specific active ingredients.
The USEtox life cycle impact assessment method has a built-in multimedia fate model which simulates the fate of the pesticides, starting from the different emission compartments.
Therefore, default emission fractions to environmental emission compartments are needed in the LCI modelling.
The pesticides applied to the field shall be modelled as 90% emitted to the agricultural soil compartment, 9% emitted to air and 1% emitted to water (based on expert judgement, due to current limitations).
More specific data may be used if available.
4.4.1.5.
Fertilisers Fertiliser (and manure) emissions shall be differentiated per fertiliser type and cover as a minimum: (a) NH3, to air (from the use of N-fertiliser); (b) N2O, to air (direct and indirect) (from the use of N-fertiliser); (c) CO2, to air (from the use of lime, urea and urea-compounds); (d) NO3, to water unspecified (leaching from the use of N-fertiliser); (e) PO4, to water unspecified or freshwater (leaching and run-off of soluble phosphate from the use of P-fertiliser); (f) P, to water unspecified or freshwater (soil particles containing phosphorous, from the use of P-fertiliser).
The impact assessment model for freshwater eutrophication starts (i) when P leaves the agricultural field (run off) or (ii) from the application of manure or fertiliser on the agricultural field.
Within LCI modelling, the agricultural field (soil) is often seen as belonging to the technosphere and thus included in the LCI model.
This aligns with approach (i), where the impact assessment model starts after run-off, i.e. when P leaves the agricultural field.
Therefore, within the EF context, the LCI should be modelled as the amount of P emitted to water after run-off and the emission compartment ‘water’ shall be used.