Environmental Impact Assessment of Different Varieties of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Paddy in the Kordkoy

  Agriculture is one of the most important effective sections toward the environment. One of the agricultural activities impact on the environment can be issues such as nitrate leaching to groundwater and surface resources, soil salinization, acidification and greenhouse gas emissions. Planting rice is an activity that causes a significant amount of pollution. Rice can be counted as an essential grain all over the world. In Iran, rice is the second most important crop after wheat, which is part of the main items of household consumption basket. Per capita consumption of rice in the country is 100 grams per day and Iran is ranked 13th in the world rice consumption. As the farmers are unaware and mostly ignorant of the fact, they use an inordinate amount of primary inputs like chemical fertilizers that are detrimental to the environment. Noticing the importance and strategic role of this product, hereby this study investigated the environmental effects of rough rice of different kinds (Tarim hashemi, Tarom sangi, Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) by evaluating the cycle of life. The area in this study is located in Kordkuy, Golestan. The sampling is done by random interviews with the farmers. LCA method was used according to the extent of natural factors in order to analyze the defective consequences due to use of the resources. By identifying the utilized elements, energy, material in the production procedure, the effects and defects can be estimated. Using this method, one can evaluate the potential effects on global warming, acidity, Terrestrial Eutrophication Potential, photochemical oxidation, and the toxicity effect on human (caused by Cadmium in phosphate), Terrestrial Eco toxicity potential, Aquatic Eco toxicity, fresh water potential, Fossil fuel consumption, Phosphate consumption, Potash consumption, and Water Consume. Chemical fertilizers (like urea, potassium, phosphate), fossil fuels, water and electricity are the causes of the pollution on the farms in this study. Using these inputs creates contaminants that can be categorized as nitrogen (N), carbon (C), sulphur (S), and phosphorus (P). Among all the inputs Nitrogen fertilizers is the most important factor to spread the mission of air pollutants. The estimated environmental effects in planting rice show that photochemical oxidation potential has the highest effect on producing rice. Moreover, depletion of phosphate and water resources are the other important effects as the result of planting rice. On average three effective factors like photochemical oxidation potential, depletion of phosphate and water resources are evaluated as 2.033, 1.296, and 0.896, respectively. And some other environmental effects like acidity, Terrestrial Eutrophication Potential, toxicity of water have the least destructive effects on average. Among all the other figures, Tarim hashemi and Tarom sangi figures have the highest range of creating pollution estimated as 1 ton rough rice per hectare and the least is determined to be a figure related to Neda variate. The final indicator shows the range of this variation from 0.0080 to 2.975. The most photochemical oxidation potential is attributed to Tarim hashemi and the least toxicity effect on water is recognized by the figures in Shirudi. In all the investigated effects in this study, the long-grain rice figures (Tarim hashemi, Tarom sangi) were shown to have more detrimental effects compared to productive igures (Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) since it has less output. The results of the study show that the figures with the highest output in production ,(Neda, Fajr and Shirudi) although has used more of the inputs , could spread less pollution in the estimate of 1 ton rough rice per hectare. By planting varieties that produce higher yields the amount of pollution reduced, can be reduced. Also, in order to reduce the amount of pollution, controlling the inputs can decrease the amount of pollution. The biggest pollutants such as nitrogen fertilizers that can be replaced by fertilizers such as stabilizers Nitrogen plants. This solution may reduce the emissions of pollutants from nitrogen fertilizers on the farm