Pegadas de escassez hídrica e carbono das culturas da banana e goiaba irrigadas no Baixo Jaguaribe - Ceará

Abstract

The United Nations has developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global call to end poverty and protect the environment. The agricultural sector requires significant attention in this context, primarily due to its greenhouse gas emissions. Fruits such as banana and guava are important in tropical climate countries. However, there are no studies focused on the carbon and water scarcity footprints of these fruits to make production more sustainable in the Brazilian Northeast. In light of this, the objective of this work is to calculate the water scarcity footprint and carbon footprint of irrigated banana and guava crops and indicate the potential for mitigating these footprints. The life cycle assessment methodology was used for this work, conducting water scarcity footprint analyses according to ISO 14046 and carbon footprint analysis following the recommendations of ISO 14067. The functional unit of the study is 1 kilogram of fresh banana and guava. The system boundary adopted was from cradle to gate. The results indicate a higher impact on the carbon footprint for the studied properties compared to the reference inventory, ranging from 0.24-0.84 and 0.23-0.68 kg CO2 eq kg-1 for banana and guava, respectively. The water scarcity footprint was also higher in the properties, highlighting the need for irrigation management by producers. Additionally, the future water scarcity footprint (2025-2055) increased on average by 24.9% for banana and 23.47% for guava. The lack of qualified and continuous technical assistance to support crop management and irrigation management is a significant factor in the high values of carbon and water scarcity footprints in the properties.