Sustainable grape production for making wine: when pay attention to one resource implies the possible resignation of another one

BÁRBARA CIVIT; ROXANA PIASTRELLINI; GERMÁN HENDERSON; SILVIA CURADELLI; ALEJANDRO P ARENA

Lima

Conferencia; ISIE Americas 2020; 2020

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

According to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), Argentina is the sixth largest producer of wine, mainly concentrated in western Argentina. Most of the grape cultivation to be vinified is produced in drylands, and therefore, the availability, use and consumption of water are critical components in the wine production chain. The province of Mendoza is the one that concentrates more than 75% of the production of must and wine with the grapes grown in its three oases, mostly irrigated with surface melting water, and to a lesser extent with groundwater. Large vineyards belonging to big companies are irrigated with drip pressure systems, however, most producers are small and medium-sized enterprises and their irrigation system is superficial. Recently, given the severe shortage of water in the region, regulations were proposed that would force the conversion of surface irrigation by pressure irrigation. The questions that arise in this scenario is whether there is enough electricity supply in the province to supply these irrigation systems. Is the impact really reduced by the use of water per tonne of grapes to vinify by switching to drip irrigation? What does the proposed reconversion imply in terms of energy consumption and carbon footprint? This work aims, through tools with a life cycle approach such as the analysis of the life cycle, the water footprint and the carbon footprint, to determine in the first place if the demand implied by the conversion can be satisfied with the supply of existing electricity. Secondly, it aims to determine the impact of the shortage due to water use and climate change that each irrigation system has per unit of product. For this, the 5 wine-growing areas of the province of Mendoza and the Malbec grape varieties with meteorological, production and cultivated area data corresponding to the 2018 campaign were considered. ISO 14040, 14046 and 14064 were applied for a functional unit of 1.19 kg of grapes, necessary to obtain 750 ml of bottled wine. Four scenarios of reconversion of irrigated areas were considered: 25%, 50%, 80% and 100% of crops with surface irrigation converted to pressure irrigation. The results show that the decrease in impact due to the shortage in water use does not exceed 8%, and that with the current annual growth rate of installed electricity, tripling the irrigated area would only be possible considering a time horizon of At least 25 years, maintaining the surface to pressurized irrigation / total irrigation area ratio close to 25%. This also implies an increase in the carbon footprint per UF proportional to the increase in energy consumption required. Therefore, it is concluded that it is necessary, no doubt, for sustainable production and consumption, to find a way to reduce water consumption and its impact due to scarcity in an area where water is a very scarce natural resource. Second, one must think of a time horizon of reconversion of at least 25 years, and in that period, in parallel, encourage the replacement of fossil energy sources, which are the most common in the country, by renewable sources and cleaner so that the impact on climate change decreases and there are no burden shifting.