Development of regionalised inventory data for Life Cycle Assessment in agri-food sector: the case of italian olive production

The lack of representative data is one of the most important issues arising for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies focused on the agri-food sector. Indeed, agricultural processes are strongly influenced by technological, bi ological, and environmental factors depending on the geographical context in which the practices are implemented. Furthermore, when primary data are not available, the LCA practitioner shall use secondary data through the international scientific literature and databases that should be represen tative of the investigated system as far as possible. Despite this, the use of secondary data from not regionalised sources may result in missing such representativeness as well as the “true” inventory that reports site-specific data. In this context, the aim of this study is to propose regionalised inven tory data, based on secondary sources, related to olives production in Italy. Datasets are referred to 19 Italian Regions and are built starting from the olive yield per ha per each region, as well as using national statistical data, scientific literature, and integrated production regulations. The importance of using such data for implementing LCA studies to evaluate olive produc tion and related derivates has been confirmed through descriptive statistical analysis, by which high variability in terms of input and output among the different Regions has emerged. This study is part of the research project “Promoting Agri-Food Sustain ability: Development of an Italian LCI Database of Agri-Food Products (ILCIDAF)” (PRIN – Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale 2017- Prot. 2017EC9WF2, sector ERC SH2, Linea C – funded by the Ministry of University and Research).