The Carbon Footprint in a red wine production of Southern Italy’s vineyard

Agriculture is responsible for 1/5 of annual anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. From the other hand, it can be a tool to help mitigate the greenhouse effect through the fixation of atmospheric CO2 on plant biomass and soil. The vineyard system could contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon through new soil management practices. The concept of sustainability of orchard and vineyard system is gradually being integrated with new meanings, as carbon footprint (CF) known in the international literature. In the vineyard system, the reduction of inputs of mineral fertilizers in the field together with the recycling of crop residues as well as ensuring the sustainability of mineral nutrition, could take some relevance in terms of CF which help to reduce CO2 emissions. The study reports the carbon footprint (CF) of a 0.75 L red wine bottle calculated considering the carbon fluxes at field, winery, packing and distribution stages. The experiment was conducted, for three years, in a fruit farm of about 25 hectares, which falls in the viticultural area "Matera DOC" of Basilicata, with a production of about 7150 L ha-1 of wine. Two production systems were compared: sustainable and conventional. The sustainable block was only fertilisated organically with 15 t ha-1 compost and showed spontaneous grass cover. Conventional block included soil tillage and mineral fertilization. The CO2 emissions from soil were daily measured in the sustainable block during growing seasons, using eight cylindrical soil chambers connected to an infrared CO2 detector. The daily data were integrated and then added together to calculate the annual emissions of CO2. The analysis noted that the emissions associated at the use of fertilizers, fuels and lubricants represent more than 70% of total emissions on the field phase for sustainable and conventional thesis. If we include the emissions of plant protection operations, the values will be around 85% of total in all blocks. After processing data phase of daily CO2 emission, the amount of emission from the soil was estimated. The annual soil respiration was equivalent to 11.5 t ha-1 of carbon, while in conventional thesis this value was estimated at 7.28 t ha-1. The emissions and removals of C calculated in various stages of the production process (including field) whose total reached around 10.4 t ha-1 in the conventional block and 6.2 t ha-1 in that sustainable. It was found that the “field” phase represents about 70% of total emissions in both theses. Sustainable management of vineyard has to contribute to the storage in the soil of 9 t ha-1 of C. Consequently, considering field phase and especially C inputs, there was a containment of 41% of carbon footprint in sustainable thesis than conventional. This work demonstrates that a sustainable management can be a powerful tool for reducing the CF in fruit orchards and contributes to store carbon in soil. This paper reports the preliminary results of ongoing research, giving some information on the C effluxes at field level of cultivation necessary for a more accurate calculation of the CF. Based on the incidence of each stage on the CF, it emerges that field operations are of great significance in terms of CF. Finally, for a more accurate assessment of CF, we believe that the calculation of the CF should also include the “field" phase that regards to effluxes of CO2 (mediated by photosynthesis and respiration processes).