Life cycle assessment of mango systems

Publication date: 09/02/2018
Extent: 28 pages

Contributions by: Claudine Basset-Mens, Sandra Payen, Henri Vannière, Angela Braun and Yannick Biard, CIRAD, France

Chapter synopsis: Mango production systems have seldom been studied using the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA). Important challenges are associated with the application of LCA to the environmental evaluation of fruit systems in general and mango in particular. This chapter describes the core principles of LCA methodology, the state of the art of LCA for fruits and associated key challenges. The chapter makes up-to-date recommendations on the use of LCA, and then presents and discusses the first complete LCA case study for export mango, from the Rio São Francisco Valley in Brazil. Finally, the chapter analyses the environmental challenges faced by mango systems across the world, highlighting the great potential of LCA to achieve more eco-friendly production and consumption of mango.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2017.0026.18