Estimate of carbon footprint of soy sector in the city Paragominas, Para

Abstract

The carbon footprint came up with the intention of managing emissions of greenhouse gases and is one of several ways to measure their impact, achieving high visibility in the academic community after the glimmer of its results. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to use carbon footprint indicator to estimate the GHG emissions generated in soybean production in the city of Paragominas-PA in the period 1997-2013, and thus evaluate the contribution of this crop for the balance of emissions and regional climate change. We carried out the calculation of the carbon footprint with production volume data and soy planted area in the city of Paragominas and thereafter used the method of Cheng et al. (2011) to assess its value. This methodology calculates the total Carbon Footprint from the sum of individual carbon footprints by using fertilizers, electricity used for irrigation, use of pesticides and N2O emissions. Analyzing the results of the annual carbon footprint, it is clear that it has achieved the most significant values over time due primarily to increased planted area of soybeans. It is inferred even if the PC value is more connected to this acreage than to the production of soybeans, this is because fertilizers and pesticides are used during planting - reflected in the PCF and PCA values - and the total area production directly influences the PCI values and indirectly other individual footprints.