Abstract:
The Cool Farm Tool – Potato (CFT-Potato) is a spreadsheet program that allows the
calculation of the amount of CO2 equivalents that it costs to produce one ton of potato. The
spreadsheet was adapted from an original generic version of the tool, and completed for
potato production in diverse production areas in the world applying different levels of
technology. The CO2 embedded in chemicals in their production and released from the soil
after nitrogen fertilization in the CFT-Potato have been updated to consider more recent
products and production methods. Energy costs of the operations in the original version
taken from generic data provided by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological
Engineers Standard, however, were altered (usually increased) where there was evidence
from practical sources that the original figures did not apply. For example the figure of around
16 liters per hectare for potato harvesting in the original version was corrected to 60 liters per
hectare based on observational data. Figures for typical potato operations such as
windrowing were supplied. Irrigation with pumps powered by diesel or electricity from the
grid, with a center pivot, a rain gun, drip irrigation and flooding and energy cost for extracting
water from deeper sources were also added. We added data for grading, washing, store
loading and unloading, the application of a sprout suppressant and storage with ventilation of
ambient air or forged refrigeration. The CFT-Potato can be used by growers to calculate the actual costs of one ton of potato in terms of kg CO2 and explore the repercussion of altered
management options. Here the comparison of four potato production systems in the
Netherlands is shown: seed potatoes (115 kg of CO2/t), table potatoes (77 ), starch potatoes
(71) and organic potato (82). Based on potato dry matter, however, starch potato has the
lowest footprint mainly due to the extensive use of pig slurry of which the production and
transport CO2 costs are attributed to the pig production chain.
