Assessment of paddy cultivation water footprint components and the impacts on environment

Abstract

Water footprint quantification and environmental impact assessment across product’s life cycle is becoming increasingly prominent. This study focused on developing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based water footprint (WF) assessment approach of paddy cultivation. A case study applying the proposed methodological framework was carried out at Muda Rice Granary, Malaysia. As the study started in year 2016, the research analysis presented in this thesis area based on the data provided by MADA from year 2012 to 2015 and ISO 14046 was used as a guideline. The total water footprint of rice cultivation on Muda Rice Granary ranged from 1800-2600 litres/kg gross paddy. ReCiPe 1.08 methodology with Gabi 7 was used for the life cycle impact assessment in this study. The LCA results showed that paddy cultivation contributed 0.303kg Peq in freshwater eutrophication impact, 5.33 kg N eq in marine eutrophication impact, 20.6 kg 1,4 DB eq. in freshwater ecotoxicity impact and 1.24 kg 1,4 DB eq. in marine ecotoxicity impact. Water depletion risk ranging from 6000-11000m3 was detected from year 2012 to 2015. This research recommends the use of the holistic WF assessment instead of single assessment as this method can evaluate all possible water-related environmental impacts associated with the process. The research outcome is capable to provide guidelines for the agricultural development authorities, rice farm owners, government as well as farmers in developing a sustainable paddy cultivation at all levels of rice farm.