Olive growing in the Sorrento Peninsula: Operative, economic, and environmental evaluation trough LCA of mechanical harvesting

Abstract

Optimizing high-productivity farming techniques trough mechanization and lower workforce input in terraced olive groves is helpful to preserve local olive oil production, reducing costs and preserving ecosystem functionality. However, efficient work organisation should be provided. Moreover, mechanization can affect environmental sustainability. In this paper operative, economic and environmental performances of four olive harvesting techniques are reported; experimentations were performed in an olive grove in the Sorrento Peninsula (NA) during 2022–2023 productive seasons. Mechanized techniques (Harvesting technique 1 and Harvesting technique 4) performed highest working capacities (159.01 kg h−1 and 200.51 kg h−1) and the lowest unitary costs (630.00 € ha−1 for Harvesting technique 2 and 840.00 € ha−1 for harvesting technique 4), whereas environmental performances were the worst (266.30 kg CO2 eq and 252.59 kg CO2 eq) due to diesel intakes. Thus, their applications are helpful, but morphological or agronomic boundaries may affect their effectiveness in other areas. Among aided methods, Harvesting technique 1 overcame Harvesting technique 3 in any aspect (91.01 kg h−1 vs 76.13 kg h−1: 1822.09 € ha−1 vs 2793.80 € ha−1; 33.01 kg CO2 eq vs 127.21 kg CO2 eq); the absence of diesel inputs in harvesting technique 1 and its superior work capacity explain the environmental impact differences. Thus, the former may be adopted in farms where slope and irregular shape hinder mechanized harvest. Life Cycle Assessment dataset may be helpful to perform similar analysis in other Italian olive oil supply chains.