Greenhouse Gas Inventory in Commercial Swine Farms in the Philippines Using Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

 A continuous growth in commercial swine farm stock becomes alarming due to its environmental consequences. To evaluate the environmental impacts of commercial swine production in the Philippines, the commercial swine production system in the country was assessed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with the goal of calculating the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of the entire production system from cradle-to-farmgate. The carbon footprint of representative commercial swine farms was 2,001.63 g CO2 e kg per liveweight for farrow-to-finish enterprise, 3,142.72 g CO2 e kg per liveweight for farrow-to-feeder enterprise, and 2,062.86 g CO2 e kg per liveweight for farrow-to-breeder enterprise. Feed production module proved to have the greatest contribution in the entire commercial swine production system in which its emission ranged from 73.51% to 75.06% of the total GHG emission from cradle-to-farmgate system boundary. Therefore, innovative strategies to reduce GHG emissions in commercial swine production should focus on this critical segment.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, commercial swine production, greenhouse gas emissions