Corn growing is an important cultural and traditional system in the Iran that has considerable environmental impacts. This study was conducted to determine the environmental effects of corn production using life cycle assessment methodology. In the present study, the data have been collected from face-to-face interviews and completing a questionnaire among corn farmers in Ilam province of Iran, in 2021. The functional unit for analysis was defined as one ton of corn produced in the region. As a result, energy efficiency, energy productivity, net energy and specific energy were equal to 4.41, 0.20 kg MJ⁻¹, 675,379.84 MJ ha⁻¹ and 4.88 MJ kg⁻¹ respectively. Direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energies was 61.59, 38.41, 16.03 and 83.97%, respectively. In this study, the amount of global warming potential per ton of product produced is estimated to be 4747,505 kg CO₂ equivalent. After normalization and weighting, the highest environmental pollutants are related to the marine aquatic ecotoxicity index with 225,273 kg 1,4-dichlorobenzene equivalent and the lowest pollutants are related to the depletion of ozone layer 1,19 × 10^–5 kg CFC-11 equivalent. Result showed that chemical fertilizers and electricity led to the highest contaminating emissions.

This study presents a comparative environmental impact assessment of well water extraction systems employed for agricultural irrigation in Iran, focusing on two prevalent energy sources: diesel engines and grid-connected electricity. Utilizing life cycle assessment methodology, the research evaluates key environmental indicators, encompassing abiotic depletion, global warming potential (GWP), human toxicity, aquatic ecotoxicity, acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation. Data collected from 100 agricultural wells were analyzed to compare the environmental performance of each energy source. The objective is to provide policymakers with data-driven insights for the development of effective mitigation strategies. Environmental analysis revealed that diesel systems emit 1.34 kg CO₂/m³, compared to 1.59 kg CO₂/m³ in grid systems. While grid-connected systems avoid on-farm emissions, they suffer from high upstream impacts due to Iran’s fossil fuel-dominant electricity generation mix (94%). The diesel system showed lower impacts in seven of eleven categories, including GWP, abiotic depletion, and marine ecotoxicity. In contrast, grid systems had slightly lower values in eutrophication (5.29 × 10⁻⁴ vs. 1.66 × 10⁻³ kg PO₄ eq) and ozone layer depletion. The overall Environmental Composite Index (ECI) was 3.68 × 10⁻⁴ nPt for diesel and 5.77 × 10⁻⁴ nPt for electricity, indicating a 56.79% higher burden for the grid-powered system. The findings emphasize the role of local energy mix, pump efficiency, and transmission losses in environmental outcomes, suggesting that improvements in Iran’s grid efficiency and a transition to renewable energy are key to reducing impacts.