Inline Oxygenation in Drip‐Irrigated Citrus: How Much Agrochemical Reduction Is Needed to Achieve Net Environmental Benefits?

The agronomic benefits of oxygen‐enriched irrigation, such as improved root development, enhanced nutrient uptake, and reduced fertiliser and pesticide requirements, are well documented. However, incorporating oxygenation devices into fertigation systems increases energy demand and material use, thereby incurring additional environmental burdens. To address this trade‐off, this study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate whether the environmental costs of incorporating an inline water oxygenation device into a drip‐irrigated citrus system can be compensated by reductions in agricultural inputs. A conventional fertigation system is used as the baseline scenario and is compared with an alternative oxygen‐enriched configuration. The environmental break‐even point is defined as the minimum reduction in conventional agrochemical inputs required to offset the environmental burden of the oxygenation equipment. The results show that for nutrient‐driven impact categories, such as terrestrial acidification and freshwater eutrophication, input reductions of 8%–10% are sufficient to achieve the break‐even point. In contrast, categories dominated by energy consumption, including climate change and noncarcinogenic human toxicity, require reductions exceeding 20%. This work provides the first LCA‐based assessment of oxygenation technologies in drip‐irrigated trees, demonstrating the importance of achieving measurable resource efficiency to justify their adoption from an environmental perspective.