Life cycle assessment of sweet sorghum co-products of community-based small scale production systems in Batac City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
2016
Santos, L.A.
Environmental and social life cycle assessment of community-based small scale production systems of sweet sorghum co-products (flour, grain for feeds, powdered sweetener, syrup, vinegar and hand sanitizer) was conducted to determine their significant impacts during production and processing stages. From gate to packaging was the life cycle boundary following the methodological framework for LCA consisting of four phases; goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. Seed crop of SVP 422 variety was grown on rainfed lowland rice farms after rice. Low moisture availability resulted to low grain and striped stalk yields compared to study with the same variety in the trials of Mariano Marcos State University, Batac City, Ilocos Norte. This affected the values of the functional units. Market prices of the products were used to allocate the inputs and environmental impacts for co-products. Nitrate pollution potential was used as one of the environmental impact categories. Fertilizer application, use of fossil-based fuel for mechanized cultivation and pumping groundwater irrigation were hostspots in co-production of sweet sorghum grain and juice. Use of electricity for milling, a processing hotspot for flour production, resulted to its higher environmental burdens than the grains for animal feed. Fuelwood-used for pasteurization was the common processing hotspot for four products and for distillation of alcohol. Use of electricity was the additional processing hotspot for powdered sweetener. For juice products, vinegar had the least environmental burdens while hand sanitizer, the highest. Mitigating measures were recommended to reduce environmental burdens of each product. Community-based production systems of sweet sorghum co-products by the cooperative had complied with Philippines labor laws for the farm workers.
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