Life cycle assessment of four different precision agriculture technologies and comparison with a conventional scheme

Precision farming technologies have the potential to enhance agricultural sustainability, but their exact environmental impact remains uncertain. This study aimed to (1) compare the life cycle assessment (LCA) of a conventional five-year crop rotation system with and without precision agriculture technologies (PATs) in Lower Austria; (2) to assess the emission hotspots and (3) to perform a sensitivity analysis on fertilization using the DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) soil model to quantifying soil emission. Evaluated PATs included automatic steering systems, automatic section control (ASC), proximal sensors, and prescription maps from remote sensors. The crop rotation system included spring barley, soy, winter wheat, rapeseed, and winter barley. Assessed agricultural processes encompassed tillage, seeding, plant protection, fertilization, and harvesting. The impacts evaluated were climate change, fine particulate matter formation, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial acidification, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and human carcinogenic toxicity. The sensor scheme scenario showed the highest reductions in climate change, followed by the prescription map, ASC, and autosteer scheme with reductions of −17.0, −8.9, −6.4, and −2.4%, respectively. This study emphasizes the potential of PATs to minimize environmental impacts in crop production while recognizing the influence of site and technology-specific factors. Future research should consider local variables for a comprehensive environmental assessment.